Ten Top Tracks from . . . Mike Zito

C’mon everybody take a trip with me, down the Mississippi from St Louis – a clunky rhyme that doesn’t even work if you’re an American, I must admit.  Whatever, we’re going on the latest Ten Top Tracks journey, to celebrate the work of St Louis-born bluesman Mike Zito.  As ever, this isn’t an attempt at some definitive ranking of Zito’s best songs, but a personal guide that could take in a whole different batch of material if I compiled it tomorrow.  And as per usual, look out for the links to the ten selected tracks on YouTube - and there are links to reviews of some of the albums too.

Mike Zito - a blues artist and more

Now, I described Mike Zito as a bluesman in that opening paragraph, and the guy sure can play the blues.  But the thing with Zito is that he’s not purely a blues guy, as he observed to the website Rock & Blues Muse earlier this year:  “I don’t really think I’m completely a blues artist.  I mean, I’m a white guy from South St Louis who listened to rock’n’roll who just loves blues.”  As a listener who appreciates Zito’s ability to not just play the blues, but to journey down other rock’n’roll roads to great effect, I reckon it's a perceptive comment.
Zito’s recording career already went back 15 years when I first came across him with his 2013 album Gone To Texas, recorded with his then band The Wheel.  So yeah, I was pretty late to the party really.  But as belated introductions go, it was good enough to be the start of a lasting relationship, so to speak.  I’m spoilt for choice with tracks to illustrate the quality of Gone To Texas, such as the title track (reflecting positively on the move to Texas that had given him a fresh start in life some years previously), the upbeat ‘Rainbow Bridge’ with its clever everyday imagery, the touring musician’s lament/celebration ‘The Road Never Ends’, or the witty ‘Subtraction Blues’ – and so on and so on.  But I’m going to go with the mellow ‘I Never Knew A Hurricane’, which sports some wonderful, sensitive lyrics, and on which Susan Cowsill is an outstanding vocal foil.
The impact of Gone To Texas was enough to make me explore two of Zito’s earlier albums, 2009’s Pearl River, and 2011’s Greyhound.  The former grabbed me more, with the likes of the fun opener ‘Dirty Blonde’ and the funny, funky ‘Big Mouth’.  But the standout was ‘Pearl River’ itself, a sombre track looking into the dark past of the South that gives a clear nod to Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’ – and a worthy winner of the Song Of The Year award at the 2010 Blues Music Awards.

Ready to rip it up

Zito’s next (and last) album with the Wheel was the 2015 release Keep Coming Back – my favourite album of that year, and probably still my favourite Zito record.  Again, there are plenty of candidates for inclusion here, starting with the terrific quintet of songs about addiction and sobriety that open the album – Zito having been a mess of booze and drugs around the millennium until he finally got sober in 2003 with the help of his wife Laura.  But my first pick from the album is ‘Girl From Liberty’, a classic example of Zito spreading his wings to produce an invigorating slice of storytelling rock’n’roll.  You could liken it to early Tom Petty, maybe, but really it’s pure Zito.
I appreciate Keep Coming Back so much though, that I have to share another song, and it’s ‘I Was Drunk’.  Recorded with Anders Osborne, it’s the last of the aforementioned quintet, and a devastating Americana slow burn of self-disgust and regret at the impact of drink and drugs.  I dare say there are other songwriters who could explore the theme with similar results, but by god Zito punches you in the gut with this.
Skipping forward to 2018's First Class Life, Zito provides a lighter note on 'Back Problems', a chunk of drawling funky blues, with a wearily witty lyric about being weighed down with trials and tribulations – a style for which he’d often shown a facility before, not least with ‘Don’t Break A Leg’ on Gone To Texas, and on some of his work with the Royal Southern Brotherhood “supergroup”, such as ‘Sweet Jelly Donut’.  The funkiness is easy and slinky, and our Mike’s way with this kind of tongue-in-cheek lyric is part of his ongoing charm.
The Covid pandemic presented musicians with a host of challenges – in Zito’s case including the sudden abandonment of a European tour.  But you have to admire his response to adversity by putting together an album with his bandmates in a matter of weeks to plug the gap.  But it’s not just the fact they did it that’s impressive – Quarantine Blues is a corker of an album, bristling with spontaneous energy.  Several tracks could illustrate what I'm talking about, but let’s go with ‘Quarantine Blues’ itself – well he is still a guy who loves the blues after all, and this is a grinding, stomping demonstration of his credentials.
Resurrection, perhaps titled to celebrate the emergence from lockdown, showed off more of his range, especially in creating a sense of drama.  ‘When It Rains’ is a classic example, sharing a stomping kick drum with ‘Quarantine Blues’, but going off in an entirely different, subtler and

Here's looking at you, Mike!

more suspenseful direction, featuring smouldering sax from Eric Demmer.
Notwithstanding his songwriting range, the blues remain a cornerstone of Zito’s repertoire, and it’s also worth emphasising that he’s (a) a blisteringly good live performer; and (b) a helluva guitarist.  These three elements come together on his live album Blues For The Southside, recorded in his home town of St Louis.  Here Zito gets down to some serious axe wrangling, such as when he goes toe to toe with Eric Gales on ‘Voodoo Chile’ (not the Slight Return version).  But I can’t resist picking the live version here of a favourite from Gone To Texas, the bright and bopping ‘The Road Never Ends’, which is pepped up by some guitar duelling with Dave Katz.
Zito is rarely far away from a collaboration with someone, and in recent years one of his most significant sparring partners has been Albert Castiglia, another guy capable of both guitar fireworks and songwriting quality.  The pair delivered Castiglia’s album Masterpiece without any help from other musos, and did it so well that for me it was the best album of 2019. Then they got together again for their 2023 Blood Brothers project which, while pretty good, wasn't as explosive as I was expecting.  But damn did they put that right with the dynamite Blood Brothers: Live In Canada outing.  So let’s hear ‘em boogieing hard on ‘My Business’ for starters.  And while you really should hear them getting stuck into ‘Rocking In The Free World’ – a great choice of cover – my other selection is the dramatic ‘In My Soul’, which starts out aching and works itself up into a real lather.* 
And so, to bring us up to date, there’s just Mike Zito’s latest album Life Is Hard, released in February this year.  In case you haven’t heard, it’s essentially a memorial to Zito’s wife Laura, who died of cancer in 2023.  It’s as dark as you would expect in places, though Zito also tries to find relief through some more upbeat songs.  But really, there’s only one track I can pick to signify what the album is all about, and that’s the gut-wrenchingly emotional ‘Forever My Love’.  I’m not going to labour over describing it – just go listen to it to get the drift.
Mike Zito is a down to earth artist who doesn’t give himself any airs and graces, and that’s part of his appeal to me.  But that doesn’t mean he’s just some common or garden musician.  No, Mike Zito is a fine songwriter, a great guitarist, and a characterful singer, and if you’re not familiar with his work you need to put that right.  Soon.

* The links here are to a show in Illinois, rather than from the album itself.

