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Next-stop Fayetteville

By ElvisNews/ Lex, September 26, 2015 | Music

Graceland Records just released a collector's dream come true: Next-stop Fayetteville, three unreleased shows, okay, audience recordings, but this is the first outing of them.

Design

The guys of Graceland Records put a lot of effort in package, it looks good as far as possible with an Elvis in this shape in one of the worst jumpsuits he ever had. The booklets has two original reviews from the time and lots of pictures.

Content

CD 1 August 3, 1976 8.30 PM

Elvis starts not too bad on the first show of the box. You can hardly understand what he's talking about, because of poor sound. At least the version of Fever is way better than the one that is wandering on the net recently. When your ears are adjusted to the sound, it is possible to sit it out. The audience did enjoy it, even the endless introductions, where the electric clavinet solo makes me wanna shove that thing into a place where the sun doesn't shine. Anyway, I guess that's the whole point, really being there, not listening to a (poor) recording of it. The years that an Elvis show really gave listening pleasure were way before 1976. My laziness stopped me from standing up and turn the thing of during Love Letters. I don't know if it is the sound or the piano playing, but it really hurt my ears. Hawaiian Wedding Song has a false start of a minute or so, false in the meaning of totally out of tune. Now my laziness lost... I finally pressed 'open'. 

CD 2 August 4, 1976 8.30 PM

The person that recorded the shows obviously had a better place the first night. Elvis sounds as if he is in a different venue, much bigger, and a lot further to the back. Regardless, And I Love You So is definitely better than the night before. The before mentioned person had a difficult time during the introductions, hearing it for (at least) the second time in a row, too. You can easily conclude that on the noises he made. Love Letters sounds better than on the first CD too, as does Hawaiian Wedding Song, this time it survived. Kathy Westmoreland is a nice backing vocalist, but as soon as she starts wailing the lyrics of My Heavenly Father, the open button is calling me again.

CD 3 August 5, 1976 8.30 PM

The sound quality of this show is about the same as the second. The show is a bit shorter than the other two. No And I Love You So (together with America and Hurt the only more or less 'new' song) this time, no Hawaiian Wedding Song (won't sleep less because of that) and no solos by backing vocalists (thank God). It was the only one of the three that survived completely.

Conclusion

There are not many 1976 shows I really do enjoy, certainly not these. They aren't that bad for 1976, but the combination of Elvis on automatic pilot and mediocre audience recordings (there are many worse, but also many better audience recordings) doesn't make me wag my tail. As I said in the intro, die-hard collectors will be happy with three new shows, but I just ain't one of them anymore.

Next-stop Fayetteville

CD1 – August 3rd, 1976

01. Opening: Also Sprach Zarathustra
02. C. C. Rider
03. I Got A Woman / Amen
04. Love Me
05. All Shook Up
06. Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel
07. And I Love You So
08. Fever
09. America The Beautiful (with reprise)
10. Jailhouse Rock
11. Band Introductions
12. Early Morning Rain
13. What'd I Say
14. Johnny B. Goode
15. Drum Solo (Ronnie Tutt)
16. Bass Solo (Blues - Jerry Scheff)
17. Piano Solo (Tony Brown)
18. Electric Piano & Clavinet Solo (David Briggs)
19. Love Letters
20. School Day
21. Hurt (with reprise)
22. Hound Dog (incomplete)
23. Love Me Tender
24. Hawaiian Wedding Song
25. Danny Boy (Sherrill Nielsen)
26. An American Trilogy
27. Can't Help Falling In Love
28. Closing Vamp

