Mike Zito has the word \u201cBlues\u201d tattooed on his right hand.<\/p>\n
For an up-to-now relatively unknown St. Louis blues guitarist, this might seem like either an affectation or a serious attack of hubris — at least, right up until you\u2019ve actually listened to this disc.\u00a0 After that, all you can really do is mumble \u201cyeah\u201d — if you can say anything at all.\u00a0 Frankly, the first time this album finished I just sat and stared at my speakers for a good ten seconds.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Today<\/i> is that stunning.\u00a0 Zito sings like John Hiatt, plays guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughan, and writes songs that sound like a blend of the two, insight-rich, boldly personal hard blues.\u00a0 It\u2019s not what you might expect from a guy who\u2019s kicked around the blues scene for a decade, self-releasing three albums and playing about a million club gigs.\u00a0 But Eclecto Groove Records found a diamond in the rough here, and gave Zito the chance to pair re-recorded versions of the best tracks from his previous discs with a batch of new material and assemble a formal debut album that absolutely kills.<\/p>\n
Kickoff cut \u201cLove Like This (Song For Zach)\u201d is all groove, and pushes Zito\u2019s gravelly roadhouse vocals right up front.\u00a0 And why not?\u00a0 Zito sounds just like a blues singer should, road-weary but full of fire and conviction.\u00a0 The best part, though, is that the song isn\u2019t about romantic love — it\u2019s about the love between mothers and sons, and sons and their sons, a love that flows and sustains from generation to generation.<\/p>\n
That sort of twist is what gives these 13 songs — and Zito writes all but one himself — a freshness not always found in the well-traveled blues-rock form he inhabits.\u00a0 The lyrics to cuts like \u201cSuperman\u201d and \u201cNo Big City\u201d have a texture and nuance and resonance that again makes you think of the ever-impressive Hiatt.<\/p>\n
Still, what ultimately makes this album — what ultimately makes just about any blues album — is groove.\u00a0 And Zito knows it.\u00a0 You think tattooing \u201cBlues\u201d on your hand is gutsy?\u00a0 How about naming your song publishing company \u201cDelta Groove\u201d?\u00a0 You\u2019d best be able to back that one up, dude\u2026 and Zito does, no little thanks to a \u201cdream team\u201d studio band consisting of Bonnie Raitt\u2019s rhythm section (Hutch Hutchison on bass and Tony Braunagel on drums) plus original Heartbreaker Benmont Tench on keys.<\/p>\n
The sprawling seven-minute \u201cUniverse\u201d in particular is all groove, with Tench\u2019s piano carrying the melody as Zito sings a wide-open philosophical lyric until around 4:00, whereupon he erupts in a truly epic solo, full of twists, turns, bent notes and anguished sustain.\u00a0 It\u2019s completely effing beautiful, it is, not to mention as a fine a tribute to Mr. Vaughan as you could ever ask for.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlinded\u201d digs deeper yet as Zito delves into his own troubled past over a churning base of acoustic rhythm and electric lead guitar.\u00a0 Having faced and recovered from the same sort of sobriety issues that SRV did before him, the bluesman mines his own backstory for a lyric that\u2019s his own \u201cTightrope,\u201d a tale of being \u201cbarely alive \/ in the depths of the dark side,\u201d and finding your way back out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlow It Down\u201d does exactly that, giving Zito space for a gorgeous slow blues jam, with Tench playing expertly understated piano accents under Zito\u2019s smoking solos.\u00a0 The title track offers a relaxed acoustic blues that nonetheless finds a sweet groove and nails it, with Zito singing an upbeat, gospel-influenced lyric over the top.\u00a0 \u201cDeep Down In Love\u201d takes the hard blues template and adds horns and background vocals, while the swaggering \u201c So how do you close out an album this full of highlights?\u00a0 With an absolute knockout punch of a ballad.\u00a0 \u201cTime To Go Home\u201d is an autobiographical road song full of heartfelt moments and beautiful phrasings, whose closing lines explain as well as anyone ever has the essence of life as a working musician: \u201cwell it\u2019s the music that drives my soul \/ it keeps me going when I\u2019m getting low \/ and you can\u2019t miss home, you can\u2019t miss home \/ until you\u2019re on the road\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n David Z (Prince) and Braunagel co-produce, and the sound is just right, managing to feel raw, organic, sharp and clean all at once.\u00a0 Nowhere is this truer than on this album\u2019s one cover, a totally unexpected, slowed-down and blues\u2019d-up acoustic version of Prince\u2019s \u201cLittle Red Corvette.\u201d\u00a0 Honestly, this track alone would have been enough to convince me to pick this album up — \u201camazing\u201d barely does it justice.<\/p>\n It\u2019s May already, and I\u2019ve been wondering for the last few weeks if this year might be a bit of a letdown musically.\u00a0 Not any more.\u00a0 Today<\/i> is the first great album of 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8198],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40895","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mike-zito","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40895"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}