Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Revisiting an old lover is either a pleasure renewed, or the moment in which you might wonder what was the initial attraction which drove you into their arms and shower them with the virtue and kisses they demanded, which you were happy to supply with open heart and mind. The casual call from out of the Blue Room, the tingle of excitement, the fizz of the electricity that once melted your heart and brought a new feeling of passion to the soul,
When announcing yourself to the majority of the Blues genre, the first inspired greeting is such that it can be the template for everything you aim to achieve, without that first thought of intrigue, the world remains a cold, sterile and barren land in which your aspirations and voice will forever be lost to the age, losing all the power of the moment and the extent of all possibilities.
If we think hard enough, we can all pin point the moment when our own particular passing faith was dismissed, sent to the laundry basket of time and shut away, allowing only the faint whisper of maybe and what might have been to linger across the Blue Room floor and yet another time in which the message, however small or grand in design, made it through and for that the time flowed inward and uninterrupted.
Mike Zito’s reputation as one of the greats of his time has never been in doubt, the pressure of the release of the first album, Blue Room, was met with charm and intensity and that debut moment, which is re-released this November, has stood him in faith and respect across albums with the Royal Southern Brotherhood and his own incredible solo works, but in that initial first outing, life can go either way, you fall, you rise and the opportunity to impress might forever elude you.
The artist’s first work is the reflection of the life they have lived through and experienced, you are writing your first novel from the day you are born, the same goes for the initial painting under critical eye, the earliest play you had tucked under your belt, so it is to the Blue Room in which we must prepare to find our feet, and in the exemplary company of Mike Zito, that assurance of positive outcome is there and held with tangible feeling.
Mike Zito has lived a life, not always in the best of shades of light, often at the wrong end of lady luck’s permissive smile, however it is the action of the artist when they have stared at defeat which brings them back tougher, more beautiful, than ever, and Mike Zito has done all that was ever required of him.
In the album opener, Hollywood, the stage is set for dreams to be captured, the admission of hard work flowing from his veins, the release of pent up fury and the inside of gut understanding, it is all there in the first track and never allows the listener to fail to grasp the meaning of excellent to come.
The memory of songs such as Pull The Trigger, Shoes Blues, Ways About You, Lightning Bug and the powerful emotional pull of the Elton John classic, Rocket Man live with the times of thirty years ago and find a way to muscle back in view with smooth generosity of spirit in today’s musical climate.
Blue Room is a reminder that an old lover can still be the friend you need when the going gets tough, one that shared the pain, one that raised you up to greater heights, a re-release of timely retrospective joy.
Ruf Records releases Mike Zito’s Blue Room on November 16th.
Ian D. Hall.