Mike Zito - Life Is Hard

Track four on Life Is Hard gets right to the heart of the matter.  ‘Forever My Love’ is a song that Mike Zito wrote for his wife Laura several months before she finally succumbed to cancer.  It’s a personal and passionate blues ballad, a soulful affair on which Zito delivers a soaring, heartfelt vocal.  A simple song at heart, it’s beautifully arranged, with subtle French horn contributions and some transcendent Zito guitar, and boy does it have emotional impact.
The moods of the songs on Life Is Hard may vary – they’re not all as emotive as ‘Forever My Love’.  But in essence this album is a memorial to Laura Zito, a concept the couple agreed on before she died, on which Zito undertook to open his heart through the blues.  It’s a catharsis, if you will. And holy moly but it delivers.

Mike Zito - finding a light in the black

If ‘Forever My Love’ is a keynote track, ‘These Eyes’ is another.  A heightened, deepened overhaul of a 1969 song by The Guess Who, it’s a wonderful soul excursion fit to compete with anything on Springsteen’s Only The Strong Survive album, and then some.  Over a patient beat, washes of organ, moans from those French horns, and marvellously Motown-ish harmonies from Jade Macrae and Danielle Deandrea set the tone for Zito to take the spotlight. It’s sweet and dreamy, but never saccharine, and is set off by some gorgeous, FX-treated guitar.
The album gets under way with something less intense, mind you, with the vibrant, funky boogie of ‘Lonely Man’, a Little Milton tune that’s upbeat in spite of its protagonist’s tears, and which features a lush organ solo from Reese Wynans and a zinging Zito guitar break.  The lazy swing of ‘Have A Talk With God’ is a similarly easy-going, with breezy backing vocals and guitar soloing, and if I don’t really go with the lyrical sentiment that’s just me; given Mike Zito’s status as an alcoholic in recovery – a process in which his wife was pivotal – it’s a philosophy he’s entitled to follow.  Meanwhile ‘No One To Talk To (But The Blues) provides some different light relief, of a rock’n’rolling, Texas blues kinda variety, more muscular and immediate than the 2019 reading by Jimmie Vaughan.
But this album ain't titled Life Is Hard for nuthin', and the title track is the first to look into the void. Another blues ballad, it comes with more soul-drenched organ from Wynans, while Zito is absolutely in the zone both vocally and on guitar, as he laments that “I can’t count the tears I’ve cried, ‘cause life is hard, and then you die.”   ‘Darkness’ is more solemn yet, a solemn blues over a dragging beat that shifts in tone from sparse to epic, Zito’s guitar swirling and darting around like a kite in the wind.  And at the very end there comes the stark ‘Death Don’t Have No Mercy’, which starts with Zito singing alone, unaccompanied and staring death squarely in the eye. Gradually the voices of Steve Ray Ladson, Macrae and Deandrea arrive to add an even deeper moaning-the-blues vibe, and then the song swells further, spooky guitar notes evolving into a writhing danse macabre until it comes to a sudden stop.
There are some other flavours along the way, like the tough and fuzzy ‘Dying To Do Wrong’, with its grinding riff and eerie middle section with washes of organ and sparse, reverb-inflected guitar notes.  And the cover of Walter Trout’s ‘Nobody Moves Like Me You Do’ is a strident declaration of love in a gritty blues-rock vein, with a ‘Mistreated’-like riff and a wiry guitar solo.
Life Is Hard was co-produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, and credit to them for capturing Mike Zito’s vision to life with a perfect sound palette, while the assembled musos all contribute to a marvellous ensemble effort.  But it’s always Mike Zito who is in the spotlight, as singer, guitarist and interpreter.  God knows how he pulled his off, with the emotional baggage he must have been carrying, but he did.  Life Is Hard is an open-hearted blues triumph.
 
Life Is Hard is released by Gulf Coast Records on 23 February, and can be ordered here.

Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia - Blood Brothers: Live In Canada

Reviewing these guys' Blood Brothers studio album back in March, I expressed a “nagging feeling that this album could have been so much bigger, so much bolder – a fusion of Zito and Castiglia to blow the bloody doors off”.  Well, friends, I am here to tell you that THIS IS THAT FREAKIN’ ALBUM!
From the minute they crack open ‘Hey Sweet Mama’, everything is just as it should be.  The Quo-like boogie-ing riff rings out like a bell to pave the way for a Skynyrd-like blast of rocking blues, their voices fitting together perfectly as Mike Zito provides high harmonies to complement Albert Castiglia’s growl, while Lewis Stephens flings in piano trills as an extra spark.  Oh yeah, and there are rock’n’rollin’ solos from both parties to top things off.

"Hey Mike, I think he likes it!"

The following ‘Tooth And Nail’ confirms that they mean business.  It starts off as a sturdy strut, with harmonised guitars cranking out its ‘Green Onions’-ish riff, with slamming punctuation from the doubled up drums of Matt Johnson and Ephraim Lowell and a snarling vocal from Castiglia.  But it builds up a head of steam through rollercoaster passages of slide guitar, till it turns into a tyre-squealing, siren-blazing, bodywork-crunching car chase of a thing.
And so it goes on.  ‘In My Soul’ is a Southern-sounding epic to give recent leaders of that pack Robert Jon & The Wreck a run for their money and then some, bringing together spangly, mirrorball-like strumming, thudding drums, sweeps of organ, and more great harmonies, before lifting off into a whole other, stratospheric level of spiralling guitar and Zito singing feelingly that “I need love in my soul”.  ‘A Thousand Heartaches’ opens with simple chords and a tumbling guitar line, as a precursor to the swoonsome melody that illuminates its achingly romantic lyric, with dashes of perfectly complementary piano and organ.  With all its light and shade, and a stunning, intense solo, it’s a real delight.
Ten of the eleven tracks on the studio album feature, but the likes of ‘No Good Woman’ and ‘My Business’ seem transformed.  The former is a relaxed, loping blues of the kind Zito has made a speciality over the years, and in this rendition is bristling with character.  Meanwhile John Hiatt’s ‘My Business’ rides a Willie Dixon-style Chicago blues riff that sounds like it’s being attacked by a panel beater with a grudge, and features a screeching, buzzsaw-on-metal slide solo to go with the acidic distaste of the vocals.
Fans of the Allmans are likely to drool over ‘Hill Country Jam’, a lengthy but structured instrumental that evolves from its loose, conversational opening full of neat guitar harmonising into a funky strut that’s the cue for a pumped-up organ solo from Lewis Stephens, building until they downshift into a breezy section. There’s fine guitar work and clever shifts in pace, with swinging drums and grooving bass from Doug Byrkit, culminating in several minutes’ worth of bass and drums showcases – some of which is even quite interesting.
More pointed is the bitter, teeth-gritted slow blues ‘You’re Gonna Burn’, on which Castiglia observes convincingly that “I don’t get mad but I get even, if it takes me a hundred years”, and adds a fiery guitar solo to live up to the title.  And ‘Bag Me, Tag Me’ is a burst of heads down, no nonsense rock’n’roll, like Chuck Berry hopped up on amphetamines, fit to make you to dance like no-one is watching.
Which just leaves two tracks that didn’t feature on the studio outing.  Firstly there’s a laid back rendition of Zito’s atmospheric, swaying ‘Gone To Texas’, extended to accommodate guitar harmonies and counterpointing that eventually resolve into the theme from ‘Jessica’ – a trick that’s become a cliché nowadays, but I’ll let ‘em off on this occasion.  And then they close by laying waste to all and sundry with a pulverising, guitar-scrambling, neck-snapping take on ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ that does justice to Neil Young’s frothing rage.
In short, Blood Brothers – Live In Canada is 78 minutes of electrifyin' bluesifyin’ from two of the good guys, and you need it in your life. But check your insurance, because it may indeed blow your bloody doors off.
 
