Released today (November 20th) is From Elvis In Nashville, the four-CD/digital collection presenting the definitive chronicle of Elvis Presley's legendary 1970 marathon sessions with the “Nashville Cats.” The new collection features 40 undubbed, newly mixed classic recordings, and two discs of rare and unreleased outtakes.
Highlights on From Elvis In Nashville include: “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Faded Love,” “Make The World Go Away,” “Just Pretend,” “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “The Next Step Is Love,” “I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water,” “Twenty Days And Twenty Nights,” “I've Lost You,” “I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago,” “The Fool,” “It's Your Baby, You Rock It,” “Stranger In The Crowd,” “You Don't Have To Say You Love Me,” “Just Pretend,” “Patch It Up,” and more.
During a rare press conference in Houston on February 25th, 1970, Elvis spoke about how at the time country music hits had once again found their way into the Top 40 and the general public's listening tastes: “I think it's fantastic, Y'see, country music was always a part of the influence on my type of music anyway. It's a combination of country music and gospel, and rhythm and blues all combined is what it really was. As a child I was influenced by all of that.”
Elvis' drummer, the great Ronnie Tutt, backed him on nearly every gig he played between 1969 until his 1977 death — and performed many of the Nashville-era songs live. He explained that for the most part, taking the stage with Elvis was a blast: “We had a lot of fun. Elvis loved to laugh and make fun of himself and everybody (laughs) else around him. He had his serious side, of course, but we never knew what he was gonna do next, so it made it fun, (laughs) y'know?”
Elvis Presley's lead guitarist and bandleader James Burton, who's featured on the new collection, told us the “The King” relied on and respected his musicians for their support and input on his material — both onstage and in the studio: “Elvis was like. . . He had the main say of course, (but) he respected our opinion, and he would always ask us (about) what we thought about this, about that. And if there was something that we didn't feel good about or something, then he would scrap it, y'know? Because if it didn't feel good to us, he didn't want to do it, y'know?”
