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Interview with Gravel Road Music – Elvis Information Network / Elvis Day By Day The Gravel Road Music label has been operating for 20 years, releasing plenty of very collectable releases along the way including 'You Know It Don't Have To Be Strictly Country', 'The Return Of A Prodigy' (recently re-released on vinyl), 'Plugged In & Geared Up', 'Good To Be Back' and last year the deluxe box-set 'Elvis: August 1969 By Invitation Only'. With another special release coming out this month Elvis-Day-By-Day's Kees Mouwen and EIN's Nigel Patterson wanted to know more..
DBD/EIN 2026 – Interview with Gravel Road Music Many fans of Elvis In Concert have been waiting for Gravel Road’s ‘Elvis In Concert’ LP set. It was originally set for release in October 2025, but was delayed. Because the LP is due around March 20, 2026, we thought this was a good moment to catch up with the man behind the record and the label. Kees: Nice to catch up again, it has been a while since we last talked. I had hoped to talk to you in October last year, for the release of the LP version of 'A Study of Elvis In Concert'. What happened over the past six months? Gravel Road: Hello guys, nice to catch up again! Yes, we expected it too. We had serious unexpected difficulties with the quality of the pressing, it didn't meet the audio quality we had in mind. Normally one or sometimes a second test pressing should be enough but somehow each time new issues occurred, so we weren't happy with the result and ended up doing three different masters before we had it right and no less than five different test pressings! For today's standards, five test pressings is unheard of! Because we didn't get the sound right, we decided with the last cut to do a lacquer mastering instead of the direct metal mastering. Lacquer masters are known for a warm, analogue sound and a more prominent low-end signal compared to direct metal mastering which sounds a little brighter. We've been called crazy by others but listening to the end result proves it was the right decision. All this caused the largest part of the delays. The "Elvis in Concert" badges proved to be more difficult than we expected, they turned into a serious time-consuming headache. We wanted these backstage "Elvis in Concert" badges to be an almost exact reproduction of the original ones, in color, material and size. Well, let me tell you, that is difficult, we seriously underestimated this. The material used for this has changed over time, like many things, but it had to be the same look and feel. Perhaps it would have been easier to track down the original and include those!
The second problem was the ink. The modern ink is different due to health regulations, which means that the original colors can no longer be obtained, and a 100% match wasn't always possible. So we had to find the closest approximation, sometimes it was spot on, but sometimes it was difficult to determine the exact color as the originals varied too as they aged over time and colors faded. So, a simple bonus item changed into a serious challenge! But these were the rules we had set for ourselves. Now the real problem occurred, the printer had a newer material that looked more like plastic folio and lacked gloss. What should we do now? Everything had already been announced, and we didn't want to disappoint anyone. With great difficulty, the printer managed to obtain the original material, and it was printed... the digital printing didn't work out. CMYK couldn’t get the colors right. Please note, we're now already in December, we decided to do whatever it took to get everything right, again, quality takes time and there are no short cuts here. We quickly needed an old-school printer who knows the material and could also do PMS screen printing and mixing color by eye … we did and we just received it this month! And wow! seeing them all together was really awesome. By the time fans hold the end-result in their hands, they will realize this wasn't an overnight release. Treasure it, we won't repeat this part! Nigel: Good to have that out of the way, let's dive deeper into this new set, what is the reason to do this release? Gravel Road: We wanted to do it already together with our 'A Study of Elvis Presley in Concert' book, but we weren't sure. The release of our 1969 VIP box set made us realize, that there should be an album version of 'A Study of Elvis Presley in Concert'. It just had to be. And requests from various sides made it even more obvious. Since our book is still in high demand at the moment it was wise to do it now, we've created a beautiful, vintage vinyl edition to complete the 1977 in concert set. The two backstage badges from us added a touch of the 1977 sentiment.