Blood Brothers – Live In Canada is out now on Gulf Coast Records.

Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia - Blood Brothers

It’s no big secret that I think Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia have, individually, done some great stuff in recent years.  In particular, your honours, I would like to enter into evidence Castiglia’s 2019 album Masterpiece, which was in fact produced by Zito, and on which the two of them played all the instruments to terrific effect.  So it’s easy to see how the Blood Brothers album has come about – these two guys are mucho simpatico.
But if Masterpiece seemed like a brilliant DIY affair, the pair have gone in the opposite direction for this collaborative effort, wheeling in the big name production partnership du jour of Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, plus a bundle of other musicians to contribute as necessary.  And the results are – well, rather good.

Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia - lean on me, brother

Pic by Norma Touchette

The best moments here are when they get expansive.  The Zito tune ‘In My Soul’ starts off with acoustic strumming and an aching vocal from Zito himself, gets elevated by some soaring backing vocals from Jade Macrae and Danielle DeAndrea, and then kicks into a higher gear with a staccato electric riff.  The light and shade has a vibe similar to Whitesnake’s ‘Ain’t Gonna Cry No More’, but more American – more Southern perhaps.  Castiglia’s ‘A Thousand Heartaches’ also leans on acoustic guitar, and subdued organ, to develop an atmosphere of love and melancholy, decorated by a sparkling little turnaround on its way to a lyrical Bonamassa solo, and the spare but perfect lines:  “All I wanna do is see you happy / That’s all I ever want for you / Although we ain’t together / Doesn’t mean that it’s not true”.  It’s not a complicated song, but it’s a classy one.
The slow blues ‘You’re Gonna Burn’, which interleaves a patient Castiglia vocal and fluttering guitar licks, builds a sense of bitter relationship failure, with stabbing chords heightening the effect of Albert’s dynamic guitar solo.  And if Zito’s mid-paced ‘No Good Woman’ has a touch of swagger to its riff, and some spikiness in the pair’s combined lead work, it stills conveys an air of resignation summed up by the line “I’ll be happy when you let the back door slam”.
Elsewhere the mood is largely more upbeat, as on the infectious boogie of opener ‘Hey Sweet Mama’, embellished by some tootling rock'n'roll piano from Lewis Stephens.  But it’s noticeable that six of the 12 tracks are written by others, which ain’t what I expected, and it feels like a missed opportunity to pool their writing talents. So while Tinsley Ellis’s ‘Tooth And Nail’, with its twisted around ‘Green Onions’ riff, is given a suitably tough and sassy Castiglia vocal, and has some scraping Zito slide en route to a duelling guitar outro, I reckon AC himself could have produced something more potent.  Similarly, while John Hiatt’s ‘My Business’ leans towards the tongue-in-cheek stuff that Zito does so well – like ‘Don’t Break A Leg’ for example – it’s lacking a bit of zip, a bit of spark, a bit of je ne sais quoi as they rarely say in these parts.
In another mode, ‘Hill Country Jam’ is an instrumental penned by Zito and Josh Smith, and a well executed, breezy affair it is too – but I’d prefer these guys to be sticking a shot of their own brand rock’n’roll in my ear.  Still, ‘One Step Ahead Of The Blues’ makes for a laid back, thoughtful finish, as the two of them share the work on a tale of resolve and stoicism.
Fans of Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia will like this.  Hell, I like this.  I just have the nagging feeling that this album could have been so much bigger, so much bolder – a fusion of Zito and Castiglia to blow the bloody doors off.  Hopefully one of these days they’ll hunker down together again, and give us that album.  Meantime, Blood Brothers is an enjoyable downpayment.
 
Blood Brothers is released by Gulf Coast Records on 17 March.

Kat Riggins - Progeny

The late, great Irish comedian Dave Allen always used to finish his TV shows by saying, “Good night, thank you, and may your god go with you”.  It was a subtle salutation, indicating tolerance of others’ beliefs while making it clear he trod his own path - generally after spending a good part of his act knocking the stuffing out of the rituals and hypocrisy of religion.  NB – religion, rather than faith.
I mention this because on her latest album Progeny, Kat Riggins offers up several songs rooted very clearly in her faith.  Being an atheist myself, I lean towards the Dave Allen perspective – I'm happy for your god to go with you, but please don’t expect me to go too.  So my response to some of these songs is mixed.

Kat Riggins - true to herself in technicolour

Pic by Dennica Pearl Worrell

On the downside, ‘Got To Be God’ and ‘Warriors’ come over as pretty glib.  The former is laid back soul with a decent tune and arrangement, and some steely, evocative guitar from co-producer Mike Zito.  But I don’t buy lines like “There ain’t no love except holy love” and “It’s got to be god”.  And on ‘Warriors’ the stabbing riff and more zinging guitar from Zito are both far more interesting than stuff about “The devil knows I ain’t in this thing alone,” or "With legions of sinners behind me".
But this isn’t to say that none of Riggins' faith-charged material works.  She sounds totally convincing on the a cappella gospel vignette of ‘Walk With Me Lord’ – a reminder that faith and its attendant music, as vehicles for both hope and despair, were major components of the black American experience in the darkest of times.  And the closing ’40 25:40’ is a reference to the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in the Gospel of St Matthew, and specifically a verse in which Christ observes that “What you do to the least of men, that you do to me” – a powerful sentiment even when couched in a Biblical context of Judgement Day that does nothing for me, and which is given a satisfyingly tough and gritty funk setting.
Away from Riggins’ evangelical bent, the opener ‘Walk On’ is all big tense chords, sustaining a strutting declaration of assertiveness, with a squealing cacophony of guitar from Zito underneath the coda.  In fact Zito selects a particular, edgy guitar sound that provides connective tissue sustaining much of the album.  On the funky and insistent ‘Espresso’, for example, his scything wah-wah cranks up the energy to match Riggins’ arresting line that “She’s got eyes like espresso and I’m feeling the buzz”.
Other highlights include the swinging blues of ‘In My Blood’, with shuffling drums from Matt Johnson and piano boogie from Lewis Stephens, and the funky party tune ‘My City’ paying tribute to Riggins’ home town of Miami, with a triple whammy of stinging guitar from the guesting Albert Castiglia, rubber band bass from Doug Byrkit, and a rattlingly rhythmic rap break from Busta Free.
The tentpole track though, is ‘Promised Land’.  It’s an angry, defiant song fit for these days when it has to be stated that black lives matter, protesting that “I still got shackles on my feet”.  Grinding guitars and sonorous drums and bass combine to create the dark mood, with quaking guitar effects and howling soloing from Zito, and Riggins quoting lines from ‘Voodoo Chile’ to underline the strident sentiments.
Unfortunately, a couple of overlong, so-so tunes, with rather predictable lyrical themes, detract from the impact of the best stuff.  But regardless of the quality of the material, or its lyrical intent, Riggins delivers it with commitment and a strong, gutsy voice.  This is a talented, forceful vocalist in the mould of Shemekia Copeland, as Progeny often demonstrates.  If she can improve the strike-rate of her songwriting, making it more universal while remaining true to herself, then Kat Riggins may really start to fulfil her potential.
 
