Mike Zito - Life Is Hard

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2024
Time: 54:05 
Size: 123,9 MB 
Label: Gulf Coast Records
Styles: Blues/Blues Rock
Art: Front 

Tracks Listing:
 1. Lonely Man - 3:51
 2. Life Is Hard - 4:34
 3. Have A Talk With God - 4:34
 4. Forever My Love - 6:20
 5. No One To Talk To (But the Blues) - 3:01
 6. Dying to Do Wrong - 3:39
 7. These Eyes - 5:09
 8. Darkness - 4:04
 9. Without Loving You - 5:20
10. Nobody Moves Me Like You Do - 4:52
11. Death Don't Have No Mercy - 4:16
12. Forever My Love - 4:21

Mike Zito is laying everything bare on his new album Life Is Hard, his first solo album since 2022’s Blues for the Southside that’s due out on February 23 via Gulf Coast Records.There’s a sensitive element at play that makes this album simultaneously Zito’s most delicate and most determined. Arriving less than a year after the death of his wife, who lost her battle with cancer last summer, Life Is Hard shows Zito throwing himself into his work, embracing blues themes of love and loss while leaning into the healing power of making music.Zito said in promotional materials for the album that he and his wife, Laura, made a plan in January 2023 for this album that involved him “pouring my heart out in music” once she was gone. With Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith returning to his side as producers following their successful partnership on 2023’s Blood Brothers with Albert Castiglia, Zito accomplishes that goal with a powerful 12-track collection of blues songs. Included are two Zito originals: “Forever My Love” and “Without Loving You.” The album closes out with a radio edit of “Forever My Love”—a song that Zito has said his wife encouraged him to develop after he began to play an early draft at their dining room table.Feelings of pain and loss are everywhere on this album, but listeners can also hear the celebration of a deep love on Zito’s original songs and on some of his covers, including his version of Walter Trout’s “Nobody Moves Me Like You Do.” Though there are tear jerkers on Life Is Hard, these don’t dominate the album as much as one might expect.Zito, for example, performs an upbeat take on the album’s first song, Little Milton’s “Lonely Man.” The opener sends the album off on a rollicking start, giving Life Is Hard a fun feel before it comes face-to-face with existential thoughts about pain and life (“Life is hard / And then you die”) on Fred James’ “Life is Hard.” But Zito quickly supplies a response to the questions raised in the title track as he shifts the album’s tone with his cover of Stevie Wonder’s lighter “Have a Talk with God.” The song placement feels like Zito is having a conversation with his audience, openly asking vulnerable questions and exploring potential answers.The album continues in this vein, with Zito putting his spin on songs by Tinsley Ellis (“Dying to Do Wrong”), Tab Benoit (“Darkness”), Reverend Gary Davis (“Death Don’t Have No Mercy”) and on “No One to Talk to (But the Blues)” as written by George Sherry and Wayne Walker. Zito also puts a bluesy spin on the Guess Who’s “These Eyes” in what is one of the album’s more unique and special moments, featuring sad but beautifully sung vocals by Zito with support from background vocalists Jade Macrae and Dannielle Deandrea.Despite the “Lonely Man” declaration at the top of the album, Zito had a lot of support in putting Life Is Hard together. In addition to producing the album, Bonamassa and Smith also played guitar throughout and brought in several other musicians to help fill out the sound. The result is a full-bodied album that embraces the best of the blues. While it can serve as a salve for listeners going through a tough time, it can also be enjoyed simply as an expertly made blues album, one that delivers on what most blue fans are looking for when they seek out great new music in their favorite genre.

 Life Is Hard

 Life Is Hard