Mike Zito will be stopping in New Mexico for two performances – one in Albuquerque, one in Santa Fe on January 28th and 29th respectively. (Courtesy of Luke Scott)
It’s the first night of the tour and guitarist Mike Zito is bursting with anticipation.
After a pandemic-related hiatus, there’s a new world of touring – and Zito is taking every precaution.
“We do our best,” he says. “It’s a small hint with the new variant, but we’re making progress.”
Zito spent the first half of the pandemic working on the Quarantine Blues album. After a few months, he went back to his studio to work on his forthcoming album, Resurrection, which will be released on July 16th by his Gulf Coast Records. He worked with producer David Z on the album. With him on the album are Matthew Johnson, Doug Byrkit, Lewis Stephen, Zach Zito, Lisa Anderson, Eric Demmer and Fernando Castillo.
“I have songs inside me all the time and musical ideas,” says Zito. “I write what I can, whenever I can, and try to save everything for posterity. Some of the songs are just songs and they don’t always have meaning to me and some of them get very personal. In order for me to sing songs and feel them with real emotion, they have to be something personal. Even with songs I didn’t write, I need to feel like they explain some of the way I think or how I feel about love, sex, life, death and the world. “Resurrection” is an album full of feelings, emotions and very personal. The title track is how I almost lost my love once, but it came back stronger than ever. I’ve had this song inside me for years, but it’s only now making sense to share it with the world. After the year we’ve had on planet earth, I believe we all need a rebirth. This rebirth has given me the opportunity to be who I want to be musically and artistically.”
Another bright spot of the pandemic is that Zito has had time to get to know himself and his family.
“When I came home from a European tour, I didn’t know what was going to happen,” he says. “Everyone was scared and fans could buy ‘Quarantine Blues’ to pay the album’s musicians.”
Zito also learned more about the changing music industry. His wife and children help him run all aspects of the record label.
“I didn’t know how to live stream,” he says. “I don’t care. But the world was changing and I had to adapt to it. COVID taught me that I wanted to keep doing what I was doing. I’ve been in this business for almost 30 years. I do it with pleasure.”
Zito is looking forward to his performances in New Mexico.
“I’ve never played as Mike Zito,” he says. “I haven’t played in Albuquerque since the 1990’s when I played guitar for Tony Vincent. He’s from Albuquerque and I was his guitarist. We still keep in touch and I called him and told him I was doing a show there. Touring with Tony was the first time I’ve ever toured. It will be a wonderful time to return.”
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