CD2 – August 4th, 1976

01. Opening: Also Sprach Zarathustra
02. C. C. Rider
03. I Got A Woman / Amen
04. Love Me
05. All Shook Up
06. Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel
07. And I Love You So
08. Fever
09. America The Beautiful (with reprise)
10. Jailhouse Rock
11. Band Introductions
12. Early Morning Rain
13. What'd I Say
14. Johnny B. Goode
15. Drum Solo (Ronnie Tutt)
16. Bass Solo #1 (Blues - Jerry Scheff)
17. Bass Solo #2 (Battle Of New Orleans theme- Jerry Scheff)
18. Piano Solo (Tony Brown)
19. Electric Piano & Clavinet Solo (David Briggs)
20. Love Letters
21. School Day
22. Hurt #1
23. Hurt #2
24. Hound Dog 
25. Hawaiian Wedding Song
26. My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me (Kathy Westmoreland)
27. Can't Help Falling In Love
28. Closing Vamp

CD3 – August 5th, 1976

01. Opening: Also Sprach Zarathustra
02. C. C. Rider
03. I Got A Woman / Amen
04. Love Me
05. All Shook Up
06. Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel
07. Love Me Tender
08. Fever
09. America The Beautiful (with reprise)
10. Jailhouse Rock
11. Band Introductions
12. Early Morning Rain
13. What'd I Say
14. Johnny B. Goode
15. Drum Solo (Ronnie Tutt)
16. Bass Solo #1 (Blues - Jerry Scheff)
17. Bass Solo #2 (Battle Of New Orleans theme- Jerry Scheff)
18. Piano Solo (Tony Brown)
19. Electric Piano & Clavinet Solo (David Briggs)
20. Love Letters
21. School Day
22. Hurt (with reprise)
23. Hound Dog 
24. Can't Help Falling In Love
25. Closing Vamp

Ciscoking wrote on September 27, 2015
For all collectors of such stuff: Next stop your loacal dealer....;-)
You Dont Know Me wrote on September 29, 2015
i can only Echo Cisco's words.....a collectors DREAM!~
You Dont Know Me wrote on October 02, 2015
:) Listened again to the first show from 3rd August- sound is quite listenable for this show, but strange Elvis's 3 shows only vary by about 1 song each night-quite obviously Elvis didn't feel well enough to perform demanding songs such as PSA, Mountain or HGTA etc-which kinda devalues the 'strength' of the shows he did sing as singing wise he sings really good!. In my opinion if FTD for whatever reason did decide to 'represent Fayetteville' as a FTD release a one disc of maybe the better 4th August show + couple of highlights from 3rd +5th August show such as Trilogy from 3rd + America and Hurt from 5th would be more than enough from these 3 days. Obviously they wouldn't give us the 2 back-up singers songs as they usually do not give us those, but could still be another decent FTD. Elvis sings well, strongly in Fayetteville and these are better than the later August shows but NOT Elvis at his 1976 best by any means. Glad to have heard them though! 8) :lol: ::rocks the only remaining comment is the 'weird' version of a Truncated Trilogy? :shock: like one month b4 Elvis sang it fine in Tulsa....also its a 'Disneyland Version' :evil: maybe just a sign Elvis wasn't feeling his best during these shows? :| so in summary am i glad i bought this boxset- ABSOLUTELY- still a collectors DREAM!~ 8) Packaging 9/10 (just a couple of pages of double paragraph's in the otherwise very fine 44 page booklet) Content...6/10..... after all it's not exactly his best 1976 tour is it!? :| Sound 7/10 (and i'm being a tad generous here!)
Ciscoking wrote on October 02, 2015
Sound is not top notch but after hering samples this was obvious anyway. But it is not bad and we had worse. No Straight Arrow quality but also no SR quality. Its in between and thats okay for me. t´´It has already been said...the layout and all is top notch..its a realy eyecatcher...the shows are also not top notch but regarding the time frame we can be quite satisfied....they are okay from this point of view....main point is..never released before in any form and for die hard collectors a must-have in any case....and when you have interest in such stuff..dont hesitate to add it to your collection...
Natha wrote on October 02, 2015
Just got my copy. So I am eager to listen to it, tomorrow in the car as I have to drive a lot. Enough to listen to all three cds on the way and some other cds for the way back :) It makes my business travel quite enjoyable.
You Dont Know Me wrote on December 08, 2015
Yup Evan Gordon Minto in Man & Music magazine didn't write too badly about these set/shows!~ quite a surprise!Q~