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 When an artist of Mitch Ryder’s calibre looks back over their storied six-decade career and tellsyou their latest album is essential listening, you should take that statement seriously. Ryder, asanyone who has followed the roots and branches of Americanmusic will attest, is one of thefaces carved onto rock ‘n’ roll’s Mount Rushmore, and the spiritual forefather to every blue-collar firebrand–from Bruce Springsteen to Ted Nugent–who ever turned up their amp andhollered their truth. He’s the rock ‘n’roll pioneer who was there at the flashpoint in the late-’50s.He’s the hitmaker who tore up the charts in the mid-’60s with Detroit Wheels cuts like JennyTake A Ride and his reworking of Devil With A Blue Dress On. Amongst his myriad claims tofame, Ryder was both the last man to play with Otis Redding (in 1967), and the first living whiteartist inducted into the R&B Hall Of Fame (in 2017). For many musicians of Ryder’s vintage and status, age heralds a creative slowdown andreliance on the hits. But as he broaches his eighth decade, the Michigan-born singer-songwriterremains in constant motion, his backstory only rivalled by what is yet tocome. It’s an attitudeepitomised by the new Don Was-produced studio albumWith Love, released February 2025on Ruf, and packed with tough, tender, personal songs that stand alongside anything in hiscatalogue. “Out of the 21 studio albums that I have recorded, this one is in the top two,” considers Ryder,reflecting on a catalogue that began with 1966’sTake A Ridewith The Detroit Wheels. “It is oneof the most honest albums I’ve ever made. Not that the other ones were lies, but I was able toaccess previously hidden feelings. The stellar musicianship was certainly a catalyst, but no doubt the real driving force behindWithLoveare Ryder’s ten new originals: as smart, satirical, witty and wry a collection of songs asthe veteran songwriter has ever gathered on an album. From the woozy Latin-rock grooves ofOh What A Night and Pass It To The Right (an ode to joint etiquette at ahedonistic party) toSanguine’s playful soul and the Stonesy chop of Wrong Hands, there is still no second-guessingRyder’s songcraft.“Everything on thealbum is autobiographical,” he explains of a tracklistingthat plays out with The Artist’s ghostly self-analysis and the joyous-sounding but morbid R&B of Just The Way It Is, exploring the inevitability of life and death. “One Monkey is about my drugaddiction and how I overcame it. Fly is about my career and being happy about it, the trajectoryand body of work I was able to produce. ”Incredibly, more than a half-century since Mitch Ryder first lit up the rock ‘n’ roll radar,WithLoveproves this lifelong visionary still has creative gas in the tank. “Practice makes perfect,”he smiles of a growing discography that is plainly the work of a man still reaching for somethinggreater. “I haven’t gotten there yet but I’m working on it...” TRACK LIST CD
1 Lilli May 2 Pass It To The Right 3 Sanguine 4 One Monkey 5 Oh What A Night 6 Wrong Hands 7 Too Damned Slow 8 Fly 9 The Artist 10 Just The Way It Is The first single “Fly” from the upcoming album “With Love” will be released on January 17th, you can pre-save & stream it HERE Opmerkingen zijn gesloten.
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