Sons of Sun: Saturday, May 21, at 8pm. The Polish White Eagle Club. Written by Kieran Carroll from an original idea by John Kennedy. Directed by Louise Fischer. Originating Director: Neil Gooding. Queries: Nigel McRae 0401 084 773.

John F. Kennedy was not named after the former US president. He moved to Australia from Liverpool, England, in 1965 at the age of seven with his family, two years after the other JFK was assassinated. And his middle name is Francis, a saint's name chosen at his confirmation. But at least he avoided the tragedies that befell the US Kennedy clan, and although this JFK missed seeing a lot of the swinging '60s first-hand in Britain because of the family migration ("My dad hated the cold") he did pick up his parents' love of music and he became a musician himself, part of Sydney's independent music scene.

He's coming to Canberra for two different performances. One he bills as John Kennedy's '68 Comeback Special, partly in homage to Elvis Presley – and partly, he says, "it's my 68th comeback. And it's special."

Kennedy's own music, though, has been described as being more like that of a different Elvis, Elvis Costello, than that of the King, and newcomers as well as fans will be able to listen for themselves on Friday night at the Polish White Eagle Club when he and his band will perform his songs, for which he coined the term "urban and western" back in the 1980s. He'll be playing with drummer Peter Timmerman, former Pop Mechanic Paul Scott on bass; Murray Cook – yes, the former Red Wiggle – on lead guitar.

Kennedy says that in addition to his own music he does "love the classics" and it's this that stimulated him to conceive and commission the script for a show he and Cook are co-producing. Sons of Sun is a rock musical, written by Kieran Carroll, about Sam Phillips, his Memphis Recording Service which became record label Sun Records, and the artists who recorded there, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison. They moved on to major labels and bigger careers, but it was Phillips who recognised their talents and gave them their start.

Phillips was a music lover from the South who didn't inherit the prejudices of the era and recorded a lot of African-American blues and rhythm-and-blues artists like Ike Turner, BB King and Howlin' Wolf and their music before taking on white musicians in a variety of genres. The big names tended to leave him for bigger labels and greater fortunes, but they got their start with him, showing Phillips' eye and ear for talent.

It all began, Kennedy says, when he was asked a few years ago to do covers of Orbison songs, which turned into a two-volume recording project, Sons of Sun, covering artists who got their start at Sun Records.

He was inspired to commission a script from playwright Carroll in 2011 that debuted in Sydney and is told through the character of Sam Phillips, played by Matt Charlton, with Victoria Beck and Ben Maclaine playing multiple roles including Sam's assistant, Marion Keisker, and various musicians and associates who pass through the studio.

And Kennedy and his band perform live renditions of 35 songs – in whole or in part – of songs by artists of the era including Cash, Lewis, Presley and Orbison in a show that's part concert, part play and, from the sound of it, all a treat for the nostalgic fan of the early rock and roll era.