All the King's Men

Forty years after making history as Elvis Presley's sidemen, guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana reunited to record All the King's Men. The album is a tribute to Elvis but not in the traditional sense. Most tributes devote themselves to covering shopworn classics by familiar artists, but this one tries to nail down the spirit of Elvis. With a number of guest artists in tow, Moore and Fontana run through a number of new songs -- Rick Nielsen's "Bad Little Girl," Joe Ely's "I'm Gonna Strangle You Shorty," the BoDeans' "Locked in the State of Illinois," and the Mavericks' "I Told You So" -- revamping them to sound like lost rock & roll classics. It's not always a successful effort, but most of All the King's Men is roots rock at its best and least pretentious. It's hard to resist Keith Richards and Levon Helm's duet on "Deuce and a Quarter," or Jeff Beck and Ronnie Wood playing on "Unsung Heroes," and Moore and Fontana play superbly throughout. For die-hard rockabilly cats, All the King's Men will sound like a tribute fit for a king.