Mike Zito & Friends: Loose and Lively

You can never have too much Chuck Berry in your collection. But a quick glance at the credits of this tribute album would make you wonder what you’re in for, with 20 hotshot guitar guests on as many songs. Fortunately though, leader Mike Zito (formerly of the Royal Southern Brotherhood) pitches it the right way, making it a loose and lively rock ’n’ roll session instead of a shredfest.

Most of the tracks are kept around the same length as Berry’s original, which means the guitarists have to say their bit and get out fast. And it doesn’t hurt that Zito ’s regular rhythm section sounds hopped-up throughout, with the opening “St. Louis Blues”—a relatively obscure Berry arrangement from the mid-’60s—getting a kick from his grandson Charles Berry III’s guitar. The one guitarist who shreds all over the place is predictably Joe Bonamassa, though he at least picks an appropriate song (the slow blues “Wee Wee Hours”) to do it on. More typical is Anders Osborne, who resists the temptation to go wild on “Memphis” and does tasteful slide bits instead. Likewise, “Havana Moon” sounds tailor-made for Sonny Landreth’s late-night tones. Joanna Connor’s firebrand style is always fun to hear, but even she keeps her guitar exclamations short and pointed on “Rock & Roll Music,” which has a vocal trade-off to match. And it’s refreshing to finally hear a female voice on one of Berry’s high-school songs, Ally Venable on “School Days.”

The convincer is, of all things, “My Ding-a-Ling”—that’s right, the least loved of all Berry’s hits, and the song he stole from Dave Bartholomew. With Norwegian guitarist Kid Andersen guesting, they give it a raucous bar-band treatment (you’ll recall that Berry’s version was solo with sing-along) that picks up on the song’s goofy spirits. It had me grinning, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Chuck was doing the same.