Progeny is released by Gulf Coast Records on 24 June.

Read the review of Kat Riggins' previous album Cry Out here.

Mike Zito - The Cluny, Newcastle, 24 February 2022

It must be eight years or more since I first saw Mike Zito play live.  A tanker load of water has passed under the bridge since then, of course.  That show was with his then band The Wheel, featuring his pal Jimmy Carpenter on sax, but that line-up floated off to the great gig in the sky a few years ago.  Tonight he’s here in Newcastle with a three-piece, and if the focus of the show is slightly different, the quality is the same.

Mike Zito looks for some fresh guitar angles

They hit the ground running with the boogie of ‘One More Train’, and follow that up with JJ Cale’s ‘I’ll Make Love To You’, which he covered on last year’s Resurrection album.  The latter though, has a whole lot more horsepower than Cale would ever give it.  It’s a throbbing, ringing rendition on which Zito proceeds to delve deep into his guitaring box of tricks, while the rhythm section of Doug Byrkit on bass and Matt Johnson on drums manage to both swing and dig in hard at the same time.  By the time they’re done with that, I’m thinking that if this tour had a strapline, it might well be the “Screw Covid Blues-Rock Party” tour.
The set draws in large measure on his just-released live album Blues For The Southside, and on that basis he soon turns to the slow blues of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘Texas Flood’, giving it a big lead guitar intro, and then mid-song making the whole guitar hero malarkey look easy with a solo that never resorts to speed freakery.  A little later there’s an epic quality to their take on Blind Faith’s ‘In The Presence Of The Lord’, with an accelerating mid-section on which Zito puts his wah-wah pedal to work.
Mid-set Will Wilde enters the proceedings as a guest, wearing black leather trousers and a bandolero loaded with harmonicas rather than bullets, and looking disgustingly young and energetic. He takes over on vocals as they rip into some raw, harp-blasting, mic stand-thrusting Chicago-style blues.  Then he sticks around to embark on a guitar-harp duel with Zito on ‘Love Her With A Feeling’, giving it even more of a tough ‘Riot In Cell Block Number 9’ dimension that on its Blues For The Southside outing.
They relax a bit on the stomp of ‘Wasted Time’, with Byrkit and Johnson delivering plenty of

Mike Zito and Wille Wilde give it some welly!

swing, and then cool off even further with Johnny Winters’ reflective slow blues ‘Life Is Hard’.  But then they climb another peak when Zito reaches all the way back to his 2011 album Greyhound for ‘Judgement Day’.  Opening with a moody, Morricone-like guitar intro, it evolves into a dark monster of a tune, with hard riffing passages and then Zito getting into some tuning peg-twiddling axe hero pyrotechnics.  Guitar wrangling ain’t the main reason for my appreciation of Mike Zito, but at times like this I’m inclined to think you could stick him in one of those MMA octagons with Bonamassa, Gales and whoever else, and he could go toe-to-toe with the best of ‘em.  It all turns into something of a guitar extravaganza, which he underlines by flinging in some riffs from ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘Kashmir’ for laughs, as a prelude to a howling solo and a tom-tom walloping finale.
After that it’s a pleasure to unwind with the loose and loping ‘Gone To Texas’, into which they turn on a dime to insert a chunk of the Allmans’ ‘Jessica’.  Dunno what that’s got to do with Texas, really, since the Allmans grew up in Florida, but who cares about such details?
Zito teasingly lifts the strap of his beat-up Strat as if to depart, but it’s just a fake walk-off before they burst into a turbo-charged reading of ‘Fortunate Son’ to end the night.  Which is just the kind of sound I really like to hear from Mike Zito, so I’m a happy bunny.
It’s a very long way from the Gulf Coast of Texas to Newcastle, and Zito and co were zig-zagging Britain through some pretty crappy weather over the previous two weeks.  But for all that, this was a gig that showed the rock’n’roll force remains strong in these guys.

Mike Zito - Blues For The Southside

Full disclosure.  First, I think Mike Zito is great.  One of those artists you like right away and you root for them from then on.  But casting an eye over the track listing for Blues For The Southside, his first live album since 2014’s Songs For The Road, my initial reaction isn’t unbridled glee.  I’m seeing three tracks from 2016’s so-so Make Blues Not War, four from the subsequent First Class Life, a couple from the excellent Gone To Texas, three everybody-plays-‘em covers (‘Voodoo Chile’?  Really?), and three titles that don’t mean anything to me.  Nothing from Keep Coming Back, or from Quarantine Blues or Resurrection, his two most recent releases before this set was recorded last autumn.  Three albums full of great stuff, and they don’t get a freakin’ look in!  Aw c’mon Mike, what’re you doin’ to me man?
Well, let’s play this thing and see how it goes.

Mike Zito ponders the never-ending road

Pic by Danya Artimisi

Okay, I get it.  What this is, is Mike Zito delivering a really big guitar album.  And that’s cool, because as much as my appreciation of him is also down to his song-writing and characterful vocals, Zito is a guitar player who’s way better than the average bear, Boo Boo.
Let’s talk about ‘Voodoo Chile’ for a minute, because praise be, this ain’t the re-tread of '. . .(Slight Return)' that I anticipated and many a guitar freak would perpetrate.  Nope, this is a monster of a slow blues rendition of the lesser-spotted non-Slight Return version, a six-foot deep groove worthy of Buddy Guy’s Sweet Tea.  Oh yeah, and Eric Gales steps up to guest on it.  It’s Gales, I’m guessing, whose ducking and diving solo collides with a mountainous descending riff, before scrabbling around it as if searching wildly for a foothold.  Then their two guitars bend and warp that riff out of shape before easing off, in readiness for a tense and wiry Zito excursion that leads to the two guitars wrestling with each other all the way to the finish.  It all makes for an absorbing, enthralling, 12-minute outing.
There’s guitar showmanship of a different kind from Zito on 'Blues For The Southside' itself, a new instrumental on which Zito delivers a delightful showcase of lyrical, thematic guitar early on, then later gets into more expansive mode, folding in hints of something Celtic en route to a speedy, spiralling passage with superb clarity of tone.  Then eventually he downshifts into a final segment that sparkles like reflections from a mirrorball.  It’s so good that one might say it makes the following cover of ‘Texas Flood’ redundant, except that the latter features a suspenseful solo, like a guy doing a high wire act in which he shifts forward from one moment of teetering drama to the next.  These may be lengthy tracks, but they’re not noodle zones, they’re purposeful.
There’s more energetic fare on the opening ‘Mississippi Nights’, with Zito’s guitar bouncing off the piano playing of Lewis Stephens, and the pair then criss-crossing like a pair of jitterbugging dancers.  And when Zito gets to soloing, his playing here – slide guitar included – is fiery, vibrant stuff, as it is on the following 'First Class Life'.  Later, ‘Highway Mama’ redoubles that energy, with Zito and his guesting buddy Tony Campanella powering along on a hard-as-nails descending riff.  The two guitars trade off each other, giving it large with bursts of wah-wah, until all concerned whack the thing into submission at the end.
There are two Willie Dixon-style stop-time riffers, in the form of Zito’s own ‘Make Blues Not War’, which is a bit prosaic in spite of the laudable lyric, and a tough reading of Tampa Red’s ‘Love Her With A Feeling’ – one of those titles I didn’t recognise.  It’s sassier and more emphatic than versions by Tampa Red himself, Freddie King, and more recently Bernie Marsden, but then eases into syncopated drums and bass from Matt Johnson and Doug Byrkit over which Zito lays out a mazy solo.
And then there are the different kinds of Zito song that are part of his particular charm.  ‘Hell On Me’ is loose-limbed, intriguing storytelling over an easy groove, that then picks up energy with a rollicking organ solo from Lewis Stephens, while Johnson’s drums snap at his heels and Zito knocks out spiky chords.  The following ‘Back Problems’ offers some quintessential Zito funkiness, funny lyrics about everyone being on his back, and a conversational solo that does a fair impression of a sniping, nagging partner.  Later, on ‘Dying Day’, he and his band turn into swingin’ cats as this time he spells out his commitment to his woman.  Zito serves up some stinging licks as an appetiser, and Stephens steps in with a playful organ solo.  Then they take a breath that sets up some relaxed, witty guitar from Zito over jazzy strokes of piano, strolling bass and behind-the-beat drums.  It’s great fun, as is the bouncing ‘The Road Never Ends’, on which Dave Katz guests to allow two guitars to get going in tandem, before counterpointing each other to the finish line.
There’s some other stuff too, but I’ll leave you to discover that for yourself.  This is a double live album – an hour and three-quarters worth – that simply has lots and lots to enjoy.  If you liked, say, Gary Moore’s Live From London, then there are more than enough guitar fireworks exploding here to keep you happy.  But for me this live set is even better than that.  A couple of tracks may be inconsequential, but over the piece Blues For The Southside is blessed with the variety, and the light and shade, to grab your attention and keep it.  Like I said, Mike Zito is great.
 
