Muscle Shoals musicians back up Little Richard for Fourth of July concert

By Robert Palmer
Staff Writer

Published: Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 10:45 p.m.

Rock ’n’ roller Little Richard will perform live on the Capitol lawn Monday with three Muscle Shoals musicians.

The concert — which will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on PBS as part of Independence Day celebrations — will feature Wayne Chaney, Kelvin Holly and Harvey Thompson.

“We’ll be playing on the west lawn,” said Chaney, Little Richard’s band leader. “It’s pretty

awesome.”

Monday will mark Little Richard’s second July 4 performance at the Capitol, Chaney said. The first was three years ago.

“That was on public TV, too, and it was one of the most-watched shows on public TV,” he said.

Little Richard, a native of Macon, Ga., and one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was part of the first wave of rock ’n’ roll artists who altered the course of popular music, beginning in 1955. In the course of just two years, he charted a collection of hit singles that remain influential. Among them are “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Good Golly, Miss Molly,” “Lucille,” “Rip It Up” and “Slippin’ and Slidin.’”

He recorded his 1970 come-back album, “The Rill Thing,” at FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals. It contained the single, “Freedom Blues,” which briefly re-established him as a hit-maker after being out of the music business for years. Harvey Thompson played saxophone on the album.

Chaney said performing in the nation’s capital on Monday will be a thrilling experience.

“It’s just awesome,” the trumpet player said. “The neatest thing is the sound check. There are just as many people as there are at the show — 15,000 to 20,000 people. It’s a sea of people.”

The musicians also get a tour of the Capitol, he said.

“The security is so strong, they make you pull your horn out of your case and blow a note to make sure there’s nothing hidden in it,” he said. “But there are so many

crazies out there, I

understand.”

Chaney has been part of Little Richard’s touring band for two decades. Holly, a guitarist, has been in the band for years, as well, but this is Thompson’s first performance with Little Richard in Washington.

“You never know what to expect with Richard,” said Thompson, a veteran of hundreds of Muscle Shoals recording sessions and a member of the Muscle Shoals Horns, which scored several hits of their own.

Thompson was a member of Lyle Lovett’s touring band for years, and performed during President Bill Clinton’s inauguration.

“It’s exciting being there, and it’s a spectacle, too,” Holly said. “Being in front of that building, and it’s Washington on the Fourth of July — you get that sense of patriotism. It’s really cool.”

Little Richard hasn’t performed in a year and a half because of a hip replacement surgery that did not go well, Chaney said.

“But when it comes to playing and singing, he’s still on top of his game.”