Published: August 23, 2007 12:01 am      

Famous Meridianites, guns, toilets and tickets

Last month we told ya it looked like Steve Forbert would be back in town in October, possibly for a benefit concert at the MSU Riley Center.

It hasn’t “officially” been announced I guess, but, clear your calendar for Thursday, Oct. 4, to see Steve Forbert and The Soundbenders for a benefit concert to help raise money for LOVE’s Kitchen and the United Way. That falls right in the midst of the great Community Bank Golf Classic, which is raising money for those organizations.

Visit Steve’s Web site at www.steveforbert.com. You can order his latest CD there, “Strange Names (New Jersey’s Got ‘em),” released in June and you can catch his video for the title track through his site on YouTube.

In 1979 I turned 16 years old and I thought I knew a lot about Meridian, even though I wasn’t living here. I didn’t know enough about Jimmie Rodgers back then to appreciate him or know that he was from Meridian, but I sure knew who Steve Forbert was and that he was from here. That’s the year he sent “Romeo’s Tune” up the charts. It’s also the year my mom bought me my first guitar. I’d been borrowing guitars from friends for about a year, and was learning to play.

I picked out a Peavey T-60. It was brand new on the market and it weighed a ton, but, I played the heck out of it for many years until it was lost in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It had a few Fender parts on it ‘cause I used to emulate Pete Townshend’s style of playing when I had a lot more energy. I didn’t ever smash it or anything, I just broke the switches off of it a few times while banging the strings and doing the windmill strum.

So anyway, when I was 16 my friends and I all knew of Meridian, Mississippi as the home of Steve Forbert and Hartley Peavey.



Doing research



Speaking of Jimmie Rodgers, music journalist Barry Mazor from Nashville, Tenn., is in town this week doing some research on Jimmie Rodgers and his influence for a book we may get to see published next year on the 75th anniversary of Rodgers’ death.

Not so much a biography, Mazor is writing about the life of Jimmie Rodgers’ music and one thing Mazor was particularly interested in as he came into town was the stories of Elvis Presley in Meridian.

Some say he came as an unknown kid, it’s a substantiated fact he came as a rising star and played at the Hamasa Temple Theater with Carl Fitzgerald and some other local musicians. Keep an eye out for the book, tentatively called “Meeting Jimmie Rodgers.”



Long live the King



Speaking of Elvis, last week we had some folks share their memories of where they were and what they were doing when they found out the King of Rock and Roll had passed away, Aug. 16, 1977.

Thank y’all for doing that. I got one in late last week and I wanted to include it here. It comes from Nancy Johnson of Quitman: “I was working for the FBI in Jackson, MS as a Radio/NCIC operator when I learned of Elvis’ death. It saddened our whole office. I did get to see him at his concert in Jackson in 1975.”

I’m sure a lot of law enforcement offices were rocked by the news that day. Elvis always tried to be a friend to those folks and he had a fanciful appreciation for badges and guns, which brings us to the latest Elvis news this week ...

Did you see where a handgun stolen from Graceland during Elvis week was found in a portable toilet?

A surveillance camera captured the theft on Aug. 14, showing a man reaching into a display case and snatching the 9 mm Smith and Wesson pistol.

On Monday, Travis Brookins turned the gun in to police according to Associated Press reports.

Brookins said he was cleaning the portable toilets behind the exhibit hall last Thursday when he found the gun in the muck. He didn’t know it had belonged to Elvis. He took it home and cleaned it. After he found out about the theft through news reports, he called police and told them he thought he had the King’s gun.

Memphis police suspect the thief accidentally dropped the pistol in the toilet and decided it wasn’t worth retrieving.

The gun was on display as part of an “Elvis After Dark” exhibit during Elvis Week, which exhibited his passion for guns and staying up all night. The display included a TV with a bullet hole in the screen, just one of several items Graceland folks say Elvis is known to have shot.



Great response



And, coming full-circle now, last week also marked the beginning of the sale of individual tickets for the MSU Riley Center.

A second show was added for Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers Christmas Concert.

MSU Riley Center officials report that just two days into ticket sales The Gatlin Brothers concert was 90 percent sold.

The original performance is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 15, at 8 p.m. The second show will be Sunday, Dec. 16, at 4 p.m. Tickets to the Sunday performance are available through the MSU Riley Center box office, 2200 Fifth Street. Call (601) 696-2200, or visit the Web site, www.msurileycenter.com. Box office hours are Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“Knowing the popularity of Gatlin Brothers and the strong showing we had for Sandi Patty’s two Christmas shows last year, we anticipated this performance would easily sell out and even debated offering a second show from the start,” said Dennis Sankovich, executive director of the MSU Riley Center in a press release. “We weren’t expecting it to sell this quickly, but we are obviously thrilled and are very glad that we were able to secure a second show allowing other interested patrons an opportunity to enjoy the performance.”

Early indications are that many shows scheduled during the 2007-2008 season will sell out. The center predicts that more shows will sell out faster than last season.

The MSU Riley Center’s second season starts Sunday, Sept. 9 with Trisha Yearwood.