Nigel: What makes this version different from the original version most fans have in their collection? Gravel Road: It is the soundtrack from our book without the fan comments, the sequence of the songs is now in correct order of the Rapid City performance. We basically did what many fans were hoping for over the years, release it without the comments and with the songs in the right order as they appeared in the show, in the best sound possible. The 'Elvis In Concert' album from 1977 was a soundtrack cut to one LP and a second LP that contained a compilation of songs taken from two different shows not used in the TV Special. Kees: According to the general perspective, Elvis had become a caricature of himself in 1977, but fans keep buying releases from this era, apparently FTD's 'The Last Tours' series does very well, the label had to do a quick reprint of Vol.1 immediately. What do you think about Elvis fans' fascination with his rather sad final year? Gravel Road: As you said, his final year is charged with Elvis's death. Personally, whenever I hear or read about 1977, I always think of Elvis consciously or unconsciously, so I suspect there's also some kind of emotional connection. It's personal, of course, but it somehow connects all the fans. Because you love Elvis, you defend it more than usual. On the other side whatever you think of Elvis, his voice was better than ever as if it only kept improving. When the time would have been in his favor, he would have come back in (better) shape eventually. It must have been hard for Elvis, since he was always aware of his appearance and now, he had less control. Nigel: Talking about Elvis's last concerts, his final performance is being released by the Petticoat label on vinyl, and the Follow That Dream Collectors label will release a cleaned and restored version on CD. What is your opinion on those releases? Gravel Road: When we made the book, the idea was to help fans and non-fans to understand Elvis' situation and the negative approach by the media at the time. We are very happy that 1977 is now getting the attention it deserves. Elvis was really good in 1977, maybe not as active as in previous years, but he certainly made up for it with great vocal performances, and as I said, if given the time he would have had the rest in order again. Yes its great they do this. We know there are soundboards of the last two shows but until then we should be very happy, they are giving us these releases. That a label like Petticoat releases it on vinyl is nice, I don't expect that FTD would release an audience recording on vinyl, it doesn't fit their policy.
Kees: Why not wait until the 50th anniversary of this concert, or do you want to beat the competition? Gravel Road: We have no competitive urge, we just wanted to tell a story about the CBS TV Special and set the record straight, hoping some writers will glean information from it to portray 1977 in a more nuanced way, especially with the bullshit sold online by YouTubers to gain more followers. Elvis has been in the wrong light more than enough times. Since he can't put it into words, it's up to fans and researchers to present the correct facts. Elvis deserves to be recognized for his great legacy and maybe even more importantly for the great person he was, once you get to know Elvis, you discover how special he was. Nigel: What did you learn from studying these last concerts, and what should fans pay attention to when they listen to Elvis during his last shows? And what do these recordings reveal about Elvis's voice and stage presence in the final months of his life? Gravel Road: If you are in the position to listen to other concerts from previous years, you hear steady progress of his voice, anybody in the music field, even if they don't like Elvis' music says that his voice was impressive. Besides talent, only hard work, rehearsing and the drive to keep improving yourself will take you to that level as a performer. Many well-known singers recognized his exceptional talent. Placido Domingo once stated that Elvis' voice was the one he wished he had, and Andrea Bocelli admired Elvis' extraordinary talent. Kees: How does this 1977 concert performance compare to the (audio) presentation of Elvis live in concert in the 'EPiC' movie? Gravel Road: I think the 1977 concert is a completely different outing of Elvis at his vocal peak. You could say that 'EPiC' shows Elvis’ continuing drive to develop himself. It is more of a continuation of greatness. The music as used in 'EPiC' is tailored to fit the way the footage is cut, which benefits the movie greatly. Elvis' music is way too good and not really in need of a modern twist. Like 'In The Ghetto', I see young listeners being surprised when hearing it for the first time and being impressed and loving it, so why change it. But for the movie it works . Kees: Is there a moment from this 1977 concert that stands out to you personally? Gravel Road: That would be 'How Great Thou Art' because he really lifts the song to the next level! It is so extremely powerful, in our opinion it is the best rendition he did on stage. I also enjoy 'I Really Don't Want To Know' because he is really into the performance, so controlled balancing the words, wow, this is real craftmanship! Nigel: Gravel Road is known for the quality audio of their releases. What can you tell us about the source for this new outing? Gravel Road: If you enjoyed the audio enclosed with the book, you should be pleased with the vinyl, only difference is, it is now mastered and cut for vinyl old school, so it has that