Terry Mike Jeffrey performs during an arts commission fundraiser concert at the Kenneth Shadowen Performing Arts Center in Draffenville. This year’s concert featuring Jeffrey and the TMJ Horn Section will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 8.
The Marshall County Arts Commission and WCBL are teaming up once again to host the annual Terry Mike Jeffrey concert at Marshall County High School.
The event is set to begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 8, in the Kenneth Shadowen Performing Arts Center at the school. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Jeffrey will appear onstage with the TMJ Band and the TMJ Horn Section, as well as Glen D. Hardin, piano player for Elvis Presley. It’s an event Arts Commission board member George Milam had proven popular.
“We’ll have probably 650-700 (in attendance),” Milam said. “ … Tickets will be available at the door if there are any left, and I think there probably will be (a few).”
The event serves as one of the largest fundraisers of the year for the arts commission. Now in its 12th year, the concert has undergone its share of changes throughout the years. At its inception, the event was a partnership between WCBL and the Marshall County High School Band Boosters. WCBL personality Jeff Waters said the boosters opted out of the program about 2004, and thereafter the arts commission took up in its place.
“When we first started, the arts commission had not been formed,” Waters said. “Or if they had, it was just very much getting off the ground. It was very, very early in the life of that organization.”
The commission worked to expand the effort, he said, and eventually became the driving force behind the concert. Jeffrey joined the show in 2005, Waters said, having built much of his reputation successfully performing Presley’s hits in shows throughout the country and on the cruise circuit. Jeffrey and the Stamps performed together, bringing in additional artists who had connections to Presley such as D.J. Fontana and Hardin, until 2012.
Attendance began to decline somewhat at that point, prompting the arts commission – which had grown to stronger numbers and took over coordinating the event – to look at changing the format to expand beyond the sphere of Presley’s music. The Stamps were discontinued as part of the event, and the TMJ Horn Section became a fixture on the stage.
“While it has a concentration on the music of Elvis, he (Jeffrey) also moved in other things like the Beach Boys and other artists that a lot of people didn’t even know that he could do,” Milam said. “He is absolutely phenomenal in the number of things he can sit at a guitar or a piano and do. … It’s just amazing; he is so versatile.”
The arts commission elected in 2013 not to hold the concert, in lieu of reworking the format and style; the performance began with its new format in 2014. Since then, attendance numbers have been on the rise Milam said, and it’s a trend he expected to continue this year.
“This year we will be adding a couple of things,” Milam said. “We’ll be adding security … you’ll have to have a backstage pass to get backstage because we’ve had some issues with that. The sheriff’s department will be onsite. We will have EMTs in the house. … This is going to be a better situation for the performers, too, because they have trouble with, I guess you might say, their fans want to be with them. We’re making that opportunity available after the show. After the show he will be up in the front lobby, and I think they have a merchandise table or something where you can buy stuff. But he will be up there, and that’s where his fans will be able to mix and mingle.”
Tickets are $20 each and available during normal business hours Monday through Friday at the Children’s Art Center in Benton, Benton City Hall and the Calvert City branch of the Marshall County Public Library. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.marshallcountyarts.com; online purchase fees apply for debit or credit card transactions.
For more information, visit the arts commission website or find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/marshallcountyarts. Interested parties may also call the Children’s Arts Center at 270-252-7022.