Blues For The Southside is released by Gulf Coast Records on 18 February.

Mike Zito is touring Britain until 26 February - details available here.

Mike Zito - Resurrection

For me, when Mike Zito is on his game, what really makes him stand out from the herd is his songwriting.  And so it is with the best moments on his latest album Resurrection.  When he’s in the mood, Zito stretches out beyond the confines of straight-ahead blues into wider rock’n’roll terrain.
Such is the case on the opening track ‘I’ll Make Love to You’, with which I’m reminded, not for the first time with Mr Z, of Tom Petty.  Spangly acoustic guitar is juxtaposed with cello-like slide

Mike Zito - "Top o' the world, Ma!"

over a swaying rhythm, advertising Zito’s way with a good tune and arrangement, and adding in a snappy bridge, a slide solo with more of that distinctive woozy tone, and a sax solo that adds an extra dimension.
A couple of tentpole tracks in the middle of the album offer different variations.  ‘Presence Of The Lord’ contemplates the place of faith in Zito’s ongoing recovery from addiction, setting forth with an anthemic guitar line and a gutsy undertow from the drums and bass.  As it develops there’s a vibe that puts me in mind, for some less than obvious reason, of Derek & The Dominoes, en route to an ascending riff that provides the foundation for a wailing guitar solo before it stumbles to a close.  The following ‘When It Rains’ is a meditation on hopeless circumstances, grounded in stomping kick drum and metronomic bass, overlaid with a tense guitar line and brooding sax.  It’s an atmospheric outing, patiently delivered like an approaching thundercloud that refuses to break, and Zito gives it an extra twist with squeaking slide guitar that hints at another instrument altogether – violin in some gypsy jazz band, perhaps.
There’s more drama in ‘Damned If I Do’, a slowie about a blighted relationship that’s romantic and emotional, with horns flitting in and out and some impressive guitar work.  But while that may be downbeat, closing track ‘Resurrection’ is a ‘Purple Rain’-infused ballad that’s a hymn to the importance of loving relationships, with all their ups and downs, delivered with conviction and a heartfelt vocal.
But if these are the el serioso moments, there’s plenty of fun to be found elsewhere.  ‘Dreaming Of You’ may be a bit slight, in its chorus for example, but there’s still plenty to enjoy as echoes of Springsteen’s ‘Spirits In The Night’ drift through the chord progression on the verses, and Zito adds a succession of fuzzy, jangly guitar licks.  ‘In My Blood’ relaxes into a laid back, Latin-tinged groove, with bobbing bass and sprinkles of restrained sweet-toned guitar, plus some nicely arranged female backing vocals, to create something simple but gorgeous.  And ‘You Don’t Have Me’ is lightweight fun with an air of Springsteen nicking something from the Sixties, aided and abetted by the warmth of some Fender Rhodes piano.
I could live without the penultimate track ‘Evil’, which comes across like an everyday funk blues workout that doesn’t add much to the equation – there’d be an elegant sufficiency to the album without it.  And now and then I’m inclined to think Zito overdoes the emphasis on slide guitar, however good he is at it.  But Resurrection is still typically disarming Mike Zito fare, with some peak moments worthy of particular attention - not as urgent as last year’s Quarantine Blues perhaps, or as outstanding as Keep Coming Back or some earlier albums, but quality work nonetheless from one of the cornerstones of current day blues-infused rock’n’roll.

Resurrection is out now on Gulf Coast Records.

Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking 2020 - Part 1

Oh, the irony!  2020 has been a disastrous year for any professional musician not insulated by superstardom, with live music ravaged and with it the opportunity for many CD and merchandise sales.  But at the same time it’s been an astonishingly good year for new studio albums – possibly the best I can remember over the six years I’ve been writing this stuff.

So with that in mind, Part 1 of this year’s Christmas Stocking review is given over to reminders of ten of the best examples - and look out for the links to the original album reviews.  This ain’t a chart, and it’s not an exhaustive list, so you may well have favourites that don’t appear.  But that probably just underlines the strength in depth that 2020 brought us.

First up then, are Denmark’s finest, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, who lit up January with their latest album Come On In.  Apart from his distinctive bass voice, Risager is a songwriter with an acute sense of his blues inspirations but who also finds fresh angles.  And on Come On In that leads to material making refreshing use of acoustic guitar in addition to the Black Tornado’s usual big band sound, plus intriguing rhythms courtesy of drummer Martin Seidelin.  Here’s an early live take of the title track, dating back to 2018.

Of course, coronavirus lockdowns themselves became the stimulus for new work.  Two of the best results, for me, were Mike Zito’s Quarantine Blues, and on this side of the Atlantic the Birdmens collaboration that resulted in the album Lockdown Loaded.
Zito was first out of the blocks, evidently driven by frustration and financial concern after he was forced to abandon a lengthy European tour that had barely started.  Knocked out in just two weeks, Quarantine Blues crackled with creative energy, and did what Zito is best at, getting beyond pure blues into broader terrain.  As I said in my review, it’s a goddamn rock’n’roll rekkud!  Here he is with the Petty-esque 'Looking Out This Window', from a rare live excursion in June this year.

The Birdmens gang, inspired by a bundle of drum loops from producer and guitarist Dave Doherty, and featuring the likes of Ian Siegal, Jon Amor, Bob Fridzema and Jonny Henderson, rocked up at the end of May with Lockdown Loaded, an eclectic batch of barnstormers ranging from Delta stomp to Zepped-up funk to keening Americana.  Have a gander at this video of ‘Cover It Up’, which sounds a bit like it’s escaped from the theme to ancient TV show A Man In A Suitcase!

