Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

How you spend time when you forced to be apart from all that you love, all that deeply care for, can be enlightening, illuminating… cathartic, and whilst it is enough to survive, that is important to endure the single punishment of isolation, the fear of collective worry that comes in the shape of humanity’s damnation, to strive beyond those Quarantine Blues and produce art, to seek guidance and passion from a place outside of the normal parameters is to arguably deal a personal hand of favour to others, to give them a piece of your soul so that they have their own blues lessened.

Such a feat is not for everyone, and understandably so, but those that see time alone as a way to experiment, to see it as a way of combating the remoteness that may be felt and understanding that something extraordinary can be pursued, gained and presented, that is the belief that humanity must not only endure, but prevail, reign against the darkness with beauty and with struggle overcome.

For Mike Zito the project was clear, returning from Europe after his tour was cancelled, and in isolation, in lock down for two weeks, the sense of emptiness after regret must have been enormous, however, not one to sit on his laurels even during good times, the sense that there was music to be made, to be shared, must have come as if delivered by thunderbolt; the energy and grit that comes through the album recorded during his separation from the crowd is nothing short of electric.

It is perhaps the fifty-fifty split of insight and daring of the opening track, the excellent Don’t Let The World Get You Down, that sets the scene for the pounding blues to come, and with the external force of Matt Johnson, Doug Brykit and Lewis Stephens all adding their own flair and consistent colour from an external viewpoint, tracks such as Walking The Street, Dust Up, Call Of The Wild, Hurts My Head and Don’t Touch Me, which features the phenomenal Tracii Guns making a stirring contribution to the fever pitch sound, is the reason why the feeling of strong-minded resolution is not just an artist’s belief, but a volcano of souls erupting and feeding the soil of precision and faith in one fell swoop.

There is nothing solitary about Quarantine Blues, it is an album of company, even when they are distant, it still holds heat of friendship, and gregarious play of the human spirit refusing to bend and bow. 

Mike Zito’s Quarantine Blues is out now and available from Gulf Coast Records.

Ian D. Hall