The last time Terry Fator came to Laughlin he rode in on a pretty big thunder cloud. After years and years of work, he finally earned a front row seat to see his life long dream come true. He came to Laughlin just after signing his mega deal with the Mirage in Las Vegas that made him a headliner on The Strip with his own theater. He fulfilled his commitment to the Laughlin booking and then soared into mega stardom. This makes it a bit satisfying for Laughlin audiences to see him return to town and tuck in a one night stand at the Edgewater between his regular shows in Vegas.

With the mounds and mounds of tribute bands throwing their collective hats into the musical ring, a band has to elevate their game to earn a place in a showroom instead of a barroom. That means they not only have to honestly love the music of the group they are giving tribute, but they have to have the musical chops to deliver it, both vocally and instrumentally.

With over 50 years in show business, Little Joe y La Familia has been one of the most popular Tex-Mex bands in the music industry with Little Joe proclaimed by one writer as the “King of the Brown Sound”. That sound helped define the mix of traditional Mexican “norteño” music with American country, blues and rock styles that came to be known as “Tejano” music.

Route 66 has become more myth and icon than a physical reality. Much of its course that “winds from Chicago to L.A. more than two thousand miles on the way” as stated in the song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66″, is abandoned or supplanted by the Interstate system. 

Their success aside, the Bee Gees haven’t had it easy. They were creating hits and innovative music before the unique period in music called the “Disco Era,” but because of their success in that forum with the “Stayin’ Alive” connection, they were branded as disco kings, something that has come with snickers and slices of derision.

It doesn’t matter if real talent is on display on “American Idol,” “America’s Got Talent,” “The Voice” or “Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour,” the result is the same. Everyone is a winner. The contestants in these types of “contests” win because they get to put their show biz side in front of an audience and panel of judges in a real time drama. The audience wins because they get to hear singers to which they would otherwise be unexposed, creating pleasant and rewarding surprises along the way.