Artist: Mike Zito & The Wheel
Album: Keep Coming Back
Bitrate: 241kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Ruf Records
Genre: Rock
Size: 91.15 megs
PlayTime: 0h 50min 11sec total
Rip Date: 2015-11-15
Store Date: 2015-11-06
Track List:
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01. Keep Coming Back 3:41
02. Chin Up 3:59
03. Get Busy Living 3:54
04. Early In The Morning 3:24
05. I Was Drunk 4:11
06. Lonely Heart 3:56
07. Girl From Liberty 4:19
08. Get Out Of Denver 2:55
09. Nothin' But The Truth 4:28
10. Cross The Border 4:44
11. What's On Your Mind 6:45
12. Bootleg 3:55
Release Notes:
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Three years ago, Mike Zito was the guitarist playing tasty slide licks on the
right side of the stage with Royal Southern Brotherhood while Devon Allman got
most of the attention -- standing on the lip of the stage stomping lustily on
his bow-wow box. But last year Zito also cranked up his band The Wheel, giving
fans a chance to see how versatile and engaging a frontman he is. Zito sounds
like a mixed breed with DNA from Delbert McClinton, Tab Benoit and Bob Seeger,
his guitar blending Duane Allman and Sonny Landreth.
His last release on Ruf records was part of their Songs From the Road series,
recorded live in Texas last year. His latest Ruf release is a studio album, but
has the same fire and intensity of a live show.
The title cut's slippery than Sonny Landreth, Zito sliding around on a wiggly
treat that sounds like it oughta be blastin' off the sweaty walls of a bayou
juke joint on a Sattidy nite. But listen a little closer and you'll figure out
it's a rowdy hymn thanking Jesus for saving Zito from his former lifestyle. ôI
walked the road of thunder,ö Zito howls soulfully, his slide scrabbling for
purchase on the greasy strings.
I walked the road of pain
that's when I hit rock bottom
hopeless in defeat
and that old man he took my hand he pulled me out a seat.
He's sounding very Delbert on ôGet Busy Living,ö backed with an early Allman
Brothers feel.
ôI Was Drunk,ö co-written with Anders Osborne, who also sings and plays guitar
on the track, purportedly details Zito's struggles with addiction, but Osborne
walked that same road, and you can hear it in his vocals- you can't convey this
stuff this convincingly unless you've lived it. It's gut wrenching material, raw
and brutally honest:
Drink turned to hard stuff
bad turned to worse
I gave every dollar we had
to some street dealing punk
while my family worries about me
I was drunk.
This is real country and western music, hard core enough to stand shoulder to
shoulder with classic alcoholic odes like Webb Pierce's ôThere Stands A Glass.ö
Zito demonstrates he can write and sing soul as good as any of the great ones
with ôWhat's On Your Mind.ö It would have been a great vehicle for Solomon
Burke- you can imagine Burke doing an impassioned spoken word segment in the
middle. But Carpenter takes care of that with a sax solo that has Clarence
Clemons and King Curtis dripping soul from the bell of his horn.
There are a couple of interesting covers. You need a couple of tongues and five
rows of teeth to spit out the lyrics to the Chuck Berry-inspired Bob Seeger
composition ôGet Out Of Denverö as fast as Zito does here, with help from saxman
Jimmy Carpenter on vocals and some great Lee Allen style honkin.'
Zito replaces Fogerty's laid back jangly strum on ôBootlegö from CCR's Born on
the Bayou with a version that clanks along like the swamp thang in metal
overshoes, prodded by Carpenter's frenzied honks. Like the best rock and
rollers, Zito's vocals are nearly incomprehensible, making it sound even more
hoodooed.
Cut after cut, Zito and the Wheel, Carpenter on saxes, bassist Scot Sutherland,
drummer Rob Lee and Lewis Stephens sitting in on keys knock out some of the best
blues, soul and old school and r&b you'll hear anywhere. They were even
considerate enough to furnish a full set of lyrics so you can howl along. But do
yourself a favor- shut up and listen, and keep coming back.