Kathy invited me to join her at Potawatomi's Northern Lights theater featuring Matthew and Gunnar Nelson's salute to Ricky Nelson. Of course, besides just reviewing the show I wanted to share a few things I learned while enjoying the evening.
I can honestly say I was never a fan of the Nelson brothers, but I do remember Ricky Nelson, first from the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, then of course when he became a "teen idol". Now I am not quite old enough to be a groupie from his early days I have always enjoyed his songs and his charming persona.
If you don't know Matthew and Gunnar, they are Rick Nelson's twins, born in 1967, who grew up among singers and celebraties and when they were teenagers made their own band called Nelson. When they introduced themselves to the audience, they said.. "maybe you remember when we looked like swedish girls."
When entertainers can laugh at themselves you know they are enjoying what they are doing and they couldn't stress enough how much they loved and admired their father and grandparents.
This concert was full of film clips of the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet which aired from 1952 to 1966, with Ricky as a young boy on the show with his older brother, David. Ozzie and Harriet were their real life parents. When you look at it now, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was similar to today's reality shows that follow the everyday life of a family. Ozzie liked to take things from their real family life and add them to the shows story line One day Ozzie saw Ricky singing and playing the guitar in his room, before long Ricky started singing regularly on the show and his teen star status took off.
Here he is on the show impersonating Elvis.
He also starred with John Wayne, and Dean Martin in Rio Bravo.
Matthew and Gunnar sang a lot of songs, starting with Ricky's earliest hits,
Mary Lou, Its Late, Its Up To You, Here She Comes, and others
... then did a few of the songs they did as Nelson,
Can't Live Without Your Love and
After the Rain.
When Nelson's song
Can't Live Without Your Love, hit number 1 in September 1990, they became the only family to reach number one record status in three generations beginning with Ozzie (In 1935 Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra had a number one hit with "
And Then Some") and are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Matthew and Gunnar then did the songs Rick recorded in the late 70s,
Traveling Man and one of my favorites
Garden Party, which Rick wrote after a Madison Square Garden reunion show in 1972 where he was booed because he sang his newer country-tinged songs rather than his old hits. Rick Nelson died in a plane crash December 31, 1985.
Matthew and Gunnar were very impressed with the Northern Lights Theater, they have performed here numerous times, They are looking forward to their next concert here this fall which is away from the Salute to their father and will center on music that took place when they were Nelson, along with other performers from that time that they called "Big Hair"?
The last thing they told the audience was more about their extended family. That their brother Sam looks exactly like their dad, that their sis Tracey is an actress (she was in Square Pegs in 1982, A League of Their Own, and played a nun in the Father Downling Mysteries series.) Their mother's brother/their uncle is Mark Harmon.
There were around 200+ people in the theater which was the 2nd of a two night concert. They offered to meet everyone after the show and the line was pretty long for those that were excited to meet them and take a picture. Overall, a very entertaining night, great songs and great performers.
