Photo from Jed Duvall

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Photo from Jed Duvall

Photo from Jed Duvall

 

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Throw a blue suede shoe anywhere in the area, and you’re likely to hit an Elvis impersonator.

The region has paved the way for numerous tribute artists striving to preserve the memories of music’s greatest icon.

But only one such performer grew up in Croom, Md., a 35-square-mile unincorporated community in the seat of Prince George’s County, now filled with forests and defunct tobacco farms.

“It is a very small town,” stresses Jed Duvall, who will light up the Laurel Mill Playhouse next weekend with his personal tribute to the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, on the eve of the legend’s 77th birthday.

“It was predominantly a tobacco farming community, and nobody’s growing tobacco anymore. So our people kind of got scattered into the wind,” Duvall says of his hometown. “Croom is about as far away as you can get from what people think of P.G. County, which has grown into quite the bedroom community.”

Currently residing in Glen Burnie, Duvall harbors fond memories of home, where he first encountered the muse that would shape the rest of his life.

“I was 14 years old,” he recalls. “It was the summer before I turned 15.”

Elvis Presley had died less than a year prior, but up until that point, Duvall had never considered himself a fan. And his parents, he says, certainly were not followers.

“But after his passing, the media was inundated with Elvis Presley,” Duvall says. The King’s influence was henceforth inescapable. “It populated the airwaves.”

Duvall enjoyed performing, too, and had a knack for song, so when Elvis tribute artist John Seaton visited Gwynn Park High School in Brandywine in 1978, the bug seized the teenage aspiring actor completely.

“He seemed to have the girls jumping up on stage with him,” Duvall remembers. “I thought, ‘I want to get in on that action, too.’”

In March 1980, Duvall performed as Presley for the first time, singing “Love Me Tender” as part of a talent competition. Although placing tenth out of 12 acts, he remained undeterred.

What would follow would be more than a decade’s worth of concerts and appearances, as Duvall honed his talents as a part-time rockabilly. After a tour in the Army, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts grad would win “Best All Around Performer” at New York’s Doo-Wop Club in 1986, moving on to claim many first-place wins up and down the East Coast.

Ultimately, though, after launching his crusade in the interest of impressing women, Duvall would land the attention of his true leading lady, and in 1996, married Kimberly Ann Denison back in Croom.

A hiatus set in, as Duvall took up the mantle of husband, stepfather and all-around family man, which would last until a Saratoga Springs, N.Y., reprise in 2005.

At Laurel Mill, Duvall will invite audiences on a musical journey into Presley’s life, with familiar stops at the icon’s ’68 comeback special, and his later, more lavish, jumpsuited years. For Duvall, however, the true thrill of performing lies with the hits of Elvis’ early years.

The 49-year-old performer cops to being “slightly older” than Presley was in his heyday, but the music goes a long, long way in making him feel 25 again.

“The first album I ever bought was a compilation of his early music from the ’50s, when he [recorded with Sun Studios],” Duvall says. “And I think the fans respond to that era the most. ... Audiences see so many people doing the ’70s Elvis, they enjoy his [beginnings]. There is so much rhythm and action and spirit and excitement.”

In recent years, Duvall has incorporated two additional legends to his repertoire: Johnny Cash and Paul McCartney.

“I was doing a benefit concert in Virginia, and someone came up and asked me if I had ever thought of doing Johnny Cash before,” says Duvall. “I bought a $15 suit from Goodwill, and have been doing that ever since.”

Presley and Cash “go hand in hand,” Duvall says. Both launched careers with Sun Studios, forever placing their indelible stamp on the American dream.

But the lad from Liverpool was a different story, entirely.

“People would often come up to me while I was dressed as Elvis Presley and tell me I looked more like Paul McCartney,” Duvall says. “While I wasn’t a fan of Elvis when I was younger, I used to listen to the Beatles all the time.”

Duvall remembers seeing McCartney in concert in 2009 at FedEx Field.

“I tend to look at those kinds of shows and think, ‘I’d like to do something like that,’” says Duvall. “So I go and do it.”

noravec@gazette.net