TCBCast: An Unofficial Elvis Presley Fan Podcast

Justin Gausman
  • 4.5 (89)
  • Music History
  • Biweekly

"Elvis is history," Carl Perkins once said, "and anytime anyone or anything becomes history, whether it be Pearl Harbor or Elvis, it will never go away. The world will never tire of his songs." TCBCast is an unofficial fan podcast featuring co-hosts Gurdip Ladhar and Justin Gausman, along with regular guest co-hosts Ryan Droste and Bec Wyles, plus an array of Elvis fans and experts setting out to better understand that history, and those songs. Tackling topics from throughout Elvis's lifetime and beyond, TCBCast seeks to offer thoughtful, intelligent, heartfelt and honest discourse on Presley's career, his influences, the people who made his work possible, and the cultural phenomenon surrounding his iconography. TCBCast is not associated with or endorsed by Graceland, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Authentic Brands Group or Sony.

  1. Nov 5

    TCBCast 426: Lawdy Miss CLAUDE-y: EPE's Anthropic Suit & Why AI Still Can't Get Elvis Right (feat. John Michael Heath)

    Authentic Brands, the company who owns the largest chunk of the Elvis business, recently filed a lawsuit against AI company Anthropic alleging infringement on the rights of songwriters whose material was recorded by Elvis and represented by his publishing companies.  In light of this, Justin asked John Heath to join him for the first major update on Elvis & the wider world of AI that we've tackled since 2023, recapping Tennessee's Elvis-themed legislative changes protecting artists' voices, looking at how both generative and transformative AI applications have progressed as increasingly more "Elvis slop" has piled up online, with fake photos, videos and songs proliferating.  Has AI gotten better at capturing or re-creating Elvis? The guys take a listen to a few examples of recent AI Elvis songs and discuss where the technology has improved, where it falls short... and how its failures reveal so much more about the innate sensibilities and style that inform what makes an authentic, original Elvis performance tick.  For our Songs of the Week, Justin leads off with Elvis' partial 1975 live performance of Hank Williams' iconic "Jambalaya" and the history of the Cajun song, while John brings us home with a thorough exploration of the shared admiration and rivalry between Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, whose smash hit cover of Big Maybelle's "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" paved the way for Elvis' revisit of the song both on "Elvis Country" and during memorable live shows like "Aloha from Hawaii."  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

  2. Oct 28

    TCBCast 425: Is Good Times (1974) Underrated? An Album Discussion

    Bec and Justin revisit the 1974 album "Good Times," which was comprised mostly of material from Elvis' December 1973 sessions at Stax, though with the inclusion of a single "Take Good Care of Her/I've Got A Thing About You Baby" held over from the July sessions. "Good Times" unfortunately suffered perhaps the worst chart and sales performance of Elvis' 1970s albums of original studio material - the duo takes a listen to reassess whether the material merited it, or if the context and circumstances of its release at the time held it back.  Bec also takes the opportunity to give her thoughts on the Stax sessions overall, something she hasn't really had a chance to do on the show, they catch up on listener emails and finally, Songs of the Week! Bec leads off with a breezy pick, the Harum Scarum song, "Mirage," which turns out to be almost as fleeting as a real mirage.  Justin then digs in on the challenging recording session and creative choices that led to the stunning ballad "Summer Kisses Winter Tears" being cut from the 1960 film "Flaming Star." Elvis' recording, as some may know, did end up making an eventual cinematic debut in 1991's "Until the End of the World," paired with a soundtrack cover by Julee Cruise, but did you know that "Summer Kisses" also had an extensive, multi-generational parallel life overseas as the beautiful Mando-pop song "多少柔情多少淚" or "So Much Tenderness, So Many Tears" starting in 1964 and subsequently revived and reinterpreted over the decades into modern day? We didn't until this episode! All that and more in this TCBCast! If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

  3. Oct 14

    TCBCast 424: We're Goin' To Memphis! + SoTW: You Gave Me A Mountain & Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do

    Bec's back this week after an extended illness, and so we're diving into the history behind two classic Song of the Week picks: first up is "Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do," the upbeat boogie-woogie showpiece featured at the beginning and the climactic ending of 1957's "Loving You." Then, Bec climbs her way up to Marty Robbins' dramatic semi-autobiographical "You Gave Me A Mountain," which Elvis famously covered in the film "Elvis On Tour," and the TV specials "Aloha From Hawaii" and "Elvis in Concert," but took influence from Frankie Laine's hit version rather than the songwriter's. The duo also discuss a wide array of miscellaneous topics, including rare live Elvis tracks, Bec plays a round of Elvis trivia, and... it's really finally happening... TCBCast's planned summer 2027 meetup in Memphis. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

