Can it really have been fifty years?

… since the Fab Four burst on the scene and changed forever the face of popular music? Shane Landers (Paul), Michael Fulop (George), Adam Thurston (Ringo) and Richard Stelling (John) brought ‘The Return’ to the Outer Banks Forum concert at First Flight High School Saturday evening, and time stood still – after backing up. The lads had done their homework and recreated everybody’s favorite group flawlessly, with physical and vocal similarities to the original band, playing the correct vintage instruments with musical chops to match. (Their models were a hard-working club band before the world discovered them.) From “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” to a rousing “Kansas City” they whipped up the sold-out audience, which included a sizeable teenage contingent along with those who remembered the Beatles firsthand, with thirty terrific tunes. Meet The Return (Peter Hummers | Outer Banks Sentinel)

Pianafiddle, the primal orchestra

Playing the polyphonic piano and the vocal violin respectively, Randy Morris and Adam DeGraff deconstructed and reassembled a diverse selection of music on the spot at the Outer Banks Forum concert at First Flight High School Saturday evening. If you have a program you can throw it away, because we really don’t know what we’ll play until we play it, said DeGraff. Old Man River, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Autumn Leaves, Ashokan Farewell, Wabash Cannonball, Stairway to Heaven (that’s right), Maple Leaf Rag, the Beautiful Tennessee Waltz, Amazing Grace/America the Beautiful and other eclectic selections comprised a terrific program that would have gotten them thrown out of the Tea Room at the Plaza – no background music this. (Peter Hummers | Outer Banks Sentinel)

Always…Patsy Cline

Miss Barbara Hird, as Texas housewife Louise Seger, seated at right, reminisces about her unexpected friendship with country music legend Patsy Cline, played and sung by Laura Martier, in Ted Swindley’s bio-concert Saturday evening at the Outer Banks Forum. Seger began as a fan, hounding her local radio disc jockey to play Cline’s records. Lucky enough to meet the rising star, they remained fast friends until Cline’s untimely death at age 30 in a plane crash. Miss Hird, as Seger, recounted their times together with wit and poignancy; Ms. Martier, backed by the ‘Bodacious Bobcats Band,’ made Cline’s songs her own in a great performance, from ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’ to Bill Monroe’s ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky.’ (Peter Hummers | Sentinel Staff)