Single Premiere: ‘I’ll Make Love To You’ Mike Zito Award-Winning Blues Rocker

Photo: Mike Zito by Scott Lukes

We are pleased to premiere Mike Zito’s new single “I’ll Make Love To You” from his highly anticipated, upcoming album, Resurrection out July 16, 2021 on Gulf Coast Records/Hillside Global, produced by Grammy winner David Z.

Multi Blues Music Award-winning guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and co-owner of Texas-based Gulf Coast Records, Mike Zito puts a gritty, rocking spin on his reimagined JJ Cale tune, “I’ll Make Love To You,” complete with searing slide guitar and rock star vocals. With a rolling groove, the song cracks wide open with a driving feel and dynamic drumming (Matthew Johnson), tight with bass player Doug Byrkit. Zito creates sonic waves of electric guitar that convey mood, flashes of midnight before dawn. The acoustic guitar (Zack Zito) adds texture and tone leading up to a soulful sax solo (Eric Demmer).

Mike Zito says, “I have always been a fan of JJ Cale. His songwriting is so direct and on point. I strive for that in my own writing. This song has always spoken to me. It’s exactly how I feel at 50 years old.”

The 11 tracks on his forthcoming album Resurrection are personal to him. Zito adds, “For me to sing songs and feel them with real emotion, they need to be somewhat personal. Even songs I did not write, I need to feel they explain a part of my thinking or how I am feeling about love, sex, life, death, the world.” He wrote and recorded the music he felt the strongest about. After a year of challenges with the pandemic, he believes we all need a rebirth, and he wouldn’t be wrong. But Resurrection is about Zito’s own personal rebirth as well.

Listen to “I’ll Make Love To You”

Producing the new disc is the celebrated Grammy-winner David Z, best known for his long-standing work with Prince, and who has contributed to albums by Etta James, Billy Idol, BoDeans, Buddy Guy and John Mayall, among many others.

The 11 tracks on Resurrection not only showcase Zito’s strengths as a composer, with eight original songs that sparkle, but also as an interpreter of other compositions, with powerful takes on tunes from JJ Cale, Eric Clapton, and Willie Dixon.

Mike Zito is one of the most lauded artists in the contemporary blues arena today and rightfully so, but for him, the thing that counts the most is maintaining his honesty, authenticity and integrity. Those are the qualities that have steered Zito’s career since the beginning and continue to define every effort he’s offered since.

Mike Zito’s last CD, Quarantine Blues, was recorded during the heart of the coronavirus pandemic and served as a healing love letter to his fans around the world that heralded better days ahead if we’d all just stick together. His album prior to that was a tribute to fellow St. Louis native and rock ‘n’ roll legend, Chuck Berry, and featured an array of guest guitarists ranging from Joe Bonamassa, Walter Trout and Eric Gales, to Robben Ford, Luther Dickinson and Sonny Landreth, as well as Berry’s own grandson.

By the time he reached his late teens, Mike was already a fixture on the local St. Louis music scene. He signed with Eclecto Groove Records in 2008 and “Pearl River,” the title track of his 2009 album for the label, won Song of the Year at the Blues Music Awards and marked his first collaboration with Cyril Neville, with whom he’d later work in the Royal Southern Brotherhood. A steady succession of critically acclaimed albums followed, culminating in 2011’s Greyhound, which was nominated for Best Rock Blues Album at that year’s Blue Music Awards ceremony in Memphis. He then signed with Ruf Records and released Gone to Texas, the story of how he gained his sobriety.

From 2010 to 2014, Zito also played an integral role in the supergroup of sorts, Royal Southern Brotherhood. The group released two albums and a DVD, Songs from the Road – Live in Germany, winner of the year’s Blues Music Award for Best DVD. He also made his mark behind the boards by producing albums for Samantha Fish, Albert Castiglia, Ally Venable, Jeremiah Johnson, Jimmy Carpenter, and many others.

Zito’s album, Make Blues Not War, debuted on the Billboard Blues Album Chart at number one and garnered him recognition as the 2018 Rock Blues Artist of the Year at the Blues Music Awards. First Class Life followed suit, also entering the charts at number one.