Some new names made a mark for me this year too, starting off with Norfoll-based Little Red Kings.  Their second album, The Magic Show Part One, was a cattleprod-jolt of rootsy rock, with a clutch of curveballs thrown in to keep you on your musical toes.  Here’s the unusual lyric video for one of those curveballs, the subtle and moody ‘Magic Show’ itself.

Canada’s Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar are a more straightforward proposition: scorching Sixties-style soul music, with a singer in young Samantha who sounds like she could tear your playhouse down.  Their album The Reckless One is swinging, torch-carrying, love-in-vain R’n’B fare, and mostly originals to boot.  Get yourself in the groove with this video of them in upbeat, 'Nowhere To Run' mode, with ‘Don’t Have To Be’.

But the new name that made the biggest impression was When Rivers Meet, aka married British musos Grace and Aaron Bond, who have stormed into the rock consciousness with the unorthodox bluesiness of their debut album We Fly Free.  Why unorthodox?  Because they’re flying free of the guitar solo-ing norms of blues-rock, and foregrounding their voices – especially the eye-popping singing of Grace as she sweeps from delicate hush to adrenalin rush.  Guitar does feature, but largely as a rhythm and slide engine, with embellishments provided by Mamzelle Bond via injections of fiddle and – wait for it – resonator mandolin slide playing.  Anyhoo, check ‘em out on this video of ‘Tomorrow’, from one of their 2019 EPs!

Regular readers will know that I get a bit sniffy about some of the ‘Southern rock’ that gets paraded around as having a blues/blues-rock appeal.  But that’s an argument for another day, because there was one Southern rock album this year that brooked no argument.  Last Light On The Highway by Robert Jon & The Wreck was a hook-laden belter.  Maybe it’s because they’re not good ol’ boys from the Deep South, but from California, but Robert Jon & The Wreck mostly avoided getting sucked into latter-day Southern rock stereotypes.  Still, if you like an Allman Brothers guitar sound, you should enjoy them on 'Do You Remember'.

Which just leaves us with three more familiar names to conjure with - Walter Trout, Jim Kirkpatrick, and King King.

Now, Walter Trout may be regarded by many as yer archetypal, guitar-flaying blues-rocker.  But to my mind there’s more to the fella than that – to wit, he’s a damn good songwriter who isn’t a slave to the 12-bar format.  And his latest album Ordinary Madness proves my point, with tracks ranging across various styles.  Get a load of ‘Heartland’, for example, as a classy example of rootsy rock.

Jim Kirkpatrick may not have a host of solo albums behind him - just one, in fact, before this year.  But he's still a known quantity by virtue of his work with FM, the Chris Bevington Organisation and more besides.  And he deserves a bigger following on the back of his new solo outing, Ballad Of The Prodigal Son, he really does.  It’s not full-on guitar overload from start to finish, but our Jim doesn’t half let rip at times.  Whether it’s blues, boogie, glossy instrumental or throw-in-the-kitchen-sink, the songs impress – bar one, and I’ll forgive him that – the delivery is great, and the guitar playing runs wild.  Check out the video for the monumental ‘Brave New World’, and tell me if I’m wrong.

And then there's King King.  Alan Nimmo has recast the King King line-up, and completed their metamorphosis from modern British blues heralds to fully-fledged Adult Orientated Rockers.  With a leading role for newly-liberated secret weapon Jonny Dyke on keyboards, new album Maverick finds the KK boys switching from glossy hard rock to gob-smacking power ballad and back again with consummate ease.  Check out the video for the mountainous 'Never Give In' for starters.

So there we have the first instalment of goodies for your edification and delight.  Merry Christmas one and all - go easy on the cake and mince pies, and we'll get together for Part 2 next week!

You can find Part 1 of the 2020 Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking here.

Kevin Burt - Stone Crazy

On the cover of his latest album Stone Crazy, Kevin Burt is perched on the tail end of a pick-up truck, with an electric guitar in his hands.  So far, so typical of yer average modern-day bluesman.  Except that this doesn’t really tell the story of the Kevin Burt sound.
There are three things that caught my attention, listening to Stone Crazy.  One, there’s Burt’s voice, which is a resonant, molasses-rich instrument.  Two, there’s a ringing, acoustic-like quality to some of the rhythm guitar parts, and if that’s no longer a surprise when two minutes’ research reveals that our Kev is often to be found with an acoustic guitar in his mitts, it still brings a different dimension to the sound.  And three, on a few tracks his harmonica playing collides with some funky grooves to create a novel contrast.

Kevin Burt - ain't got no problems

This third trait is apparent on opening track ‘I Ain’t Got No Problem With It’, with bright harp licks over a shuffling beat from drummer Matt Johnson and choppy rhythm guitar – electric on this occasion, I reckon, but restrained – and Burt making good on the title with a laid back vocal showing off some good phrasing.  There’s less funk to ‘Rain Keeps Coming Down’, but here Burt’s harp and some vocal testifyin’ are played off against an acoustic guitar riff, darting and dodging bass from Doug Byrkit, and subtle slide which I take to be the work of Mike Zito, who sat in the producer’s chair as well as contributing guitar parts.  ‘Should Never Have Left Me Alone’ is a less distinctive song, but there’s still a chirpy harp solo to go with Johnson’s skipping drums, with Lewis Stephens adding some piano flourishes from variety.
That ringing acoustic sound rolls along over a snappy beat on ‘Purdy Lil Thang’, creating an appealing, catchy groove over which Zito lays some intriguing, off kilter guitar licks, while Burt casts an admiring, aspiring eye over the pocket rocket of the title in relaxed fashion.  Stephens is back on ‘I’m Busting Out’, adding waves and twitches of organ to the brisk, shuffling drums and stuttering funk guitar, while Burt gives his vocal some more urgency and grit in between a couple of pinging lead guitar solos.  And Jimmy Carpenter puts in an appearance on ‘You Get What You See’, seasoning a smoothed-out ‘Shakin’ All Over’-style riff with staccato sax, before jostling with the guitar for the spotlight towards the end.
But the best couple of tracks are ‘Something Special About You’ and the closing ‘Got To Make A Change’.  The first, with its spare arrangement focused on acoustic guitar and subtle organ, is more effectively Bill Withers-ish than the later, rather mundane cover of Withers’ ‘Better Off Dead’.  For me it also makes way better use of the soulful quality of his voice than the syrupy, Commodores-lite title track – though if you like that sort of thing you won’t complain about his delivery.  ‘Got To Make A Change’, meanwhile, is a solemn meditation on the state of the world and personal responsibility, featuring some shivering, tremulous guitar work – Zito again, I’m thinking – while Burt winds himself up to some more gospel-ish testifying to deliver a strong ending to the album.
Stone Crazy would benefit from a couple of stronger songs to maintain a consistent standard.  But it’s still an album to bring a smile to your face, showing off Kevin Burt’s undoubted strengths – his harp playing, acoustic guitar, and that expressive voice - to good effect.  There is indeed more to him than the common-or-garden guitar-toting blues dude suggested by the cover.

Stone Crazy is out now on Gulf Coast Records.

A Gulf Coast Christmas - featuring Mike Zito, Albert Castiglia, The Proven Ones and more

In the bleak midwinter – and here today it’s been pretty bleak – it’s always good to have a source of good cheer to hand, isn’t it?  A glass of mulled wine say, maybe a mince pie?  And now perhaps A Gulf Coast Christmas, the Christmas blues compilation that’s been released by Mike Zito and the rest of the Gulf Coast Records roster.
Now, an album like this obviously isn’t intended to be any kind of magnum opus or “statement”.

