Friday, Aug. 6, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.
In nearly every case, the songs are unfailingly familiar.
So are the faces.
There's Patsy Cline, looking quite spunky for a woman who perished in a plane crash 36 years ago. There's Neil Diamond, tanned and fit in his 50s, comfortably clad in a cherry-red sequined shirt and snug black jumpsuit. There's Jimmy Buffett, blond locks curling out from under a denim cap and wearing a shirt saying, "I'm only visiting this planet."
There's The Artist Formerly Known as Prince dressed in his bright purple one-piece costumes of the mid-'80s and three-inch heels, and Elton John in feather-adorned sunglasses.
There's also makeup-slathered, rhinestone-encrusted Hotter Than Hell, a national touring Kiss tribute band that played at Sunset Station in July. The band is featured in the new movie "Detroit Rock City," an ode to the venerable metal band. And let's not forget the Charlie Miranda Experience, a loud, proud (and, unfortunately, right-handed) tribute to Jimi Hendrix.
However, not everyone has adopted the visual reality approach to tribute artistry. One local act bears a slight resemblance to U2, or maybe even the Eagles, but when they play it sounds as if it cued up "Abbey Road." Appropriately, it's called The Fab.
They're all tribute acts, churning out decades-old music and donning the stage attire and demeanor of legendary (and often nonliving) musical acts. Unlike some resorts' broad-ranging "Legends" shows featuring a multitude of acts performing for 15 or 20 minutes at a time, many tribute bands appearing in Las Vegas perform full 90-minute sets (or a couple of 45-minute sets with a break) three or four times a week.
Sometimes the rooms are filled, such as when Sharon Haynes and the Jordanaires unveiled "An Original Tribute to Patsy Cline" in 1998, or when the "Parrot Heads" descend on a Friday night show showcasing Barrie Cunningham as Buffett at the Gold Coast.
But on other occasions the crowds are sparse. Mid-week performances for tribute acts usually draw only fervent, die-hard fans. But the artists don't mind, feeling fortunate to be paid to play music they love for even small gatherings.
"I've played in front of crowds of almost every size, from a couple dozen to 50,000 at halftime shows during football games," Cunningham said after a recent performance before a couple dozen happily entertained fans at the 350-seat Gold Coast showroom. "A small crowd doesn't get as excited as easily because of the intimacy, but they enjoy the music just as much as a big crowd. Maybe even more so."
Cunningham is the rare tribute artist who can effectively perform as two famous entertainers -- pop music's odd couple of Diamond and Buffett. Cunningham's Friday night Buffett show is already a favorite among local and visiting Buffett fans; Diamond has been a Cunningham speciality for nine years.
However, not all tribute acts are mere imitations. Haynes' tribute to Cline features three of the four original Jordanaires, most famous for providing the backing harmonies for Elvis Presley during most of his career.
The Jordanaires also worked with Cline -- among a cavalcade of music legends in a 50-year career -- on her hit records of the '50s and early '60s.
Time to re-Cline
If Haynes' personality is any indication, there's something about Northeast Tennessee that makes a woman bubbly and brazen. She grew up in Sevierville, just outside of Knoxville and the hometown of Dolly Parton and Dollywood.
"I'm just very outgoing and I've always loved performing," Haynes said before a recent performance at the Gold Coast, where she and the Jordanaires perform six nights per week, 40 weeks per year. "Even as a kid I'd take my guitar to shorthand class in high school and when there was some free time I'd play for my classmates."
In 1982, attempting to wedge her way into show business, Haynes moved to Nashville and found work booking acts into the Nashville Convention Center. Still longing to sing for a living, she met a representative of the Jordanaires and passed along an audition tape of her singing Cline songs.
"They brought this tape to us and we heard it and we didn't know why it was being played," original Jordanaire Neal Mathews, in his 47th year with the quartet, said. "It sounded to us like Patsy and we were asking, 'Why are we listening to this? We sang on it.' Then it turned out it was Sharon, not Patsy. We were really impressed."
Haynes and the Jordanaires teamed up in 1990, touring the country for one-night stands in theaters and state fairs. Looking for an act to anchor its showroom, the Gold Coast signed Haynes and the Jordanaires to a 38-week deal in 1998.
"I just want to deliver songs that people want to hear," Haynes said. "I'm not trying to be Patsy Cline. I can't walk in those shoes, no sir."
The set includes all of Cline's familiar hits, including "I Fall to Pieces," "Crazy," and "Walkin' After Midnight."
"Outside of Elvis impersonators, Sharon is the only person we've ever done a tribute show with," Mathews said. "She really sounds like Patsy naturally. Sharon is the next-best thing and I think Patsy would've been proud of her."
Said Ray Walker, a Jordanaire for 42 years: "A long time ago we planted the seed and now it's a flower."
A double play
Cunningham, early in his career, wanted to be Neil Diamond. Not literally, but he chased a dream of becoming a solo, guitar-playing, song-writing artist enjoying worldwide fame.
But college got in the way.
After spending several years performing in bars and coffee houses along the eastern seaboard -- most notably in New York's Greenwich Village -- Cunningham enrolled in college at the University of California, San Diego, where he received a bachelor's degree in psychology. But his passion has always been live performance.
"I have always been into just singing and playing a guitar in a saloon someplace," Cunningham said. "Just put me in a corner with a guitar and I'm fine."
Early in his career, while playing at a club in Greenwich Village, Cunningham encountered a young Diamond. It was 1965, months before Diamond's first hit, "Cherry Cherry" was released. Cunningham happened upon Diamond in a curtained-off dressing room and played part of an original song Cunningham had been working on.
"He barely nodded," Cunningham said. "I didn't know what to think. Later I heard that was the kind of guy he was, very shy and withdrawn, and I'm sure he saw me as just another form of competition. It turned out that I went to college, he didn't, and here we are. But I love his music."
