Without Sun Records, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash might not have had a chance in the music industry.
Sam Phillips founded the Memphis-based record label in 1952 and took a chance on Presley and Cash, giving each man his first recording contract. The label's influential artist roster also included Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, all men who shaped the genres of rock and roll, rockabilly and R&B.
Indiana musician Robert Shaw, who often performs as Elvis and Johnny Cash, honors the label in upcoming touring series, "Good Rockin' Live! A Tribute to Sun Records," which stops by Arizona Broadway Theatre. He is joined by a five-piece band that includes Dutch pianist Mr. Boogie Woogie and Arizona Blues Hall of Famers Steve Grams and Danny Krieger. Everyone in the band sings, switching off among the 25 to 30 songs.
The band members combed through the Sun Records catalogue "Wabash Cannonball" by the Four Upsetters.
Shaw will return to Arizona Broadway Theatre in December for "Blue Christmas: A Holiday Tribute to the King." Shaw discusses his admiration for Sun Records and his role in the 14-date touring show.
Question: Do you impersonate the artists in the show?
This is not a legends show. It's really just saluting the music and having a good time. We take a theatrical approach to it and weave in stories about how Sun Records and its artists got their start and how certain songs were written. The stories bring the songs to life a little bit.
Q: Did you have to do a lot of research beforehand?
A: I read several books on the subject and have done separate shows with the music of Elvis and Johnny Cash, so I know a lot. There are a lot of neat little gems in there, like how the first-ever distorted guitar was created to make that rock-and-roll song. A band was driving to Sun Records and had an amp tied to the roof of the car, and it fell off, breaking the speaker cone. When they got to the studio, they didn't know what to do, but were told to turn it on and play, and the producers decided to keep it. The artist was Jackie Brenston and the song was "Rocket 88," considered to be the first real, actual rock song.
Q: Do you think many of the Sun Records artists would be as big as they were without the label?
A: They would have come about someplace or another, but probably wouldn't exist how we really know them without Sun Records. These were many groups who couldn't get a deal anywhere else, and it's amazing the way music and creativity poured out of that place.
Q: What other good stories are attached to Sun Records?
A: The veracity of this story isn't proven, but when I was studying the life of Johnny Cash, I read that he wanted to be a gospel singer. He played hymns for Sam Phillips, who told Cash that he had a neat style but gospel isn't selling now. (Phillips) told (Cash) to go home and sin a little bit.
Q: Whom do you expect the audience to be?
A: Most people will think it will be the retired set that grew up on the songs, which often is the bulk of the audience, but then you get 6-year-old kids who love Johnny Cash, teens who are big on Elvis and college kids who think Jerry Lee Lewis is the coolest. . . . This music means something different to everybody and might bring back good memories or create new ones.
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