Rick Vito – Cadillac Man
12 Tracks – 46 minutes
Rick Vito gained recognition in the early 70’s playing his ripping style of slide guitar in recording sessions and on the road with many diverse artists including John Mayall, Albert Collins, Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton, John Prine, Roy Orbison, Roger McGuinn, Jackson Browne, Dolly Parton, Todd Rundgren, and a huge list of many more artists. It is his guitar that was heard in the Chevrolet truck TV advertisements that used Bob Seger’s “Like A Rock” for over ten years as its theme.
But his fame grew when he joined Fleetwood Mac following Lindsey Buckingham’s departure from the group. Rick played with the group and wrote several of the songs recorded in the period between 1987 – 1991 and returned some of the blues sound that the group had in their early days with Peter Green. Rick left the group to start his solo career which began with the release of The King of Hearts in 1992. Rick rejoined Mick Fleetwood in 2010’s Mick Fleetwood Band featuring Rick Vito, which led to an artist and producer Grammy nomination for him in Best Traditional Blues for their collaboration Blue Again.
The release of Cadillac Man is Rick’s eleventh solo release. The title reflects Rick’s infatuation with the automobile. The cover is a photo of Rick’s 1969 Sedan De Ville, which he named Mr. Lucky, and is enshrined with that license plate tag. Rick sees the Cadillac as a symbol of success and something well-earned. Certainly, this album ‘s songs presents the delivery of top-notch guitar work and compositions clearly demonstrating Rick’s accomplishments. Rick plays the guitar on all songs, adds bass and percussion on most, and provides all vocals. Kevin McKendree plays the Hammond B3 on four songs and Jim Hake plays sax on four.
The album consists of eleven original songs and one cover. Rick’s slide guitar roars out of the gate on “Love Crazy Baby” as he establishes that “Round about midnight her crazy love comes pouring down”. “If she ever would leave me, she’d have me howlin’ at the moon.” Next up “It’s Two A.M” noting “Oh, do you know where your baby is?”, a song Rick composed for Shemekia Copeland in 2001 and won the W.C. Handy Award for Song of the Year. “Cadillac Man” is a blast of rock ‘n’ roll whereas previously noted he proclaims, “They call me Mr. Lucky, I’m a Cadillac Man”.
Steve Mariner joins on harmonica on “Little Sheba”, which gets a little swamp boogie going as he tells the tale of a woman who “walks like an angel with a devil within tryin’ to make you a present of a mortal sin” and “she don’t wear nothin’ but the red moonlight”. The instrumental “Bo in Paradise” offers a haunting interlude with a rhythmic drumbeat delivered by “Charles “Mojo” Johnson. Rick’s troubles with women are laid out in another rocking number, “Gone Like a Breeze”, losing one “When a guy in a Cadillac winked his eye” and another “when my money ran out”.
He slows things down with the moody “Crying at Midnight” as a “devil brought temptation I should never have seen. I was a fool, now I can never make it right. I lost my love forever”. Rick’s slide guitar rolls in on “Barbeque’n Baby” who he met in “old rocking Memphis town” as he notes “that Barbeque’n Baby knew just how to serve a hungry man”. The sole cover on the album is an instrumental version of “Just Another Day” originally recorded by Sam Cooke and Soul Stirrers in 1965. Rick’s slide guitar is again a standout on the cut.
A desperate man hears the “River Calling” which tells him “The world don’t need you no more” and “I’m gonna carry you back home” as Rick’s slide cries in the finality. But he brings back the joy with “You Can’t Stop a Guitar (From Playing the Blues)” as he note’s “A little boy’s got a guitar toy. He wants to be like his daddy and make some noise. He’ll listen to BB, Elmore and Freddy. In just a few years he’ll be ready to keep rockin’ that guitar all night”. He closes the album with another slow instrumental “Sliding into Blues”.
Rick’s smooth and appealing vocals and his rousing guitar certainly establish the album’s theme of him being a Cadillac Man.