vinyl presentation many fans love so much. Nigel: How was the audio mixed and mastered, and what challenges came with working from live concert recordings? Gravel Road: The two different shows have different settings and audio ratios, so we had to match them and get them at the same audio level. After that, we had to make the transitions sound as natural as possible. By transferring and mastering the sound like we did, we brought out more details that were hidden in the recording, we also brought out more of the surroundings and corrected flaws that were previously covered by the overdubs. This greatly added to the overall live atmosphere of the concert. Kees: Were there any overdubs or studio enhancements added, or was the goal to keep it purely as-is from the performances? In other words, did you include the overdubs? Gravel Road: The original overdubs are audio repairs, just to fix the weak parts of the original recording. The music performance itself was great but during the recording some was not good in the mix at the time. So they needed attention and with the possibilities of today we can do it even better, audio solutions which were a compromise back then we are now able to solve. We didn't add extra compression, reverb or other effects, we believe this is - as close as we could get - to the real deal. Kees: Looking back, do you feel - the new presentation of - the album represents Elvis fairly as an artist at that stage of his career? Gravel Road: Absolutely this is a very good and worthy presentation. If you want to show a non-fan about Elvis in 1977, use this and you convert them. It's the power of Elvis, just let the music do the "talking"! Nigel: Is there material from that era that remains unreleased? We mostly have audience recordings from the last months of Elvis on Tour in 1977, do you think it should ever come out from FTD? Gravel Road: Most of it has been recorded and we know that some collectors own these unreleased soundboards. Once they become available to the general public, we could hear these concerts in better quality. But will they reveal anything new? I don't think so. But it wouldn't hurt to hear them, as audience recordings aren't everybody's cup-of-tea. I would like to hear them for sure! We buy all the FTD releases, we're Elvis fans and love hearing something new of course. But the question we should ask ourselves is "do you play these concerts often?". And the honest answer is probably "no". We mostly play the original albums, those songs are selected for being the best renditions of the songs or performances. The 'In Concert' release is the 'go to' album for most fans when they want to listen to a concert from 1977.
Kees: Besides the musical content, Gravel Road has become known for creating collector packages, what can fans look forward to this time? And will the price be affordable for the casual fan? Gravel Road: As I said at the beginning, the backstage badges became serious items, when looking at photos of Elvis on tour, you'll notice them on jackets, briefcases, flight cases and so on. We originally started with the idea to add just two badges, but when the printer said it would not be very expensive to change colors we thought it would be cool to add them all. As these are so very recognizable, we decided to make them available apart from the LP. We always want to give the best and as much as possible, always considering feasibility and the unusual. If it's financially feasible, we'll do it. We also look at original items to see if they are rare or very expensive. This way, we make these items more accessible to casual fans. But many original items are still expensive and replicas are sometimes also expensive to realize when you want to do it as perfectly as possible. So that's always a consideration as you have to remember, you can't build a Ferrari with Fiat prices. That's why we do everything we can to make the impossible achievable. Like the backstage badges, originals cost between US$150-400, some reproductions online are offered for US$40 excluding shipping. That is expensive, but to obtain all 17 different ones in this high almost 1:1 quality for half of the price of an original sound like a good deal to us. We don't believe anybody else would does this on this level, you most likely get a normal sticker or it looks kind of like it.
Nigel: Sales of the import and "grey" market releases have fallen in the past decade. Even FTD has apparently experienced a general slide in sales. In response, labels including GRM, have responded (evolved) to this decline with innovative products such as vinyl, test pressings, multi-media sets, and bonus extras. One trend is the release of very limited (e.g. 3 to 11 sets) multi-part editions, for instance, "Rockin' in Georgia", at exorbitant prices. Is this trend likely a passing fad and is it good for how the bootleg market is viewed? Gravel Road: We believe the Elvis world is overloaded with all sorts of things, and that doesn't make it any easier for Elvis fans to choose the right items. Kees’ yearbook illustrates that year over year. GRM always did something extra simply because it was fun. We started the books because we needed the space to tell a story and a nice, secure way to package everything as completely as possible. The vinyl was always a desire, and because there was so much demand for it, we took a chance with the VIP box. Looking back, you can already see a modest attempt with our original 3-pack set "ELVIS1969." We are fans and want to create what we can't get from other labels, and do it as well as possible.
