Bellevue church to host ‘The Gospel of Elvis’

BELLEVUE – While preparing for his performance on Sept. 17 at the Ottawa County Senior Day and Resource Fair at Camp Perry in Port Clinton, Elvis Presley Impersonator Walt Sanders talked about his upcoming Gospel concert slated for Oct. 5.

Sanders, of Bellevue, has been an Elvis impersonator singing all of the King’s most famous songs since 1993.

His show, “The Gospel Side of Elvis,” will be performed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 285 W. Main St., Bellevue, at 5 p.m. on Oct. 5.

Sanders has a voice that not only sounds like Elvis, but for most of his performances, he also looks like Elvis — in full Elvis costume and wig.

Sanders to perform more than Elvis tunes

For the Gospel performance, Sanders will be shedding the traditional Elvis high-collar, one-piece, blinged-out jumpsuits of the 1970s and wear a more traditional suit, he said.

“I do so much more than Elvis,” Sanders said. While 95% of the Gospel show will be spirituals from the Elvis collection, there will be more, he said. One of the songs added to his list will be “Rise Again” by Dallas Holm — a song called a powerful Easter melody.

“There are others that I do,” Sanders said.

Elvis Presley, who died at the age of 42 in 1977, was strongly connected to Gospel music as well as soul and rock’n’roll. Sanders pointed out that the three Grammys Elvis received were for his Gospel music.

In 1974, Elvis won the Grammy for “How Great Thou Art;” in 1972, he won for “He Touched Me;” and, in 1967, won for “How Great Thou Art” as Best Sacred Performance. He was also nominated in 1968 for Best Sacred Performance of “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” according to graceland.com.

Sanders commented that hosting his Gospel concert is a “wonderful way” for a church to raise funds for a special project. While no tickets are sold, an offering is collected by the church and he receives part of that money as his payment — though he has no set fee for the Gospel concerts.

On Oct. 5, the goodwill offering collected during the concert will go to St. Paul’s Community Outreach program, one of the promoters for the church noted. He also added the Presbyterian church seats about 80 people.

Despite emergency spinal surgery in April, Sanders has been back performing. He now has a high seat on stage if he needs to use it, he said.

“I’ve only lost one gig this summer” due to the surgery, he said. Performing Elvis tunes is not a full-time job, and Sanders, who will soon turn 60, said he has not been back to his traditional job since the surgery.

In a normal year, he performs about 10 Elvis shws with a backup band, 20 or so one-man Elvis shows and then another 20 or 30 variety shows. When not using a band, Sanders relies on the digital age.

“My computer has very good tracks,” he said.

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This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Sanders to perform best of Elvis at Bellevue church concert