Dean Zucchero – Song for the Sinners
12 tracks
I got this album to review and saw that the bass player wrote the songs, played bass and hired a bunch of other people to sing and play. Normally this sort of thing can be a recipe for no success. I’ve heard dozens of albums with special guests who make their point and things are relatively disjointed and not fun. This album was different.
First up, Zucchero wrote twelve great songs. There was great stylistic variances in what he wrote. Zucchero wrote blues and country and western and funk and R&B and rocking cuts and they are all cool. The lyrics and stories he tells range from poignant to hilarious. He really understands song writing.
Then he got artists who made each of these original songs their own. The vocalists sang with feeling. The guitar players all did a masterful job. The drummers were solid and steady. The keyboards were super. The backing vocals were sublime. The fiddle on that one cut was great, too. The occasional harp was outstanding. And Zucchero on bass was there to control the groove. Just good stuff overall.
Usually I list the players. Here I think I’ll take each song and do that as there was just too many people to list and that would make things confusing, so each track will have their cast of characters listed. out
“Biting Through” gets the ball rolling with Jimmy Vivino on vocals lead and rhythm guitar and Johnny Burgin on 2nd rhythm guitar. Vivino sings with passion in this heavy blues rocker with ringing guitar and a driving groove with Zucchero and drummer Michael Leasure in command of it. ”South Side” is next with Glen David Andrews growling out the lead vocals. Chris Adkins on guitars is solid and Tiffany Pollack on backing vocals does a super job. The Roadmasters Horn Section also makes the an amazing job. Terrence Higgins handles the skins here. Funky, gritty and fun stuff here!
Next up is Jerry Dugger on vocals and Bobby Rush on harp for “Lullaby.” Jake Eckert is on dobro and electric guitar and it’s a pretty cut with the dobro and harp playing off each other and breathy vocals being delivered. A fine job on backing vocals by Tiffany Pollack on this cut with a cool down-home vibe. Wayne Mareau in on drums. “She’s Saturday Night” is a slick song with Victor Wainwright on lead vocals and piano with a great boogie woogie going on. Burgin and Leasure return and a backing vocal quartet of Dugger, Wainwright, Eckert and Zucchero do a good job. This one jumps and rollicks– really fun stuff!
“Crawfish No More” has John Boutte on lead vocals, Terrence Higgins on drums. Caleb Tokarska on guitar, John Papa Gros on organ and Eckert on tambourine. Here the music is a NOLA influenced ballad. Smooth vocals, restrained guitar and nice organ make for an outstanding track. This one is slow and easy ride that takes the listener on a great journey. Next is “Shine” with Albert Castiglia on vocals and guitar, Pollock adds her lead vocals, and Whitney Alouiscious and Pollock are great on backing vocals. Ron Hotstream on acoustic guitar and Eckert on twang guitar add some cool layers to the performance. River Eckert is on the moog synthesizer which is a nice addition as is Gros on piano and organ. A lot is going on here, but it mixes well, and Castiglia and Pollock pull off a great cut.
Mike Zito sings and plays lead guitar on “Tone of the City” Bruce Sunpie Barnes squeezes the accordion in this country Cajun southern rocker. Hotstream adds acoustic guitar, Gros is on organ and Leisure is back on drums. This one doesn’t move me as much as most of the others, but it synchs up nicely. Very country and southern rock influenced. “Mama’s Bottle” is a hill country cut with Sean Riley on vocals and dobro and Waylon Thibodeaux on the fiddle. Tom Worrell on piano, Washboard Chaz on what his name implies, and Matthew Johnson on drums make this one fun to listen to and I can see the dancers frolicking to the fiddle and groove here.
The next song is perhaps my favorite. John Nemeth and Tiffany Pollock sing their butts off. What a great duo, and Alouiscious, Pollock and Nemeth add more backing vocals. The vocal work here is stellar and really grabbed at me. Add Nemeth’s harp, Eckert on guitar, Gros’ organ, Eric Bolivar on drums and, of course, Zucchero on bass, makes for a delicious and delightful musical experience. Well done! The funky original “Cold Shot” is led by Joey Houck on vocals and guitar and the Roadmasters return on horns. Doug Belote handles drums here, and Gros is back on organ. Alouiscious and Pollock add depth with their backing vocals. It’s a very cool affair.
“Suicide for Jesus” is a western sort of cowboy tome with the duet of Hotstream on vocals and electric and acoustic guitars and Zucchero on bass. It’s got a Ennio Moricone vibe to it that is quite cool, although most of Moricone”s great spaghetti western music lacked cool vocals. I loved this one despite being a story about suicide. Quite moving stuff. “Fowl Play” closes the album out. Little Freddie King is on vocals and chicken guitar and Eckert is on electric and slide guitar. Belote and Gros return as do Alouiscious and Pollock. It is fun cut about lost love with lots of humor and interesting stuff. Lil Riccie adds dog and hound sounds. It’s funny stuff in a distorted country sort of way.
The only people I did not introduce in all that were the Roadmasters. The horns were Tom Fitzpatrick on sax, Satoru Dhashi on trumpet and trombone the first song they played and Michael Mullins added a second trombone on the latter track. They were great, too.
I recently saw John Nemeth with Zucchero backing him on bass. I said to myself, “That’s the dude whose album I have to review.” Well, I am glad I got it.
This is a superb album. It’s happy, it’s sad, it’s upbeat, it’s depressing, it is about love and about lost love, it’s about life and about death. The songs are cool and so are the lyrics. The album is crafted to let the artists express themselves in the exceptional songs Zucchero has written and then make sure everyone is tight and together in performing them. It was. I loved this album. The first time through I thought it pretty good. The second time I paid more attention to the performances and then again listened and followed the lyrics closely. I listened again and I think I will be listening to it a lot more in the future.
I most highly recommend this album. It’s a fantastic contemporary blues song collection that dashes across styles and moods to great effect. I loved it and implore you to get it, listen to it and enjoy!
