Whole Lotta Shakin’: The Life and Music of Jerry Lee Lewis

Together with Case Western Reserve University, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum paid tribute to legendary rock and roller Jerry Lee Lewis. The 12th Annual American Music Masters series, held November 5-10, was a rousing success, with a week chockfull of educational and entertaining events.

The climax of the series’ festivities was a remarkable and history-making tribute concert at Cleveland’s State Theatre. An account of that incredible evening follows.

American Music Master Honored in Style

On November 10, 2007, for the first - and almost assuredly the only - time, an amazingly diverse slate of performers who influenced and were influenced by Jerry Lee Lewis assembled on one stage. And they did it in Cleveland, the home of rock and roll.

Those of us fortunate enough to have been in the audience witnessed performers young and young at heart, demure and dynamic, singing songs that ran the gamut from blues to country to gospel to good old-fashioned rock and roll. In between acts, television monitors played video clips of Jerry Lee over the years, from his legendary Steve Allen Show performance to nostalgic interviews about his days at Sun Studios.

Kris Kristofferson, the evening’s emcee, kept the performances moving with a stream of anecdotes both comical and sentimental. And the performers themselves chimed in with memorable nuggets and privileged glimpses into Jerry Lee’s life offstage. Wanda Jackson fondly reminisced about how he accompanied her to church services and sang with her out of the same hymnal while they were on tour decades before, and the Reverend Jimmy Swaggart said he felt honored to have shared a piano with Jerry Lee while the two cousins were growing up in Ferriday, Louisiana.

The performers onstage and the people in the seats from the mezzanine to the front row at the 12th Annual American Music Masters tribute concert all came together on a windy autumn Saturday night in Cleveland to thank Jerry Lee Lewis for making a difference in their lives.

The stars of Sun aligned to pay tribute to their colleague and friend. Some of their voices may have shaken at times, but their gracious intentions hit all the right notes. What a rush it was to see men and women old enough to be great grandparents standing before a sold-out crowd, bathed in lights, taking their turns behind a microphone to theatrically express their love for a man who shook things up generations before many of the people in the theater were even born.

Jerry Lee’s family members - including his sister Linda Gail, his nieces and his cousin the Rev. Swaggart - also took turns onstage. Their heartfelt performances and personal addresses to Jerry Lee told the audience that they, who knew the man so well, could understand why people would want to pay tribute to him. And that they knew the adulation was well deserved.

At Cleveland’s storied landmark State Theatre, history was made. One by one, Billy Lee Riley, Cowboy Jack Clement, George Thorogood, Narvel Felts, Wanda Jackson, Kris Kristofferson, Jason D. Williams, Shelby Lynne, Terry Adams, the Del McCoury Band, Sleepy LaBeef, Linda Gail Lewis, Rev. Jimmy Swaggart and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Chrissie Hynde performed in homage of a man who made a unique and lasting impression on the American songbook. And he was right there before them, seated in front of the stage, taking it all in.

Before the final curtain fell, Jerry Lee was presented with an award of appreciation by Rock Hall CEO Terry Stewart. The microphone behind the podium was open to him to say a few words of acknowledgement, if he so chose.

Instead, Jerry Lee took his place at the piano and articulated his feelings the best way he knew how: through song.

Music is an amazing force. It can take you places you’ve never been before. On Saturday, November 10, 2007, at the State Theatre in Cleveland, Jerry Lee Lewis, American Music Master, gently played the piano and sang softly about flying somewhere “Over the Rainbow.”

He took a theater full of performers and grateful audience members with him.