Somebody stole Albert's Christmas - call the cops!

Pic by Pat Gleeson

It’s meant to be fun, and should be judged in those terms.  So is this shebang be something a blues fan would be happy to find in their Christmas stocking?  Yes, is the answer, even if in the course of 16 tracks from a range of artists the quality varies a bit.  But hey, let’s focus on the most attractive lights on the Christmas tree, eh?
In that context Mike Zito leads the way, with a brace of tunes bookending the album.  First up is the original ‘All I Got For Christmas Is The Blues’, on which he delivers a quintessential blues lyric about everything going wrong that’s wry right down to its ho-ho-ho outro, accompanied by a grinding rhythm section, Christmas piano decorations, a smile-inducing tumbling turnaround, and a knuckle-dusting slide solo.  And he closes the album with Chuck Berry’s ‘Run Rudolph’, which naturally should be a breeze after his Chuck Berry tribute album last year.  He duly nails it with a reindeer-hoof-pounding take that’s all thumping drums, a fuzzed-up boogie guitar riff worthy of Status Quo, tinkling piano remarks courtesy of Lewis Stephens (I’m guessing), and a rockin’ guitar solo.
The front end of the album is stacked with more goodies, kicking off with Albert Castiglia getting all lonesome on the slow blues of ‘Somebody Stole My Xmas’, spreading out on a classy extended solo that takes in some tasty diversions without ever going OTT or losing sight of the song.  Meanwhile Kevin Burt’s ‘Please Mr Santa Claus’ is a funkier, mid-paced affair, with his rich groan of a voice decorated by some nifty harp breaks as he tells another tale of – yep, you’ve guessed it, loneliness!  Well, if the blues can’t provide a artistic reminder that not everyone’s Christmas is a celebration, what can?  And at the other end of the album Sayer & Joyce take up the theme to good effect on the penultimate track, ‘Please Come Home For Christmas’, with Charlotte Joyce delivering an aching vocal over chiming rhythm guitar, while Ron Sayer adds subtle guitar licks and ultimately a plaintive solo.
In between, highlights include The Proven Ones with ‘Blue Christmas’, and John ‘Blues’ Boyd and Lisa Andersen with ‘Merry Christmas Baby’.  The former is upbeat, jingle-jangling R’n’B, a fun party tune with plenty of boogie woogie piano to the fore from Anthony Geraci.  The latter is a different kind of fun, a slinky duet in the vein of ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’, all log fire and brandy – and guitar breaks courtesy of Kid Andersen.  Meanwhile Mark May and Miss Molly deliver a duet of a different hue on 'The Bluest Christmas', a soulful, Ray Charles-like bump’n’grind full of call and response, swinging horns, and piercing guitar injections from May.
There are also a couple of comic takes on the Nativity tale for variety.  LeRoux serve up an acoustic guitar and voice live recording 0f ‘Who Da Baby Daddy?’ that’s twinkingly tongue-in-cheek, while on ‘Christmas Is Cancelled’ Thomas Atlas gets lightly funky, with sparkling guitar and smooth vocals reminiscent of Robert Cray.
If you’d rather not have your festive musical fare dominated by all the usual suspects, then A Gulf Coast Christmas will provide an appealing soundtrack to keep you smiling through the Christmas cake and the turkey leftovers.

Mike Zito - Quarantine Blues

Let’s be real clear here people.  The origins of Quarantine Blues are unusual, but they’re not the whole deal.  There’s another story here, and that is the album itself.

But let’s get that back story out of the way, for those who don’t know.  Mike Zito and his band had just kicked off a European tour when the Covid-19 virus took off, causing international consternation.  Flying home to the States with twenty-odd days of work binned, Zito had an idea.  They’d create an album from scratch, working with each other remotely and delivering the whole thing within a two-week quarantine period.  Fans could get it for free, but could contribute to a GoFundMe campaign if they wanted, to help the band out financially.

When you get right down to it - let's rock!

So great, yeah?  Hats off to Mike Zito, for turning a problem into an opportunity.  But if you’re thinking this sounds like a quick and dirty excuse to throw some cash in a guitar case, listen up.  I reckon Quarantine Blues is – Chuck Berry tribute outing aside – the best album Mike Zito has made in several years.

Maybe the self-imposed deadline brought an unusual zest to the whole caper, but what we have here is a goddamn rock’n’roll rekkud, and one that sounds fresh, energised, and vital.  Eleven songs, ten of them brand new, and it sounds like Zito the songwriter has been jabbed with a cattle prod – maybe wielded from a social distance by his Gulf Coast Records partner Guy Hales, who collaborated on some of the material.

There’s an air of Tom Petty about several tracks, like the opener ‘Don’t Let The World Get You Down’ fr’instance.  Slam - straight into the chorus, all ringing chords over a thumping four-on-the-floor beat, verses dotted with sharp, stinging guitar notes, and a simple, brief solo.  On both ‘Hurts My Heart’ – a song re-purposed from his Royal Southern Brotherhood days – and ‘Looking Out This Window’, Zito mixes up acoustic guitar and fuzzy electric to produce jangling riffs, supplemented by see-sawing keyboard strokes from Lewis Stephens on the latter.  And the atmospheric ‘Call Of The Wild’ is borne on a weighty, surging riff and chorus, embellished by zinging guitar licks and a solo played out over a tense, jabbing bridge.

You want blues?  Well, the title track is a primitive beast, its stomping beat and distorted vocals complemented by slide guitar from Zito that grinds on the riff, and slashes like a razor on the solo.  ‘Dark Raven’ may recall earlier Zito slow blues outings like ‘Old Black Graveyard’, but here he lays choral, harmonised guitar work over the midnight-black backing to produce something different, wiry and ear-grabbing.  And the mid-paced ‘Walking The Street’ has spiky but bluesy guitar bursts over a slow-slow-quick bass line from Doug Byrkit, washes of organ, and some stuttering, crashing handbrake turns that’ll give you whiplash.

Elsewhere, ‘After The Storm’ has a brooding bass line that evokes ‘Cocaine’, as the setting

Don't mess with Mike - the missus just locked the bedroom door

for some appropriately Clapton-esque guitar work to capture the mood.  ‘Dust Up’, meanwhile, is a tale of marital lockdown strife in which Zito laments that he “Can’t get no loving since my baby locked the door”, set to a snapping, rock solid snare drum from Matt Johnson and a soulful, ‘Treat Her Right’-like riff, with a rock’n’rollin’ solo as icing on the cake.  “She can’t forgive me,” sings Zito, “I don’t even know why.”  Doesn’t matter why pal, suck it up like the rest of us.

The gutsiest offering though, is ‘Don’t Touch Me’, a collaboration with Tracii Guns, once of L.A. Guns.  It blasts off the starting grid with a heavy riff, heads-down-no-nonsense drums’n’bass and a punk-ish shouted chorus, and is strewn with supercharged rock’n’roll guitar licks.  But at the other extreme, the closing ‘What It Used To Be’ is primarily down to the strumming and picking of an acoustic guitar, as accompaniment to a melancholy comparison of the current situation to part troubles recounted by Zito’s parents.