A good example is all the backstage badges, instead of just two. We tried to find and create them all, which is a lot of extra work; two badges would have been enough. This shows again that we are fans and a bit crazy. We haven't experienced a decline in interest since we offer reliable quality, limited editions, and no reprints to keep releases collectible. The only thing we're guilty of is upgrading a release, and this has to be a real upgrade. We will release older titles on vinyl in the future and new material. But these will also remain limited to protect the collector. As you can see, we invest a lot of time in our products. We believe Elvis should always be presented with quality, not quantity. There was a lot of discussion about us adding the backstage badges to this set, the original badges are simply too rare and too expensive. In this way, these kind of items become in reach for those who love it. Overall, physical sales of CDs, LPs etcetera are down, streaming is now the main source of income for companies, they don't lose money it just shifts into a different way. Although vinyl made a serious comeback, they are already talking about the comeback of the CD. Just look at the success of the 'EPiC' soundtrack. Creating three to eleven pressings of an item and then offering them for a very high price is taking advantage of the collector; and it is very easy to do. It only becomes interesting when there are many of one album or item and only one or two that are truly different; then it becomes special. For example, some might know this already; with the 1969 deluxe box set, we created 25 custom numbered box sets for people who meant something to the project, we did this as a "thank you", they differ from the black and colored sets. These are transparent and have extra content with a gold printing on the box. Like that, you do a very limited edition for a good reason.
Kees: Reportedly, FTD, the "official" Elvis collectors label, was introduced to combat and eliminate the bootleg market. Some have suggested that two decades on, the Elvis bootleg world is dead. What is your response to this view? Gravel Road: Sony and FTD have the market covered with their releases and that is good, we hear and see things we normally won't get and they make it available to us. Some material we will never hear simply because they don't have it or not the quality needed to release it. For the diehard fans it's a blessing that somebody else releases these audience recordings, it won't hurt them as the quantities are limited. And if FTD would find better quality they will release it anyway, the fans will want it because it is better. No loss either. We are not in favor of releases with known material in all colors of the rainbow and other crazy ideas, although there are of course some nice ones in between the myriad of titles released "almost every week". In the end we think, live and let live, enjoy it. We focus mainly on content believing the quality of it should do the work, but for some that's just what they like to collect, that's also great. Nigel: And what do you think of the Memphis Recording Service, operating in the grey market between bootlegs and official releases in Europe? Is it serious competition for FTD or Sony? Do you think they should step in and release upgraded concerts on CD and vinyl? Gravel Road: It would be a good move but expensive for FTD, keep in mind they have to answer to Sony about the sales and with an overflow of releases people get picky and it has to remain affordable. You cannot compare the Memphis Recording Service with the Follow that Dream or Sony labels, as these are totally different in company structure. MRS has found their niche with their stereo offering and they have their fans. Many fans buy various releases of the same concert anyway. A Follow That Dream release probably stands next to the MRS outing of the same recording on many fans' shelf. Kees: Being an audio expert, what do you think of the newly created MRS Stereo mixes? Gravel Road: Some of the releases are very nice, they benefit from the approach. In the end it's a matter of personal taste and I think it is a good thing that fans can choose.
Kees: Looking ahead, in your 1969 box-set there was an announcement for a vinyl version of the 1961 Hawaii Benefit Show, when can we expect that set? Gravel Road: The 'Hawaii Benefit' release is intended for release this year. We didn't expect such a delay with the release of the vinyl version of 'A Study of Elvis Presley In Concert'. You should enjoy a release not shelf it directly with releasing titles one after another. We also don't want to say a date since things can change as we experienced with our latest set. Kees: Next to the already announced Hawaiian set, are there other projects on the horizon you can share? Gravel Road: The Hawaii project was a very old promise and we wanted to get it out and done. But a 1970 VIP box on the same level as our 1969 set with book would be a nice! Another project for the near future is the Boston show. We are fans, we aim for quality, so we do need our time with something big like that. Nigel: Thanks for catching up again, we look forward to hearing the end-result! Gravel Road: My pleasure, until we meet again, adios.
CHECK with your local Elvis dealer to order GRM's 'Elvis In Concert' See more of the release details at EIN's 'All The 2026 CD News' Interview by Nigel Patterson / Kees Mouwen.
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