Feature Band

Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards are considered to be one of the top Biker Rally and Blues Festival headliner acts. They have shared the playbill with numerous blues and rock legends: Lynyrd Skynyrd; Peter Frampton; Marshall Tucker Band; Mark Farner & Grand Funk Railroad; David Allan Coe; Bad Company; Black Oak Arkansas; Marcia Ball; Omar & The Howlers; and many others. Being asked back time after time, year after year... speaks for itself.

Thanks to the internet, world-wide radio play and a TouchTunes nationwide “Jukebox Deal”, Mean Gene Kelton has amassed a strong national following. His website has become one of the most popular band sites currently averaging 150,000 hits a month! Over 5000 fans have signed up to receive Kelton’s free weekly newsletter to remind them of upcoming shows. Sign up for your free newsletter at: http://www.genekelton.com

Click on an image above to see full size.

A veteran performer for over 25 years, Mean Gene Kelton was "born in Mississippi, on the wrong side of the tracks" as one of the hit songs from Most Requested says.

Kelton's shoot-from-the-hip style crosses the musical spectrum from down-home dirty blues and rockabilly through Americana, Southern Rock and Classic Rock 'n Roll.

Mean Gene Kelton formed The Die Hards in 1992, and hasn't looked back since.

Radio airplay on over 300 webcast and broadcast radio stations world-wide spawned a string of jukebox hits! Kelton’s songs are played 20-30 times per day on over 500 jukeboxes across Texas! TouchTunes Music Corporation, the largest digital download jukebox music company in the world signed Kelton to a “Jukebox Deal” making his songs available on over 16,000 TouchTunes Digital Download Jukeboxes nationwide. Kelton’s song, “My Baby Don’t Wear No Panties” - a favorite at motorcycle rallies - went #1 eight times in a row!

Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards has just been licensed by Elvis Presley Enterprises in Los Angeles, California to record a new CD called “Going Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To Elvis” in conjunction with the 30th Anniversary of Elvis' death.

The CD was recorded June 23, 2007 in the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee where Elvis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash started their careers.

The CD showcases Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards own unique Texas blues and gritty, southern rock interpretations of twelve songs previously recorded by Elvis including: Jailhouse Rock, Polk Salad Annie, Hound Dog, Heartbreak Hotel, Steamroller and others that the band regularly performs at motorcycle rallies across the country.

A 13th song and title track, “Going Back To Memphis” is a Mean Gene Kelton original, written about what Mean Gene calls the “the second coming of Elvis”. An earlier version of the song was released in 2000, and hit #1 on internet Rockabilly Charts.
 
“I insisted that we set up and perform all thirteen songs in a row, live and raw, just like we play them at a motorcycle rallies,” says Kelton. “I did not want to use click tracks or scratch vocal tracks, and we did only very minimal over-dubbing. I wanted to capture the true, unpolished, raw sound and live feel of the band’s unbridled enthusiasm for this one of a kind CD. What you hear is what you get. It’s the real thing!”

Please don’t burn copies of this CD. A special royalty from the sale of each CD will be donated to two separate charities: B.A.C.A. (Bikers Against Child Abuse) and St. Jude's Childrens' Hospital in Memphis. Every time a copy is burned, it’s the children that are robbed of needed services.

“Going Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To Elvis” will be available by the end of July 2007. Click the cover below.

...and then there were two... Two CDs of great house-rockin' Texas Blues that is! Two CDs of all-original music from Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards.


Click on the CDs to hear samples and purchase cds at CDBABY!


Upcoming Die-Hard Shows

Friday Aug 17, 2007
Time TBA

CD RELEASE PARTY
Coyote Ugly - Memphis

326 Beale Street
Memphis TN
901-888-UGLY

CD Release Party for "Going Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To Elvis"


Sunday Aug 19, 2007
5pm - $5 Cover

CD Release Party North:
The Howling Coyote

6536 FM 1960 Rd W
Houston, TX 77069
(281) 444-3401

Rolling in from our Elvis Week performances, come out and party with the band and help us celebrate the release of our new CD!!!


Friday Aug 31, 2007
7pm

Headlining The Hawg Stop
Blues Festival

1335 Sheldon Road
Houston, Texas
281-456-7867

 

text and images courtesy http://genekelton.com