I just received the newest release, Mojo On My Side, by Rick Vito and I think it's his best work to date. Opening with title track, Mojo On My Side, a warm swampy track with strong rhythm, cool slide, reverb and a handful of voodoo, this track is a great opener. Backed by Charles Mojo Johnson and Rick Reed on drums Vito on vocal and guitar is really nailing it! Sauntering, Easy baby, has a great feel joined by Jim Hoke on sax. Vito has a smooth voice and extremely effective slide style making this one of my favorite tracks on the release. Rocker Pretty Women, really moves fielding Hoke and Vito both showing just how warm an instrument can sound. Nice! R&B style My House has a great strut enhanced by Dan Serafini on B3. Nito's vocals are strong and clear and his slide work is cool. This is a great radio track for broad audience. Missy Brown has a lower key delta rhythm and acoustic slide work with an almost East Indian twist. Mesmerizing. Life Was Just A Struggle has the feel of a 50's R&B track with New Orleans influence. Vito really does a super job on vocals on this track and his slide guitar is always jolly on the spot with sweet melodic riffs. Femme Fatale is a rockin twist on the Booker T sound with Vito's guitar at the wheel. Very cool! Who Were You Thinking Of?, loosely based musically on SBW's Help Me with a bayou swell. Vito gives his slide the license to talk on this release and is is talking. Smooth! House Party is a real rocker with lead slide work on fire. This track almost sounds like it should be in a 60's movie (except it's well done). Slide guitar fans should be more than satisfied with the overall amount of guitar on this release. Super! Let A Woman Be A Woman gets so funky you can smell James Brown getting ready to thrown off his cape! Heavily reinforced by Mojo on sax, Vito's bass playing and the tight groove laid down by Reed... this track just needs some "Hot Pants". She's Got It All is a slinky shuffle with tandem slide and sax lead. Vito breaks loose and plays great lead work that makes me think of the great Danny Gatton. Very cool! Help Me Lord is an excellent delta style track with John Lee Hooker style riffs and Vito doing a great authentic take off on the real deal. Excellent! You Can Run has a revival/gospel feel with a great uplifting sound. I can see Vito on slide jamming with Robert Randolph on the next cruise. Wrapping the release is River of Blues with Vito doing a pretty amazing job of sitar sound on fretless guitar (I think). With a primitive Mali kind of beat this is a great tribute to Vito's talent as a musician and expansive listener.
This is really a pretty hot release and one that I think should be exceptionally well received.
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