  4. Oct 8 ·  Bonus

    TCBCast Bonus Commentary: "Elvis" (1990) TV Series Episode 3 - "The Locket"

    Hello TCBCast listeners! We took a short break for Justin's birthday, but illness and scheduling conflicts struck, however new TCBCast is incoming ASAP! To hold you over, we wanted to share a bit of some of the great backlog of bonus content exclusive to our Patreon, where we've featured over 50 episodes on a wide variety of similar Elvis-related movies, TV shows, short films, and other programs, including a recently released episode on part 1 of the miniseries "Elvis & Me" from 1988, with more on the way! This archival mini-episode from 2023 features Gurdip and Justin picking right up where they left off with the first and only season of the 1990 ABC TV series "Elvis: Good Rockin' Tonight" starring Michael St. Gerard, Millie Perkins, Billy Green Bush, Jesse Dabson, Blake Gibbons, Kelli Williams and Jordan Williams. Back on episode 85 in 2019, the guys had watched and reviewed the first two episodes, but now have revisited the entire rest of the series with a fresh lens: pondering, in the post-Baz Luhrmann Elvis era, how the 1990 series' slower pacing, more granular focus and acute attention to historical accuracy holds up. And what does Gurdip, who saw the show in its original airing, think of Ronnie McDowell's singing in this series now? Episode 3, "The Locket" is all about Elvis and his fictionalized girlfriend "Mattie," and also depicts Elvis' first appearance at the Overton Park Shell in Memphis.  Sadly, since that time, the episodes have been pulled from YouTube and other public-facing streaming services - perhaps now is the time for Elvis fans to collectively demand it finally be released officially!  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

  5. Sep 29

    TCBCast 423: "Moody Blue: Between the Lines" (feat. Matthew Zeiss)

    Justin is joined this week by musician Matthew Zeiss, professionally known as ZEISS, who is also the director of the forthcoming documentary "Moody Blue: Between the Lines," which was announced with a trailer during Elvis Week 2026 and is set to premiere in August 2027. Featuring new interviews with Glen Hardin, Jerry Scheff, Estelle Brown, Larry Strickland, Brent Maher, Layng Martine Jr, Letitia Henley Kirk, Shirley Dieu, archival interviews with James Burton and Mark James, and more yet to be announced, "Moody Blue" the documentary will explore Elvis' creative process in the less-commonly-explored late 1970s, including the abandoned 1977 Nashville session. Zeiss & the TCE band have also recorded new interpretations bringing their own influences and love of Elvis' music to the known demos selected for that session like "Energy," "By Day by Day" and "That's What You To Do Me," as well as covering several studio tracks from the Jungle Room sessions to craft one possible imagined alternate "Moody Blue" album. But come to find out, they would never have undertaken either project to begin with if not for an episode of TCBCast... the guys also talk plenty about numerous songs and demos Elvis was pitched, considered recording, or were written for him, including a fascinating rarely-discussed Mark James song that has also been uncovered by Zeiss, which the "Suspicious Minds" writer had explicitly told author Ken Sharp that he intended as Elvis' first possible disco hit. The duo also geek out about EPiC, mull over future Elvis projects such as EPE's announced hologram show, where tribute acts and AI-generated songs often fail at capturing the soul of Elvis' music despite technical accuracy, and much more. The trailer for Moody Blue: Between the lines is viewable on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbKD6X7Zc3U Moody Blue, ZEISS' album, can be heard on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/21XXQzTPXyLNE6SlGnzdEc

  6. Sep 14

    TCBCast 422: The Histories Behind "Why Me Lord" and "Green, Green Grass of Home" (feat. John Heath)

    Following immediately on the heels of our discussion on Elvis and "Coat of Many Colors," John Michael Heath relates the story behind Kris Kristofferson writing his religious-themed 1973 #1 hit  "Why Me Lord." Then, to help us understand Elvis' cover better, explores the relationship between two of Elvis' favorite gospel groups, The Statesmen Quartet and The Blackwood Brothers Quartet, and in particular the friendly rivalry between their respective bass singers, Jim "Big Chief" Wetherington and J.D. Sumner (the latter of whom famously featured on Elvis' live performances of the song) as well as Elvis' admiration of both men. Then for his Song of the Week, Justin ponders the heartwrenching story told within Curly Putman's country classic, "Green, Green Grass of Home," the cinematic inspirations that gave Putman the premise, and of course Elvis' version recorded in 1975, though the song is perhaps most well known to the wider public through Tom Jones' hit 1966 recording.  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

