The first song of the set, "She's Never Coming Back," turned on the key phrase "Like the king of rock and roll/She's never coming back." [Elvis Presley] probably got a good laugh out of that one. On all of his numbers, [Mark Collie] waved his guitar around and moved sensually to the rhythm in a subdued version of Elvis' trademark hip swinging. Collie's original songs were powered by the kind of rockabilly beat that Presley pioneered more than a quarter-century ago, and on a few songs, such as "Keep It Up" from his new album ("Mark Collie"), he dropped his voice in that sexy way that Elvis made famous.

For all his nods to his idols, though, Collie is also very much his own man. As Presley and [Johnny Cash] did, Collie combines a wide assortment of styles into his own unique sound. Collie's song "Hillbilly Boy With the Rock 'n' Roll Blues" alludes to the original Southern hillbillies, such as Presley and Cash, who revolutionized popular music by marrying hillbilly twang to a blues beat. Collie builds on that rockabilly foundation by adding bits and pieces of other styles from Nashville country corn to Southern boogie blues.