Presleys in the Press

The Temple, 203 N. Washington, has announced a two-day, three-concert extravaganza titled "The KING Returns to Saginaw," slated for Friday and Saturday, Jan. 16-17. "It's everything you could possibly imagine," quips Barb Ashley, the director of marketing for the Temple. The Temple, she said, has partnered with Richard Rosenthal, who is the man behind the annual Windsor Elvis Fest in Canada.

"Upwards of 20 Elvis tribute artists will come to Saginaw to complete," says Ashley, "from all over the United States and Canada."

And also on the bill are performances by the two winners of the 2008 Windsor Elvis Fest.

Here is how it goes, says Ashley.

* At 7 p.m. Friday, all the contestants perform to recorded instrumental tracks. The categories are The Early Years from Elvis Presley's career dating back to the 1950s and The Vegas Years from later in his life.

⤢ At 1 p.m. Saturday, five semi-finalists in each of the two categories compete, with a winner announced in each of those two categories.

* And at 8 p.m. Saturday, the two winners perform with the EAS Band, ranked by Elvis Presley Enterprises as the No. 1 Elvis tribute band in the world, says Ashley.

Also performing with the EAS Band at the Saturday night show are Jay Zanier of Guelph, Ont., and Chris Ayotte of Canton. Ayotte won in the early years category and Zanier in the Vegas years category this year in Windsor.

Ayotte has performed Elvis tributes since his high school years, for corporate, community and church events, and also does impersonations of a variety of other singers, presidents and sportscasters.

While a student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor he sang with its Men's Glee Club and with both a mixed ensemble and men's quartet.

He works as a marketing manager for a Fortune 500 company.

Zanier was also the people's choice winner at the 2008 Windsor Elvis Fest, and has won at similar Elvis events in Collingwood, Ont.; Hamilton, Ont., Memphis, Tenn., and Orillia, Ont.

Ashley said Rosenthal will provide a couple of judges for the show and the Temple will provide some from the Saginaw area.

Tickets are $5 for each of the two competition events and $30 and $20 for the Saturday night tribute show. Call 754-SHOW.

Presley performed two show at TheDow, just months too long before his untimely death on Aug. 16, 1977

Elvis in Mayville too -- Three Elvis tribute artists perform during the "Eras of the King" show set for 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, at Mayville High School.

The performers are Leo Days of Saginaw; Tim Dudley of Mishawaka, Ind., and 13-year-old Nick Gutierrez of Oswego, Ill.

Tickets are $20, with proceeds benefitting the Fowler Center camp and recreation center in Mayville. It serves children and adults with developmental disabilities.

Call (989) 673-2050 for tickets and more information.

Elvis Presley, Saginaw Civic Center, 1977

Although the audience mix was split pretty evenly between men and women at Isaak’s Tuesday night show at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, you could tell who was having more fun. No one threw any underwear on the stage, but the squeals of delight for every hip swivel gave no doubt to the 52-year-old singer’s enduring sex appeal. Each upturn into his sensitive falsetto, on “Somebody’s Crying” or “Wicked Game,” drew adoring swoons.

But, in typical Isaak fashion, the singer treated it all as a joke.

“I don’t have a hard time with committed relationships,” he said during the two-hour performance. “I can have two in one night.”

And that is the Chris Isaak show. As he quivered his lips and shimmied across the stage in a sequinned turquoise suit, his on-stage persona toggled between Elvis, even literally on “Love Me Tender,” and a frat boy having a laugh with his buddies, a country-twinged cover of “I Want You to Want Me.” All the while he mocked himself, his band, the suit and the crowd with jokes he’s probably told 1,000 times on a 1,000 different stages.

Isaak made every effort to make the crowd feel like they were getting a one-of-a-kind experience. But his loosey-goosey behavior shouldn’t be construed as anything other than a carefully choreographed effort to entertain. His moves, while syncopated, were the same as they have always been.

And that’s OK. While his show is most definitely corny (and would border on campy if Isaak wasn’t so self-aware), it’s also a whole lot of fun.

Isaak never lets the party atmosphere die down. He threw in good-time covers of James Brown and Cheap Trick to keep spirits high in between his original tunes, which often float on the edge of melancholy.

For a career that is working on its third decade, Isaak’s sound is remarkably the same as it ever was. On stage, he blends the music of his idols — the Everly Brothers, Elvis and Roy Orbison — with an occasionally surreal sensibility.

When he sang “Blues, Stay Away from Me,” flanked by 60ish identical twins from the audience, it was like something from a David Lynch movie.

Isaak’s music has always had a cinematic quality, even if sometimes it’s not as grand as that the description might suggest. A new tune, “Take My Heart,” sounded less like it was made for the big screen and more like the theme song to a dark family comedy on a premium cable channel.

Both in voice and appearance, Isaak was every bit of 52. Although 20 years ago he sounded like Roy Orbison, his voice has matured into something more weathered and abused. But that gives his songs new vigor.

When he sings “I never dreamed that I’d lose somebody like you,” in “Wicked Game” it means more coming from a man who has obviously loved and lost many times.

Time has also helped opening act Lisa Loeb. The farther removed she is from the peak in popularity the early ’90s of “Stay,” the better her other songs sound. But with only a back-up singer and her acoustic guitar, she could never quite find the punch her pretty little power-pop ditties deserve. ...