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They Can't Help Loving Elvis At Meet-Ups

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By PHILIP MORGAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 19, 2007

TAMPA - These fans need no special day to celebrate their idol, dead now 30 years but still rocking in their hearts. They meet once a month in a back room of Beef O'Brady's to sing the songs and praises of the King.

"We do the 'American Trilogy' at the end" - a trademark Elvis Presley medley of "Dixie," "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "All My Trials" - "and dedicate it to the troops," Shelby Ewbank says.

She's the coordinator of the Elvis meet-up group and wife of tribute performer Jeremy "Elvis" Ewbank.

The celebration of the King of Rock 'n' Roll, who first sparked teen hysteria in 1956, is a family affair for the Ewbanks. For the November get-together, they're joined by their baby girl, Preslie, and Shelby's 4-year-old, Crystalyn Jean Trammell, who cracks up the crowd with her tough-girl rendition of "(If You're Looking for) Trouble."

Shelby, 33, doesn't sing, but she has baked her pineapple "sunshine cake" for the month's birthday celebrants.

Jeremy, the 38-year-old owner of Pro-Clean carpet service, is decked out tonight in a scarlet show shirt, rhinestone-spangled belt and the slick pompadour of the young Elvis. He has been performing for weddings, birthdays and anniversary parties for 10 years and was a regular at Joyland country dance hall and the 49th Street Flea Market in Pinellas County for a time.

He launches the evening with "It's All Right, Mama," gyrating in the karate-influenced style of the later Elvis.

Nonprofessionals belt out their favorites, too - people such as Tom Burkhead, an insurance company project manager. Crooning the love song "Angel," from the movie "Follow That Dream," he sounds a lot like his idol.

"I was around before there were iPods and Walkmans," says Burkhead, 50. "The only way I had to enjoy Elvis music was if I were to sing it myself, behind the lawnmower or something."

Though Elvis dominates the night, the karaoke performers sing others' songs, too. Patti Perkins brings her Patsy Cline to the party, drawing applause and laughs as she vamps "If You've Got Leaving on Your Mind," picking out a man here and there to serenade.

She has been an Elvis fan since birth, she says, sweetly declining to say when that was. "I have loved him all my life - he was my first boyfriend."

The retired insurance adjuster drives from Lithia to the restaurant on East Fowler Avenue for this meet-up. She also sings at another Elvis meet-up closer to home in Brandon, so she waits only two weeks between her nostalgia fixes.

"That's just what I live for."

Most of the two dozen people in attendance met at the annual Tampa Elvis Festival, Shelby says. The Elvis Tampa Fun Gathering and the Brandon Elvis Fun Gathering recruit new members through www.meetup.com (type "Elvis" in the topic field).

It's obvious Elvis lives here. A couple of singers wear sport shirts emblazoned with the King's image. Bushy sideburns abound. Mark Andrew Smith also wears the TCB pendant with the lightning bolt, which originated with Elvis' hired friends. It means "taking care of business - in a flash."

"People call me 'The Country Elvis,'" Smith says. The retired soldier and nurse, who says he's "49 and holding," developed his love of music from his guitarist father. "He used to play with Little Jimmy Dickens and Ferlin Husky."

He entertains the crowd with Elvis' "Return to Sender" and, later, Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry."

The roomful of fans strikes a common theme in an effort to describe the star's effect on people then and now. They love the true-life fantasy of a poor boy from Tupelo, Miss., who became rich and famous and never forgot his roots.

"He was a down-to-earth guy, even though he had a lot of money," Jeremy says.

"People can tell when you're real, and I think he had genuine concern for a lot of people," says Bree Youngblood, 50, a Lakeland woman who performs with her Elvis tribute singer husband, David.

"I just always thought he was the real American story," says David, 46, who sports the bushy black haircut of the later Elvis. "He proves you can do whatever you want to do."

David will never forget the Elvis show at the Lakeland Center he saw when he was 15.

"He was electric. He would come out on stage, and your hair would stand up."

Reporter Philip Morgan can be reached at (813) 259-7609 or pmorgan@tampatrib.com.

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