MIKE ZITO Source: Lansing State Journal Date: 06/2008 Writer: Mike Hughes

Mike Zito sings passionately about the forces that transformed him — his wife Laura, their baby, their home.
He starts his CD — his first national one — with “Love Like This (Song for Zach).” Chances are, he’ll sing that next Thursday, when he opens Lansing’s “Blues on the Square” series.
And as he does it, he’ll be 1,000 miles away from them. “It’s my lot in life,” Zito said by phone. “This is what I do.”

And he has to keep doing it. A dozen years after his first, independent CD, he finally has a chance for national attention. “I kind of quit music and got messed up with the drugs and drinking for a while,” Zito said. Now he’s back, with a strong guitar, a gritty voice and stories to tell. He’s part of a concert series that offers solid talent.

These are blues people from all over. Ana Popovic — the young powerhouse coming June 26 — started his career in Yugoslavia, the Netherlands and Germany; Zito is from St. Louis, in the middle of the U.S. “I didn’t live far from downtown, about 15 minutes,” he said. “In the city, we rode our bikes everywhere. If my kid ever did that, I’d say ‘What are you, crazy?’”

He wanted to be an actor, then detoured in high school. “Sometime around my senior year, I started playing electric guitar and that was it.” Still dreaming of Hollywood, he visited a friend in Los Angeles, borrowed his bike and made a pilgrimage. “Ten or 12 years ago, Hollywood was in pretty bad shape,” Zito recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh man, this is it? This is all there is?’”

Still, it had its appeal. A 1999 Zito song said: “Record deals are down the street/up the hill the porno chicks in heat/alcohol is not enough/but smack from Sunset is gonna get you tough ... I’m packing up, I’m on the move/I’m gonna live in Hollywood.” He didn’t, actually. But he did get involved with the alcohol and such. He moved to Key West, Fla., then landed a Texas job that didn’t last long. “They don’t seem to like it when you don’t come to work.”

Still, there was a bonus this time: He reconnected with Laura, a Texan whom he met when she was in St. Louis. Now they live in her home town, near the Louisiana border. “I’ve been there for six years,” Zito said. “It’s coastal, it’s hot, it’s hard to get used to. But people are really into music.” This was the starting point for Janis Joplin, Johnny and Edgar Winter and more. And now it’s Zito’s home turf. He’s often not there, though. Even before his record deal, Zito averaged 250 gigs a year; he’ll keep that up now, because he finally has an album on a national label, EclectoGroove.

The album, “Today,” has:
• A few of his older songs, including that 1999 “Hollywood.”
• One cover tune, Prince’s “Little Red Corvette.”
• And lots of new stuff, starting with Zach’s song:

“When I got to hold you in my arms/you know I’d finally understand/just how true love really feels/and what it’s like to be a man.” Still, he spends much of his time far from Zach and Laura. By day, they merge by phone and computer; by night, backed by only bass and drums, Zito is back to his basics.

“I love playing music,” he said. “I could keep playing for hours.”