The San Francisco Elvis Presley Tribute events have been presented since 2017 by Steve Indig aka DJ Shindog. Indig has been producer/promoter/DJ for the nightclub party New Wave City, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Since 2010, Indig has also presented San Francisco’s Elvis Bowie Birthday Bash, an annual event that celebrates the shared January 8 birth date of both Elvis Presley and David Bowie. The previous SF Elvis Presley parties celebrated the 40th anniversary of the King’s passing, the 50th anniversary of the legendary 1968 Comeback TV Special, and the 50th Anniversary of the King’s return to Las Vegas concerts.
Performing live at this event will be the San Francisco Elvis All Stars, made up of local veteran musicians coming together for this event. Each member of the SF Elvis All Stars – leader
Hank Maninger, backed by
Joe Kyle on bass,
Steve Lucky on keyboards, and
Les James on drums - regular rip up local stages playing rockabilly, early rock & roll, traditional country, boogie woogie, and blues – all the music that Elvis loved and performed.
Hank Maninger has been a professional musician in the Bay Area since the 70s, playing guitar, bass, and singing. He has played with Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo, Chuck Prophet, the Aqua Velvets, and the Hacienda Brothers. These days he leads his own band, Hank Maninger and the Jukebox Charlies, in addition to leading a band with his wife, Lynne Maes, called Nashville Honeymoon, and playing bass with The Seducers and Mitch Polzak & the Royal Deuces.
Aki Kumar left his native home in Mumbai, India for the USA with the intention of working as a software engineer. Then he discovered the sounds of the blues. Honing his music chops on the side for years, over time, he successfully blended elements of Indian music into his musical and visual presentation of the blues. Kumar has made multiple appearances at The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, has been featured on PRI “The World,” and has toured in Russia, Scandinavia and South America. His ground-breaking Little Village Foundation albums have garnered international critical acclaim. In 2019 Kumar signed with Sony Music India to release a blues-inspired, bi-lingual album "Dilruba".
Guest singers
Steve Lucky and
Carmen Getit lead the exciting act Steve Lucky & the Rhumba Bums, performing vintage roots music including blues, boogie woogie, jazz, swing, rockabilly, new orleans, R&B, Hammond Organ, and original tunes. Raised near Detroit, Lucky started playing piano at age eight and was playing and singing professionally by the time he was thirteen. He founded and led the six-piece Blue Front Persuaders, with a novel sound and wild show that was a big draw on the Midwest college circuit. After performing in New York City for six years, he moved to San Francisco and started the Rhumba Bums as a quintet, but admits the band really took shape in ‘94 with the addition of Miss Carmen Getit on vocals and guitar. Miss Getit got her musical start plucking out melodies on the piano before she learned to read. Piano lessons soon followed, and at age ten Carmen began singing and playing acoustic guitar with a group of girl guitarists at her local church. Over fifteen years later Steve Lucky bought her an electric guitar and turned her on to early blues and jazz. In Carmen's powerful vocals, one can hear echoes of her idols Ruth Brown, Etta James, and Dinah Washington.
Guest singer
Leigh Crow has toured the world and elsewhere as
Elvis Herselvis. She has impersonated among others William Shatner, John Travolta, Jack Nicholson, Eydie Gorme, Liz Taylor; in her 25 + years of performing she has been featured in drag shows, independent films, feature films, musicals, rock bands, music videos, documentaries, performance art and anything else that struck her fancy! Catch her with her Classic Country band Velvetta.
Guest singer
Mitch Polzak leads his band The Royal Deuces, performing Rockabilly from the late '50's Sun Records era, guitar instrumentals from influences such as Joe Maphis, Merle Travis, and Chet Atkins, to a wide a range of Bakersfield Honky Tonk and Truck Driving music. Mitch has worked and or recorded with such artists as Deke Dickerson, Peter Rowan of Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Don Maddox of The Maddox Brothers and Rose, Joe Clay, Lazy Lester, Gene Summers, Chris Sprague, Johnny Cuviello (Drummer for Bob Wills), and has published articles for Play Guitar magazine.
Guest singer
Ben Fong-Torres is widely known as a former editor at Rolling Stone, where he wrote 30-something cover stories and oversaw music coverage, which resulted in him being portrayed in the movie Almost Famous. He is the subject of the acclaimed documentary film “Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres,” now streaming on Netflix. He programs and DJs on the online Moonalice Radio station and is featured on Pandora's "Stories" series. He’s also an Elvis superfan since the ‘50s, and was part of the team that reported on Elvis’ death in 1977.
Guest singer
Lynne Maes co-leads the group classic country act Nashville Honeymoon, with her husband Hank Maninger. Lynne’s parents bought her an acoustic guitar when she was 15, but she never sang anywhere other than church until she debuted with Hank at their son’s elementary school. This sparked a musical collaboration that has since brought Nashville Honeymoon to venues ranging from iconic tiki bar Forbidden Island to San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall.
Joe Kyle will be on bass in the SF Elvis All Stars combo. Joe cut his musical teeth in the early 1990s in San Francisco, when entry-level gigs were plentiful and taxicabs were large enough to accommodate a double bass. His musical education began in the trenches and the barrooms and dance halls of the Greater Bay Area, and continues to this day. Joe has become an in-demand performer and session player known throughout the land for his superb feel, musical agility, adaptability and propensity for slap bass and tragicomic asides. He may be the only bassist to have played with pianists Martin Denny, Al Kooper, AND Pinetop Perkins, although not with all on the same session, sadly. Joe can frequently be seen and heard performing and recording with many Bay Area groups, including Michael Zisman's Americano Social Club, HowellDevine, the Colm ORiain Band, Koolerator, The Cottontails, The Lucky Losers and The Waybacks.
Les James will be on drums in the SF Elvis All Stars combo. Born on the dusty plains of Henrietta, Oklahoma, Les roared out of the Sooner State like a tornado, settling in San Francisco in 1989, just in time for the Loma Preita Earthquake. As a small barefooted Okie child, Les had heard the Jackson 5 on a transistor radio, and at the age of 9 took up drums with the goal of becoming the next Johnny Porter Jackson. In his long and illustriously varied career, Les has pounded the skins with all kinds of bands from prog rock, punk rock, pit orchestra to celtic folk. Les keeps the beat in the San Francisco powerhouse country band Red Meat, he was a regular part of Wanda Jackson’s band until her recent retirement, and he works with other local roots acts including Mitch Polzak & The Royal Deuces.
DJ Cammy rounds out the rest of the night spinning Elvis Presley platters. Cammy [Blackstone] is a well-known name and voice to the Bay Area, heard in the past on KNBR Radio’s Frank and Mike show, and later on KFRC’s morning program with co-host Ron Parker. Cammy’s DJ work in the bar and club scene includes spinning authentic country at the long running Iron Cowboy Club, and as resident DJ at the Elvis Bowie Birthday Bash. In addition to Cammy’s passion for Elvis Presley, topping the list of her other obsessions are Cher, the San Francisco Giants, and Hawaiiana.