The Mike Eldred Trio - Elvis Unleaded (2019)

A non-stop, rip-roaring take on 20 of Elvis' coolest songs from his recordings and movies arranged and interpreted by the Mike Eldred Trio. The tracks fly by at a break-neck pace paying tribute to not only Elvis, but Scotty Moore, DJ Fontana, Bill Black, and the Jordanaires as well. Some of these songs have never been covered, and the Trio gives all of these songs a lean, mean, vibe that is more leather clad Elvis than jumpsuit.

A REAL ETA - I've always made my feelings known on what makes an IMP an IMP and an ETA an ETA, now here we have a great example of a true 100% pure ETA 'Elvis Unleaded' is a new album by the 'Mike Eldred Trio' and Eldred likes to remember Elvis Presley when he and his band blast out scorching licks that hint at the evolution of rock guitar. That's the Elvis the Mike Eldred Trio focused on for their just-released album "Elvis Unleaded," 20 songs many of them arguably given short shrift in today's plethora of Elvis impersonation and tribute shows. Eldred, does not impersonate Elvis, there's no jumpsuits or gold-lame outfits or anything IMP like...He and his band mates John Bazz and Jerry Angel - pay tribute to the King by performing classic hits such as "Burning Love" and "Love Me," and add a renewed energy to songs like "Rip It Up" and "Bossa Nova Baby" that have gotten lost in the Elvis impersonation shuffle.

The Mike Eldred Trio delivers rock to its roots. The trio s 20-song Presley tribute Elvis Unleaded is a realistic take on the King s catalog, reaching from his early Little Richard covers ( Rip It Up, Long Tall Sally ) to his later fluff ( Girls, Girls, Girls, Bossa Nova Baby ). Among the ten songs penned by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Treat Me Nice ( If you really want my loving, treat me nice. ) comes two tracks away from their Love Me ( Treat me like a fool, treat me mean and cruel, but love me. ). Here, Love Me gets Elvis s 1956 dirge treatment, which enabled him to milk every drop of emotion from the lyric way more than 1954 s shuffle-beat renditions by R&B s Willy & Ruth, country s Jimmie Rodgers Snow and pop s Georgia Gibbs. If reworking the song to a dirge had been Elvis s idea, it s a sign of his artistic genius. As for the trio s One Night of Sin, we re hearing Smiley Lewis s original 1956 lyrics on Imperial, not RCA s sanitized One Night that hit #4 for Elvis in 58. Sure, EP did a studio take with Smiley s lyrics too, but that one took years to be released to the general public. The tribute s arrangements stick fairly close to Elvis s rather than break new ground like Ry Cooder s Little Sister did. If a single title captures the disc s mood, it s Rip It Up.

As you would expect from a band with that kind of pedigree, they absolutely tear through all the cover songs on the album, giving them a drive and power of which the original writers would surely have approved. They pack in 20 songs in under an hour, rarely lasting more than three minutes on any piece before they have thrashed it to death. And they do it with such tremendous vigour, passion and no shortage of humour, it s like listening to what the Clash might have done if they had been born 20 years earlier.