Do you remember saddle shoes and poodle skirts? How about jukeboxes and cars with fins?
Sting Ray Anthony does – although in the 1950s, he wasn’t even a gleam in his father’s eye yet. But for Trinidad-born, Canada-raised Anthony, it was love at first listen.
Anthony will play two shows in the region in November. The first is Nov 19 at Main Street Crossing in Tomball. The second is Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. at the Charles Bender Performing Arts Center in Humble.
Both shows are his Sting Ray Anthony’s Jukebox Rocks show.
His mother, as it happens, was a bit more modern than his father (who favored the standard bearers of the previous era, such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin). She was into rock and roll.
“When I was around eight or nine,” says Anthony, “my mom turned me onto the rock and roll stuff.” He then proceeded to buy and listen to every Elvis Presley recording he could.
Anthony turned his love of music into a passion for playing. He got to playing rock and roll music around town and was doing quite well. Then, the movie La Bamba came out.
It was a biopic of the late young California musician who was hitting the charts in the early 1960s with songs that touched a generation, Ritchie Valens. The movie starred Lou Diamond Phillips, and changed the course of Anthony’s career.
“I was already out there playing,” says Anthony, “and when the movie came out, people started saying, ‘hey, you look like the guy from La Bamba!’
With his uncanny resemblance to Lou Diamond Phillips, Anthony literally brings Valens’ music and more back to life.
Humble resident singer/songwriter Brian Winfield will open the concert. Full band ‘Edge of Reality’ will back the entertainers. Special guest all female group ‘Shake Rattle & Roll’ will also perform.
For reservations at Main Street Crossing call 281-290-0431. For reservations for Humble concert call Steve Fountain 832-312-0074 or email stevemdxelvis@gmail.com.
