The King in Kin Coulee

By Mo Cranker on August 21, 2017.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

It was roughly 40 years ago the world lost one of the biggest rock stars it has ever seen in Elvis Presley.

Since his death in 1977, people around the globe have tried to keep the King’s legacy alive, by covering his music in many ways, performing tribute concerts and setting up Elvis week, which ran this year from Aug. 11-19.

Locally, Robert Larrabee set up the Elvis Forever concert that ran Saturday evening at Kin Coulee Park, his way of paying tribute to a man he considers one of the greatest musicians of all time.

“Today is a commemoration of the King’s passing, this is something I like to do for Elvis week,” said Larrabee. “It all started in the basement listening to Elvis when we weren’t supposed to. Growing up, Elvis was someone I always enjoyed, and as I started doing more and more impressions, Elvis is one I realized people like a lot.”

With two albums recorded and written in Nashville and a third in the works, Larrabee also does tribute shows, doing impressions of up to 20 different artists in a night. He says he got into music in a fairly non-conventional way.

“I was an only child and my mom was a waitress, so we moved around a lot,” he said. “Since we moved so much, I was always the new kid. I never had a posse. I never had a clique. Being the new kid, you may as well have a dart board on your back. I learned a long time ago that if you’re funny and can make people laugh, you can get out of a lot of tricky situations. Doing impressions is just something I have always done — it’s always been something I enjoyed.”

After moving to Alberta at the age of 16, Larrabee found his way to Medicine Hat roughly 10 years ago and he says the King is easily his favourite act to cover.

“Elvis is just the most fun to do,” he said. “From the wardrobe you get to wear, and just the impact that he still has today — it’s pretty amazing. Of all the characters that I can do, he is the most fun and flamboyant.”

After performing song original songs and a Johnny Cash cover to begin the show, Larrabee changed into an upside down pyramid suit that has a gold inlay and 1,000 studs to play his Elvis Forever tribute, something he hopes will grow into a larger show over the years.

“We’d like to make this a rock-and-roll festival once a year,” he said. “This is our first year trying this, but we’re hoping to maybe bring in some other entertainers next year and see if we can make this into an annual thing.”

To learn more about Larrabee go to his website, http://www.robertlarrabee.org

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