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Elvis Presley Enterprises produces a tribute artist concert

Donny EdwardsDonny Edwards majored in computer science in college and was working as retail manager of a Target store in Texas when a lifelong love of Elvis Presley finally caught up with him, nudging him into what he once thought of as a joke for people who “lived in their own reality.”

Edwards, 31, of Lake Jackson, Texas, became one of the top Elvis tribute artists in the country, making a full-time living as the ’50s Elvis and the leather-clad Elvis of TV’s 1968 “Comeback Special.”

He joins two more of the country’s best-known Elvis acts, Shawn Klush and Irv Cass, at 8 tonight in Graceland’s first in-house production of Elvis tribute artists at Memphis Marriott East.

A feature event of Elvis Week 2006, commemorating the singer’s death on Aug. 16, 1977, the show represents the first time Elvis Presley Enterprises is producing its own “Elvis Tribute Artist Showcase,” entering an arena once considered taboo for the company that has always been the one true purveyor of the one and only Elvis.

“We represent the real thing, the genuine article,” says Graceland spokesman Todd Morgan. “When we began out here in the ’80s (at Graceland), the image of the Elvis impersonator was by and large kind of cheesy. It’s evolved over the years. We realized all along that the Elvis tribute artist is never going away. If anything, it’s growing.”

It’s a love-hate relationship among fans, says Morgan, with some offended by imitators while others are enchanted with serious tributes by talented, first-rate performers.

EPE’s production focuses on three of the best known tribute artists. EPE had final choice from a list of artists submitted by Darwin Lamm, a California music producer and publisher of a quarterly fan magazine (Elvis . . . The Magazine), says Morgan.

No one was as surprised by EPE’s about-face as the performers themselves. Their manager, Dan Lentino, doesn’t blame EPE for waiting so long to step squarely into the middle of a lucrative business opportunity. “I think they were worried about criticism from the press, and they were concerned about legalities involved if they needed to go after these guys (impersonators who might infringe on the Elvis name, image and likeness).

“I think the other reason is there were so many individuals who came out who absolutely could not sing, had no talent and did not even look good,” Lentino said. “Some of these people’s heads were just not in the right spot.”

Lentino says many of those who rushed into Elvis impersonation after Elvis’ 1977 death were fans who simply loved Elvis and his music. “Some were people who would never consider singing or getting up on stage unless they were doing Elvis, and, unfortunately for them, Elvis just happened to be the greatest entertainer of all time.”

The three performers chosen for the showcase have “the gift,” Lentino says.

Irv Cass says his fellow artists call it the “full package.”

“There are guys who resemble Elvis and can’t sing a lick, then there are guys that we refer to as the full package. Nobody’s ever going to be another Elvis, but these are guys who have a little bit of everything — good voice, good looks. It’s acting,” says Cass, 48, of Fenton, Mich. His performance won in this month’s professional division of the “concert years” competition at the annual Collingwood Elvis Festival in Toronto. In tonight’s showcase he will perform the movie segment of Elvis’ career with songs including “Rubberneckin,’” “Viva Las Vegas” and “Girl Happy.”

Cass occasionally slips and calls tribute artists “impersonators,” a term that EPE avoids.

“I was a little shocked myself that they were going to put on an Elvis show with impersonators,” he said. “I wouldn’t blame Lisa Marie one bit for not liking Elvis impersonators. It would bother me to see people acting like my dad after he died. And there are a lot of really bad Elvis tribute artists who shouldn’t be doing it.”

Cass has been performing as Elvis for 14 years. It’s a crowded field, he says. “I think Elvis is impersonated more than anyone else, although I have seen a few people make a living playing Marilyn (Monroe).”

Cass is also generous with his praise of the best, including Donny Edwards and especially Klush. “Shawn Klush is incredible. It’s as close as you can come to reality.”

Like Elvis, Klush, 37, of Pittston, Pa., sang in a church choir as a child. “My father was a deejay in the ’50s. I had every Elvis record before I could walk,” he says. In his act, he focuses on the 1968-72 Elvis years with songs including “CC Rider,” “Burning Love,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Suspicious Minds” and “Polk Salad Annie.”

Klush has sung Elvis songs since age 3 and has made $100,000 in a year as a tribute artist. “It’s like an acting job,” he says. “You have to have natural similarities or it just doesn’t fly. You can’t look like George Bush and go on stage in a jumpsuit.”

For him, a tribute artist who wants to evoke the essence of Elvis would probably sing “My Way,” the song Klush says Elvis took over from Frank Sinatra on his way to becoming part of the fabric of America. “It’s like a history thing now — like Lincoln or King or Kennedy.”

Edwards has been performing full-time as an Elvis tribute artist for three years and says the handful of songs that seem to evoke Elvis and resonate with audiences more than any others includes “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Love Me Tender” and “I Can’t Help Falling In Love.”

Artists like those in the showcase helped convince EPE chief executive officer Jack Soden that EPE could produce a show that most Elvis fans would appreciate. “Elvis impersonators began to appear really in the ’70s, before Elvis died. Elvis was asked how he felt about it, and he said, in essence, ‘Imitation is the ultimate flattery.’ My initial reaction was, ‘Get a life. Go do something else.’”

But Soden says tribute artists “almost without exception” had good intentions and have improved. “It has evolved, undoubtedly because of the sustained and growing market for it. There’s money in it. There’s enough demand that a good talented tribute artist can make more money than they were making singing oldies at the Ramada Inn on a Saturday night.”

Soden says EPE’s longtime policy was one of “benign neglect,” taking no active role in the phenomenon, but choosing not to interfere unless an artist infringed on the name, image or likeness of Elvis.

“At the end of the day, we’re less benign, and there’s less neglect,” he says.