Bman's Blues Report

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Make Blues Not Wa r, from Mike Zito and it's crazy good! Opening with blues rocker, Highway Mama , this track gives you that take no prisoners attitude with a driving beat courtesy of Tom Hambridge who absolutely blows it up on drums and Tommy MacDonald on bass, Mike Zito on lead vocal and guitar, Rob McNelley on guitar and Water Trout on guitar. Trout plays some really hot riffs and Zito absolutely scorches the strings. Excellent opener. Wasted Time is up next with a great lumbering Texas lope, Zito lays down stuff that would make SRV proud, with intensity and feel. Very nice! Redbird is a heavy footed, rocker with strong vocals. Solid bass lines from MacDonald positively drive this bus and it's rolling hard. Talk about intensity, Crazy Legs has it x 10. This track is on fire and running hard with excellent drum work by Hambridge and super guitar tone. Zito really turns on the heat on this one literally setti...

Released on Ruf Records distributed by the In Tune Music Group this passed November, Make Blues Not War , is currently #1 on the Roots Music Report's Blues chart, #7 on XM Sirius' Rack of Blues 5 weeks in. The album's nabbed a nomination for "Best Blues Album" by New Orleans' Offbeat Magazine. This is blues guitar gunslinger Mike Zito's second release since leaving the mighty Royal Southern Brotherhood (Cyril Neville, Devon Allman, Yonrico Scott, Charlie Wooton). It has been getting great press coverage and I'm including a small sampling below. It's his 13th album overall and perhaps the most energetic of the bunch.  ------------------- Guitarist, singer and songwriter Mike Zito is one of the big names of the blues, a former member of The Royal Southern Brotherhood, and this is his own 13th album overall. It's not quite a back-to-basics set, but not far off - he has the support of a trio including pr...