As time goes on and society gets further and further away from the era where rock’n’roll was born, the genre’s humble roots become blurred and forgotten.
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Elvis Presley will always come to mind, but what about the man who penned the infamous “Blue Suede Shoes”, Carl Perkins, or Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Sun Records from Memphis Tennessee was the record label that discovered these musicians - and many more influential stars.
It’s beginnings, along with the hits it made, will be told in a new show heading to Anita’s Theatre in Thirroul on Friday February 12th - The Sun Records All-Stars.
It features a cast of four to tell the stories and play the songs of some of the biggest names from the early ‘50s, including Canadian entertainer Bill Culp who portrays Carl Perkins.
“I love the whole era of the 1950s … and I have a lot of respect for the music from that period because I think it’s very fresh and alive and original. It’s played with passion and spirit and wasn’t overly commercial,” said Culp.
He said he thought the music from that time was much more pure than the manufactured enterprise the music industry had become today.
“You had the birth of the independent record labels,” he said. “Records were sold in stores and kids would go in and listen with headphones … production is pretty slick today and overdone in my view.”
Culp explained the show not only ran through plenty of nostalgic hits everybody loves like “Heartbreak Hotel”, “All Shook Up”, “Great Balls of Fire”, “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Ring of Fire”, but also takes the audience through the history of the songs and the men who wrote them.
“I like Carl [Perkins’] music because he was a true original. He grew up very poor … picking cotton and learned to play guitar from [an African American] that was also a cotton picker who played the blues,” said Culp.
The self confessed musical historian described Perkins as a hill-billy at heart with a style that combined blues and country, and called him the “undisputed king of rockabilly”.
“When you’re at a show and if you really know the background of the songs that you’re hearing it helps you to appreciate it a bit more,” he said.
The Sun Records All-Stars play Mittagong RSL January 31st and Anita’s Theatre, Thirroul on February 12th.
