And now the end is near?

Sometimes I'm afraid I'll turn on my computer, visit an Elvis news site and read that there will be no more FTD releases. These thoughts usually cross my mind when there hasn't been any news from Ernst Jorgensen and company for a while. Like now.

It was nearly a month ago that Follow That Dream released The Wonder Of You and since then nothing has been said about what's coming next. Also, it's been five months since the latest classic album Blue Hawaii saw the light of day (not counting Standing Room Only released in March) and that makes me a bit worried.

During the 10 years that FTD has been operating, we've had something like 77 releases. That's nearly eight new albums a year, a fantastic and impressive figure, to say the least.

But lately more and more criticism (some fair and some unfair) has been leveled at the label. My guess is that the fans are a lot more pickier with what releases they buy nowadays than they were ten or even five years ago. That, together with the financial situation being what it is nowadays, most certainly means a decrease in demand for FTD albums, something that can't work in Ernst Jorgensen's favor.

Hopefully my misgivings will turn out to be unjustified. I just read that Ernst Jorgensen will be attending Elvis Week in Memphis, talking together with executives from Sony about upcoming Elvis music-related projects. But do these projects include FTD?

Here's for hoping that the next time I visit an Elvis site, I'll read that "How Great Thou Art," "Good Times" and "Promised Land" are going to be the next classic albums from FTD. Or at least that one of them is. And that the much talked about Sun project will be released on the first of September. This year, that is.