Picture sitting in the audience where a screen comes down and you feel like you are part of an amazing time warp of rock and roll through the years of 1952-1966 nostalgia style, you are watching clips of The ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET SHOW. On the screen you see clips of Ozzie and Harriet starring the real life Nelson family and little Ricky Nelson as he grew in to his teen age years. This of course was “back in the day” when the first TV Dad named Ozzie was Ozzie Nelson not the other Ozzy, the Dark Prince whom we all grew to love for his way out wacky n way kewl rock n roll family!
Kris Kristofferson said in one of the clips that at the time Elvis was the King but Ricky Nelson, was the Crown Prince of rock and roll! Then the screen goes up and the rock and roll Sons of three Nelson generations billed as “Ricky Nelson remembered Tour starring Matthew and Gunnar Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band” capture your attention. They came armed with some great songs and after one of the clips, they twanged a rock-a-billy style number MILK COW BLUES and then toned it down with FOOLS RUSH IN. Not only was the music Primo but Their stylish good looks were also captivating, gone is the long blonde “After the Rain” glam metal rockin’ hair (which they so generously donated to LOCKS OF LOVE in the late 90′s) but rockin in the memory of thier Dad before you are two stylish Nelson Brother…twins but not like the “Double mint gum” commercial twins…no way, these guys each have Their own style goin on! Gunnar went for more the retro look, wearing a light blue shirt and light brown dress pants with light blue pin stripes and sported an all American boy hair cut and his rock n roll “weapon of choice” he came armed with, was a white Fender Strat, where as Matthew rocked the stage with a Fender Precision yellow and white chipped “Oh the stories we could tell ya” kind of lookin’ bass guitar and he was rockin the doo, shoulder length blonde and was “Johnny Cash” style on top and Rolling Stones Leather on the bottom!
The introduction to the band was really sweet and funny the 2nd guitarist was playing thee guitar that was used by Bobby Lewis on TOSSIN AND TURNIN, and the Brothers joked about how at the airport the flight Attendant wanted them to check Their guitars and they were like ummmm we don’t think so and, well they only look warn out n beaten down but they sure won’t harm anyone! So guess what?… they didn’t have to check em, she found a spot to keep their guitars safe!
We were introduced to the GOOD twin and the BAD Twin. Gunnar being the bad twin comically annouced, harassing his brother, that just in case we had been wondering about Mathews shoulder length blonde locks he “said no, this is not Ellen Degeneres up here, it’s just Matthew my brother!”
Who had Mama Cass for a baby sitter and George Harrison as a next door neighbor growing up? The Nelson twins thats who! One of the clips was laugh out loud hilarious, it was the twins rockin out with their first guitars hangin with the family in their diapers and when the screen went back up the “bad”twin says “Nobody rocked Huggies like the Nelson Brothers!
The crowd took pictures here and there of the show before them and then it was a “flash-fest” when Gunnar announced ” that Their show had no policy about taking pictures and they aimed to be the “Grateful Dead” of the Casino industry.
There were a lot of truly touching moments in the show and the Nelson’s really showed their own singer-songwriter style from the bottom of their hearts as they sang a song, that makes them think about their Dad called Just Once More the song gave you those “angels are clapping” type goosebumps and brought some of the crowd to tears as they rose to their feet for a standing ovation!
The bands harmony throughout Ricky Nelson Remembered show was incredible, they even talked about the ol vinyl 45′s how there was an A side usually which was the hit and the B side which was the orphen song, the screen came back down and you see Dad “Ricky” sing Travelin Man and then the band gently rocked the crowd with the same song and then they said now, let’s flip the record over to the B side and you could hear the crowd sing along with it and you could hear whistles from all the way in the back of the venue as they sang hello mary lou!
Then they showed some clips from Rio Bravo and Gunnar told a really funny Angie Dickenson story where Angie had Matthew all a fluster and she came up to him and said “Yo Daddy was a Hell of a man!” Gunnar throws up two thumbs and a proud smile and says…..”Yeah Pop!” When the clip of Garden Party with Ricky came on, the crowd was stirring because they knew what song they were going to see live and the crowd stood up and began to applaud as if thanking the Nelson Brothers and the Stone Canyon band for bringing us to their Garden Party!
As you can see the show was a sentimental journey, full of Life, Love and laughter both on the stage and screen, cameo appearances on the screen were by Sir Paul Mcartney, Chris Isaac, John Fogerty, Sam Phillips the man from Sun Records and even the Rhodes scholar himself Kris Kristofferson and we were truly Blessed to see some true talent on stage as we all captured in our hearts Ricky Remembered.
The Nelson Brothers and thier band did an awesome job of putting on a kewl show paying deep musician respect and love for thier dad the whole audience was touched when Gunnar said “To me Dad is still on tour and I am just waiting for his suitcase to hit the landing”.
Robert Davi’s traditional holiday single- MISTLETOE & HOLLY really took me back to the big band sounds of the kind of music Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers once kicked up their dancing shoes too! It’s swinging, fun and upbeat. Davi’s voice is great as he covers this Sinatra classic signature tune recorded by ole blue eyes in 1957 !!! How could you not love lyrics like “Oh by gosh…by golly!” I think the whimsical lyrics are really true American traditional memory triggers like trimming the tree, overeating, relatives and who can’t remember the smell of “grandma’s pies” – 100% of the proceeds go towards the SALVATION ARMY! (review on Amazon by KK Ryder)
