I never was a huge Elvis fan. Not my thing. Not that I think his work was bad. He had a great voice in his prime and some of his songs are very memorable to me after all these years. Just that the ostentatious costumes, and the type cast movie roles, and the gaudy Vegas shows made him appear a bit superficial to me. So when it comes to modern day Elvis impersonators I’ve been a bit - ‘so what?’.
Then recently a female friend told me about this bloke called Bouke and his band Elvis Matters and how “wonderful” he is. So I promised to look him up on YouTube. And holy shit this Bouke not only sounds like Elvis, he has mastered Elvis’s southern drawl to a tee. And though he doesn’t go in for the replica costume and hairstyle fakery, he’s got the Elvis moves and mannerisms down pat. But the thing is he’s not even a native English speaker, but Dutch. Puts a lot of native English speaking Elvis clones to shame.
Elvis hasn’t left the building. He’s starring on a recent Dutch TV talent show singing Suspicious Minds:
And In The Ghetto:
Sorry for the longish post, but I’ve had a few and I’m All Shook Up.