Elton John tribute concert comes to Cape next weekend

Next Saturday night's all right for an Elton John tribute concert, when Bennie and the Jets play at Isle Casino Cape Girardeau on June 20.

Greg Ransom, band leader and Elton John impersonator, brings not only the iconic piano-rock songs John made famous, but also the iconic panache.

"We do kind of the '80s regalia," Ransom said. "We do the tuxedos and the tails and stuff."

From mirrored jackets to bug-eyed glasses, "we do all the plumage," he said. For a time, he said, he even did some of the more elaborate and outlandish costumes but stopped.

"It took too much time out of the actual show," he said.

Ransom got his start doing Elton John in his early 20s on the advice of a hotel owner and has been playing the piano since he was 10 years old.

"I was playing, like, a lounge lizard routine in a hotel," he said. "And one of the hotel's owners came up to me and asked if I sang any Elton John."

He didn't, really, he says, but he clawed his way through "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" at the behest of his employer.

"Because, he told me, 'Every time you play a Jackson Browne song or something, I think it sounds like Elton John singing it,'" Ransom said. "And who am I to not take advice of the hotel owner?"

Soon, Ransom realized he naturally had a vocal timbre similar to Captain Fantastic, so he decided to build up a repertoire.

"What I did was I bought a box set called 'To Be Continued' from Elton John, sort of his best-of compilation," he said. "When I listened to it, I had to admit that some of them, I recognized the songs, but I hadn't realized that they were from Elton John."

He was impressed enough to start learning as many of the songs as he could, but John's music proved to be more complicated than he anticipated.

"It was an interesting transition to what I was getting into," he explained. "It's not I-IV-V chord progressions; it's not that easy. It's very complicated music to learn. It's really all over the place."

When he started playing with a band, his backing musicians told him the same.

"If you get lost playing Elton John, it might not come back around," he said. "You have to really learn it, or you're not going to catch up."

But once he learned the songs, things really took off, he said.

"Next thing I know I'm on a plane to San Diego to perform," he said. "Ever since, I've been playing worldwide."

He says the most memorable show he's played was for American soldiers stationed in Tikrit, Iraq.

"We played in Tikrit, and now you see that on the news and you think, 'Man, we were on that ground,'" he said. "That's one that sticks out."

He says the upcoming show in Cape Girardeau will be similarly exciting, in that it'll be an audience-involving affair.

"My goal when I perform is to make people believe they're seeing an Elton John show and to do him justice," Ransom said. "If he were in the room, would he be upset? Not just the music, but my goal is to make it a memorable event. The audience is part of the show; it's not one that you just come and sit and watch."

Two shows June 20 will be at 6 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 and are available at the Isle Casino Cape Girardeau box office or at isleofcapricasinos.com.

tgraef@semissourian.com

388-3630

Pertinent address:

777 Main St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.