WHEN EARL TURNER opened at his own theater at Harrah’s in New Orleans—a theater the hotel had spent $5 million to renovate and name The Earl Turner Theater—he was on top of the world and life was good. Hurricane Katrina turned hi world upside down. Now, months after the hurricane forced him and his family to settle again in Las Vegas, Earl Turner came back to a local stage and is better than ever.

As he says at each of his shows at Palace Station, “I knew if they put up a sign telling people I am back in Las Vegas, they’d come to see me.”

As he explains later, “That’s because Las Vegas is my home. For 16 years our family lived here and it was really the only home our children knew.”

Sure, he loved New Orleans and became very involved in the community but he says, even though he misses that city, “it’s great to be so warmly welcomed here in Las Vegas.”

Earl Turner first came to Las Vegas to play the Dunes in Las Vegas in 1989 after years on the road. He had found his stage in this city that values entertainers more than any other. He played the Excalibur and the Luxor and, ultimately, RioBamba, the lounge at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino. He was a smash. In 2001, the hotel took the almost-unprecedented step of successfully converting Earl's lounge show into a ticketed show.

From the start, audiences and critics loved his act; an act made up, he says, “of songs that people can relate to, songs of any genre. I really like music that's fun.”

One critic here wrote, “Earl Turner Live is an evening that you should not miss.” Another noted, “For the hour and 15 or so minutes of the show, Turner runs, dances, sings, jokes, mugs, high-fives and does whatever necessary to move the audience.”

His talent and hard work won Earl ever-increasing audiences and—in this city where there's so much outstanding entertainment—the Las Vegas Review Journal's “Male Vocalist of the Year” award. After September 11, he moved into the Rio's main showroom and, following that, in 2002, on to Harrah's in Laughlin and, then, to New Orleans.

His life in New Orleans was a good one and he was prepared to celebrate his birthday with a show. But his birthday is August 29 and, probably forever, he will remember that as the day his world turned upside down.

The world became right again on March 2 of this year when he opened at Sound Trax at Palace Station. He recently told an interviewer, “Did we want to leave New Orleans? Absolutely not. We had a home there—we still have a home there that we are renting—and my wife and I were part of the community, on many boards, and had built good audiences."

As audiences have come to expect, the new Earl Turner Show is a solid one. A critic recently wrote, “Earl Turner should not have to work so hard to entertain his fans, but then he wouldn't be Earl Turner.”

And his audiences love him, with many returning many times to see him again. And, as a bonus for those who do see the show more than once, he says, “I like to change it up, to do different things, so it's interesting for the audience and for me.

“I love what I do and am so appreciative that audiences respond so positively.”

So, again, back in Las Vegas, life is good for Earl Turner.



Earl States:

"The Las Vegas community is an extraordinary one, welcoming and celebrating performers like no other place on earth. If I doubted that, my experience in returning here after New Orleans, is proof that Las Vegas is amazing. Vegascommunityonline.com is a great asset to us all as it informs and celebrates this place we all are so fortunate to call home."

For tickers and information call 702/547-5300 or go to www.palacestation.com.

The Earl Turner Show at Sound Trax plays Thursday through Sunday at 8 p.m.