  7. Sep 10

    TCBCast 421: Was Dolly Wrong About Elvis and "I Will Always Love You"? (feat. John Michael Heath)

    In this special two-part episode of TCBCast featuring John Heath, Justin and John reflect on the life and music of Dolly Parton, yet their main focus is on the discrepancies between the legendary story of Elvis seeking to record "I Will Always Love You"... and history.  Source interviews, articles and books, as well as verifiable facts about how Colonel Parker's music publishing involvement was handled - and subsequently ignored - during the relevant time periods before and after the critical July 1973 Stax sessions, provide corroborating evidence (including from Dolly herself as well as credible accounts within Elvis' circle) that the dramatic story the world has become familiar with and has been repeated endlessly on social media was not as it seems...  ..Yet the true story, and the real song Elvis wanted to record, is also much more revealing about how Elvis and Dolly were deeply connected by their real life experiences of extreme poverty, a strong religious background, their generous spirits, and flashy senses of personal style. This episode is being split into two parts, part 1 focuses on this story, part 2 will be Songs of the Week; as you'll understand by the end, there's simply no tidy way to transition tonally from the closing of this part of episode to the accompanying Songs of the Week, and in fact Justin and John took a short couple minutes break to reset tonally so that they could tackle "Why Me Lord" and "Green Green Grass of Home" with as much enthusiasm as possible. Keep an eye out - those will be in your feed soon! The clip of the Elvis-y vocal interpretation of "I Will Always Love You" featured midway through the show is by Torben Otten.  Some of our most critical sources for this episode include: Alanna Nash's Revelations from the Memphis Mafia, Peter Guralnick's Careless Love and The Colonel & The King, Dolly Parton's Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, Dolly on Dolly edited by Randy Schmidt, Norbert Putnam's Music Lessons: A Musical Memoir, INTERVIEW magazine (1989), Playgirl (August 1978) and Playboy (October 1978) magazine interviews with Dolly Parton, Alan Fortas's Elvis from Memphis to Hollywood, Elvis Information Network's Ask Marty Lacker column, the ASCAP and BMI repertoire websites, and Keith Flynn's website.

  8. Sep 3

    TCBCast 420: Separate Ways (1972) Camden Review + Remembering Shelley Fabares & Dolly Parton

    Gurdip and Bec open the episode reflecting on the passing of actress and singer Shelley Fabares, who starred in three films with Elvis - Girl Happy, Spinout and Clambake - and sadly passed away on August 22, 2026. They also take time to remember beloved country singer-songwriter-actress Dolly Parton, who also passed away on August 25.  For the main topic, they're looking back on the final official US Camden LP, 1972's "Separate Ways" which both of them owned in various formats over the years. Meant to emulate the success of "Burning Love and Hits From His Movies Volume 2" which paired a recent popular single with a hodgepodge collection of assorted other recordings, "Separate Ways" gave listeners who were unable to find the single otherwise the title track and "Always On My Mind" but is otherwise largely comprised of tracks from the early 1960s, with a couple 50s songs sprinkled in. Gurdip's Song of the Week invites everyone to "Come Along" as he spotlights the song featured over the opening credits of the 1966 film "Frankie and Johnny." Meanwhile Bec goes for the breezy "Where Do You Come From," which was recorded for the "Girls! Girls! Girls!" soundtrack (but not featured in the film) and eventually selected as the B-side to the much more famous "Return to Sender."  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

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About

"Elvis is history," Carl Perkins once said, "and anytime anyone or anything becomes history, whether it be Pearl Harbor or Elvis, it will never go away. The world will never tire of his songs." TCBCast is an unofficial fan podcast featuring co-hosts Gurdip Ladhar and Justin Gausman, along with regular guest co-hosts Ryan Droste and Bec Wyles, plus an array of Elvis fans and experts setting out to better understand that history, and those songs. Tackling topics from throughout Elvis's lifetime and beyond, TCBCast seeks to offer thoughtful, intelligent, heartfelt and honest discourse on Presley's career, his influences, the people who made his work possible, and the cultural phenomenon surrounding his iconography. TCBCast is not associated with or endorsed by Graceland, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Authentic Brands Group or Sony.

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