Memphis '69 boots

[drghanem]

Some of my most played bootlegs have been those containing material from the highly acclaimed homecoming sessions of 1969. The first time I heard rare versions from those sessions was on an early 1990's release titled American Rejects and the sound was very good forgiving some speeed issues. In the spring of 1995 something drastcially happened in the world of unreleased Elvis material when Bilko Enterprises in Europe started their series titled There's Always Me. I was enormously thrilled to say the least and managed to buy the whole series. Volume 2 and 3 featured several outtakes and session banter from Memphis 1969 and since the sound was excellent those became firm favorites. During the same period of time Bilko released a CD titled American Crown Jewels and it is another winner. All of a sudden a new label called Southern Style released a 2CD set titled Finding The Way Home and I was totally breathtaken by the contents and sound. So crisp yet powerful and to finally being able to listen to multiple outtakes of Suspicious Minds, Kentucky Rain, A Little Bit Of Green and many others was nothing short of amazing to me at least. An even more complete approach to these sessions was initiated in 2006 by the Southern Comfort label and their series of 5 (!) CD's titled The American Way. A couple of years ago FTD had the final say on the sessions with their three 2CD sets of ultimate sound and presentation so we fans have absolutely nothing to complain about in regards to material. Yet the bootlegs have a special place in my mind and every now and then I turn to my favorite CD and it is Finding The Way Home. For many years all we had from the Memphis 1969 in regards to unreleased material were poorly transferred acetates on a release titled Memphis Memories, thankfully Bilko and its sister companies (?) started giving us the full monty from 1995 and onwards.

[Bilbo Baggins]

Thank you for these memories. I walked the same path you did... starting with "American Rejects" up to the "The American Way" series. Those were thrilling times. I still play these beauties every now and then. They will never leave my collection!