Just got it yesterday! Having missed "Cajun Tornado" (3/4 of which included this material),to my ears, 2006's "Holding Down the Fort" is quite good in context of his typical (non-December) 1976 show.
As with most other recent Fort Baxter re-issues, they've found a way (or time just permits it, via advances in technology and engineering) to coax more than adequate sound out of the tapes. According to another post here by "Ray," these tapes are first-generation, unlike the earlier release.
The booklet alone is very exciting (perceptive notes as always by "Jasper McGillis"), packed with great color photos of the show and really making this a true souvenir of "The Elvis Presley Show" circa 1976, as does the clever Disc One (about 30 minutes) of the opening acts.
Hearing such contemporary '70s songs (especially the Stevie Wonder medley ) reminds me how late in the game Elvis was still alive, as I remember all those popular songs at the time. The Elvis world, in comparison, seems like more nostalgia-driven then usually acknowledged, but it's still Elvis live on stage and the '76 fans eat that up. The Sweets do make a valient effort, right down to get a soul-clap thing going...
It's the Stamps who come off as a bit corny in spots.
I've heard some of this opening show material on other discs, but it's nice to have separate disc to get the "feel" of going to the "Elvis Presley Show." For those who can't sit though it, you have a conveniently have the whole separate disc of Elvis, "the main event." But for the true build-up, I purposely sat through all of the opening set so that I was rabidly into it for "the main event."
I agree somewhat that this is a more effective show for '76 as Tony Brown had maintained, as mentioned in the notes, but then not especially notable, either. It's not as good as late '76 but reasonably engaged, despite a less than stellar voice. Maybe it's just the power of the band, as he's still hardly where he should be.
The cover shot has grown on me. The idea is to document his concerts and this works as such. I accept that it was no longer 1956 and that's still a great profile our man had in the year of the bicentennial. As the notes point out, twenty years after his first big year, little did we know that from June to September of '76, "that this would be the final summer run of Elvis' career."
This is a release well worth having based just on the Madison standard of quality alone. Before I started collecting Madison releases, from the sound alone, I did not realize how much terrific work goes into the booklets of Madison, redeeming nearly every show.
Their overall approach (great photos on high-quality paper; great notes) makes even time clock-punching shows suddenly very worthwhile to have.