So much so that, in 1991, Cunningham joined the "American Superstars" lineup, portraying Diamond, at the Flamingo Hilton. He eventually performed with the "Superstars" lineup around the country.
"At first it was a little weird," Cunningham said. "I had a studio at home with video equipment and I had some costumes made, and I'd watch myself on one monitor and Neil on another, getting all the mannerisms down. I was a guy who liked performing in a black T-shirt and jeans, and now I was wearing sequined costumes as Neil Diamond and it was very spooky."
Cunningham does look like Diamond, but the sound is what sells his show.
"I have had a lot of people tell me it's exact," Cunningham said. "It's just from repetition. Long before I was 'Barrie as Neil Diamond,' I'd been singing his songs for years. I've song his songs more than he has."
Cunningham drew favorable reviews from the "Superstars" show and signed on with the Gold Coast about six months ago.
"I'm very pleased with the response," he said. "I don't even mind if people hate Neil Diamond and hate my show. If you hate Neil Diamond, you should hate my show. That means I'm doing a good job."
Cunningham added another personal favorite of his, Buffett, just two months ago.
"Again, it's music I'd been playing," he said. "It's popular and it's more complex than people realize. Plus, Jimmy's fans are the most dedicated in the country. They're like 'Dead Heads,' but they have a lot of money and aren't drugged-out."
Cunningham performs as Buffett each Friday, and as Diamond on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
"I'm doing two acts, which is unique, and they're totally different shows," Cunningham said. "Who knows? I might add a third."
The Fab five
Turn off the sound, and these guys look like any other club band.
"We actually wear wigs to hide our hair, which is in the Beatle style," The Fab's Pat Woodward said with a laugh. "That's how opposed we are to the whole lookalike thing. We're into the music only."
Woodward, a self-described Beatles nut since the eighth grade, was working as in a custom guitar repair shop with fellow musician Mike Hall about three years ago. When testing a remanufactured guitar, Woodward would always strum a Beatles cord.
Hall, also a Beatles fan, picked up the habit. Soon the two had developed an all-Beatles act and hit the local Barnes & Noble circuit.
"Then we thought if we added a bass player we could do a couple more songs," Woodward said. "So we met David St. John, a really big Beatles fan who could sing like a bird and played bass just like Paul and we were on our way."
Drums and a keyboard were added and by November 1996 The Fab was playing at local clubs. They soon signed on with Station Casinos, and the band performs regularly at the Sunset Brewing Company at Sunset Station on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
"We're all big Beatles fans and that's what keeps us going," Woodward said. "It's not at all like work. I think that's what keeps us together, because believe me keeping any kind of band together is rough. I come from L.A., the land of flaky, flaky musicians, and finding this kind of harmony is rare."
Not that it isn't hard work. Woodward said that perfecting the 150 of the 250 or so songs in the Beatles catalogue has been the band's most daunting challenge.
"Things like 'I Am The Walrus' and 'Penny Lane' are intricate songs and were tough for us to nail down," Woodward said. "I built a synthesizer guitar to pull off 'Eleanor Rigby,' and even 'I Want to Hold Your Hand,' because of the vocals, is a difficult song to cover."
And fans miss every flubbed note.
"You don't screw with the Beatles," Woodward said. "If you do, people get really insulted. They want the original songs, and if you do anything different you'll hear stuff like, 'How could you? That was my sister's wedding song!' "
But the feedback from the fans -- almost uniformly positive -- keeps the band energized.
"We're glad they're so into the music," Woodward said. "It's an honor to be playing it."
Prince Elton
Earlier this week, the person who performs as Elton John was tracked down in digs unbecoming a pop legend -- a small rented apartment in Wendover.
Brodie Dolyniuk, leader of the Elton John-'70s cover band Yellow Brick Road, is spending a couple weeks playing small border town.
"We're not even staying at the hotel," he said. "We're at some apartment the hotel owns."
Dolyniuk was a pianist at the Bar At Times Square in New York-New York two years ago and found many requests were for classic '70s songs, particularly Elton John. Soon, he envisioned building a band around John's music. The concept evolved from there.
"The energy of his music is really good and he's well-known to a wide variety of people," Dolyniuk said. "We went from there and have expanded it a little bit to include more variety, some Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, stuff like that."
The band now incorporates Dolyniuk's tribute to John with a full '70s set. They return Aug. 31 for a series of dates at Palace Station that runs through Sept. 12.
"We're going really well and have found that people like good music they're familiar with," Dolyniuk said. "That's why we're able to work pretty consistently in Las Vegas."
Jason Tenner is the front man for Purple Reign, a tribute to you-know-who. Purple Reign's home base is Tom & Jerry's in Las Vegas, but the band has appeared as an opening act for Destiny's Child at House of Blues in July, and has also performed at Boulder Station and the Beach over the past couple of years.
It all started when Tenner, already a member of the retro-dance band Mothership, dressed up as the Artist formerly known as Prince for a Halloween party. Now he dresses up as the Diminutive One twice a week.
"What's strange is the reaction of the crowd," Tenner said during a phone interview from a camping trip in Oregon (where he was fishing for bass formerly known as largemouth) earlier this week. "We've played places where people actually thought I was him and asked me to sign autographs. But I'm 5-8, I'm a few inches taller than him."
Tenner met the Artist once in a small club in the early morning hours of Jan. 2. It was soon after the Artist performed briefly at the MGM Grand's Studio 54 to celebrate New Year's Eve.
"We didn't talk about him or his music," Tenner said. "We talked about spirituality. He was really cool."
Tenner isn't sure how much longer he'll perform as the Artist, however.
"I'd like to do some original material," he said. "I think that eventually everyone wants to be original."
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