“Animal instinct starts kickin’ in,” sings Zito on ‘Call Of The Wild’, and I reckon that’s what’s happened here.  Unplanned, Zito was liberated to do whatever came naturally, and in squaring up to the challenge right in front of him, confronting it directly in the lyrics, he and his gang got their collective mojo working big time.  Hell, considering that they never got in the same room to do this, even the sound is great.  Sure, this album is a document of some strange days.  But here’s what you really need to know  – when you get right down to it, Quarantine Blues rocks.

Go to Mike Zito's website and you'll find links to download the album, contribute to his GoFundMe campaign, and also a further 'Paying The Blues Forward' campaign to support other artists in need.

Jimmy Carpenter - Soul Doctor

Listening to the easy grooves of Jimmy Carpenter’s latest album is what we in Scotland would describe as “comfy”.  Like getting your slippers on and putting your feet up on a filthy winter’s day, such as it is as I write, it’s a relaxing experience that puts a smile on your face.

Carpenter is best known for his sax playing talents, for which he has received multiple Blues Music Award nominations.  But on Soul Doctor he also lays out his songwriting and vocal credentials to good effect over the course of ten songs, eight of them originals.  In his best moments he puts me in mind of the likes of Delbert McClinton and Southside Johnny, even

Jimmy Carpenter - check that horn!

if vocally he doesn’t have the personality of either of those characters.

You might suppose that the Southside Johnny comparison originates in Carpenter’s sax playing, and the additional horns of trumpeter Doug Woolverton and baritone sax man Mark Earley that are put to good use across several tracks.  But what we have here isn’t the hard-driving soul usually characteristic of the Asbury Jukes.  Instead, on my favourite track ‘When I Might You’, there’s an old soul vibe that reminds me of Southside and the gang covering Sam Cooke classics.  It’s a really good tune, well suited to the horn-led approach, while Carpenter’s crooning vocal delivery shows off his voice at its best, and his sax solo is spot on.

The following ‘Wild Streak’, meanwhile, has that Delbert vibe in more ways than one.  Musically, it’s a catchy, swinging slice of country soul boogie.  And lyrically it captures Carpenter’s wry sense of humour nicely.  It also benefits from some rinky-dink piano backing from Red Young, while for good measure long-time buddy Mike Zito adds a good time slide solo (rather than on the following track, as the sleeve notes suggest, I believe).

Other highlights include the cinematic, jazz-tinged instrumental ‘LoFi Roulette’, with its smoky, low down sax, underpinned by tasteful bass from Jason Langley, and featuring an edgy, piercing guitar solo from Chris Tofield.  'Need Your Love So Bad' is a dreamy slow blues with a Fifties mood and another tastefully smooth vocal plus a rich and romantic tenor sax solo, while ‘Wrong Turn’ deploys a quasi “shave-and-a-haircut” rhythm and ringing rhythm guitar, elevated by a knife-edge Tofield slide solo and the additional raunch of some harp from Al Ek.

The opening title track sets the tone for all of this, with its funky soul groove, a neat guitar solo from Nick Schnebelen, and the first of Carpenter’s cracking sax solos.  A cover of Eddie Hinton’s ‘Yeah Man’ rounds things off nicely, with a droll, catchy chorus and hints of Dion in the tune, embellished by twinkling guitar and subtle organ, and sax and guitar intertwining cleverly as it winds to a close.

There may be a couple of lightweight offerings on Soul Doctor, but there’s still plenty in here to commend it, all wrapped up in a suitably cool and funky cover painting of a sax-tooting Jimmy by Randy Frechette.  All in all Soul Doctor makes for a refreshing change from yer typical guitar-dominated blues affair – and, of course, a relaxing one.

Soul Doctor was released in Britain by Gulf Coast Records on 29 November 2019.

Mike Zito - Live From The Top

He’s been a busy fella this last year or so, has Mike Zito.  What with launching new label Gulf Coast Records with his partner Guy Hale, producing albums for a number of their artists, and releasing a tribute album to Chuck Berry in collaboration with a bundle of other blues honchos.  So when’d he find the time to go recording a live album?

Answer - he didn’t.  Live From The Top is a reissue of a live album recorded at the after-party from the 2010 Blues From The Top Festival in Colorado – and a reminder of just how good Mike Zito can be. 

Mike Zito - havin' a guitarin' good time

The show kicks off with ‘Natural Born Lover’, one of nine tracks from the 2009 studio album Pearl River, which sets out Zito’s stall very nicely, thank you very much.  A relaxed bit of bumpin’ an’ grindin’, its warm sound accommodates Zito’s easy-going voice, a skidding slide solo, and a sax break from his long-time buddy Jimmy Carpenter, as well as folding in small spoonfuls of ‘You Shook Me’ and ‘I Just Want To Make Love To You’.  And from there right through to the close with the fun boogie of Elmore James’ ‘Ice Cream Man’, scudding slide and all, Zito and his confreres deliver a swingingly good time.

So consistent is Live From The Top that picking out highlights ain’t easy.  But it’s worth noting how Zito can nudge the blues envelope in different directions to good effect, as with the quirkily jazzy ‘Dead Of Night’ on which John Morris knocks out an oom-pah-pah bass line that could easily come from a tuba, while Zito wraps some witty, nimble guitar around a lyric about “dancing on the beach in the dead of night”.  And the following ‘C’mon Baby’ – in what, 6/8 time? – begs for a waltz-like turn around the room with its yearning, romantic feel.

‘One Step At A Time’ seems like a straightforward enough animal in its evocation of this particular bluesman’s recovery from alcoholism.  But with Zito twirling out bright, ringing chords while Morris’s bass carries the riff, and a wonderful sax solo from Carpenter, it reaches out towards Tom Petty or John Hiatt territory.  (It ain’t gonna happen, but the thought has occurred to me now and then that if he put his mind to it, and the cards were to fall his way, Zito has got the songwriting juice to break out beyond the blues to a wider audience.)

As always, Zito has a knack for funkiness too, whether it’s ‘Big Mouth’, on which the guitar,

Aaaaand . . . relax!

bass and drums get a sweet groove on while he delivers a typically funny lyric about relationship problems, or the slinky ‘Sugar Sweet’, which is right in the wheelhouse of guest Ana Popovic, who delivers an almost voicebox-like wah-wah solo before the two of them get down to some conversational guitar duetting.  And there’s more where that came from.

There’s great blues too of course, such as the dark and sombre ‘Pearl River’, with its references to Billie Holliday’s ‘Strange Fruit’, the purposeful grind of ’19 Years Old’, with slicing slide guitar from guest Nick Moss and chirping, growling and squeaking harp from Curtis Salgado.  And guitar aficionados will appreciate Zito’s substantial and expressive exploration on ‘All Last Night’.  But whatever they’re serving up, fanfares are also required for the drumming of Rob Lee, who delivers rock solid but supple rhythmic foundations from start to finish.

But you know what?  However you cut this particular cake, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  Meaning:  Live From The Top gets you in the room with an audience having a few beers, having a few laughs, dancing their asses off, and generally having a damn good time.  And that, my friends, is what it’s all about.

Live From The Top is released in Britain by Gulf Coast Records on 12 January.

The videos of 'Big Mouth' and 'Pearl River' are taken from different performances in 2010, with the same band that features on Live From The Top.