Blues guitarist Mike Zito has a new album and a sad story. They are one in the same.

Zito’s latest, Life is Hard, is a tribute to his late wife Laura, who died from cancer last summer. Speaking via Zoom from his home in Nederland, Zito is proud of his new record, calling it “a work of art.”

Not that Zito is pretentious. Far from it. Growing up in St. Louis, he was a respected guitarist on the local scene by the time he was in his teens. But since that time, Zito, now 53, has matured as a musician and as a person, lending greater depth to his music.

“When I was younger, I thought that it doesn’t matter what you’re singing, just so you can play guitar. It’s not like I put a lot of thought into content,” Zito says. “It was more like, ‘This is a cool riff,’ or ‘I can really rock out on this.’”

Time and experience changed his approach. “As I got to work with more producers, more professional people, I realized, ‘Oh, we need a story.’ The songs need to have a story, a journey. They need to build a bigger picture,” Zito says. “And as I became a producer, I would bring that with me to young artists.”

According to Zito, the process involved in assembling his more recent albums reflected this emphasis on theme and narrative. “We would say, ‘Let’s get a bunch of songs and figure out which songs really go together.’ Sometimes, that’s a chore.”

Not so in the case of Life is Hard. “Most of the time, your wife hasn’t died and you’re going to make a record about it,” Zito notes. “This just fell together so easily. And, at the end, to me, it is a complete work of art. You have the motivation, the content, the story. It wasn’t like you grabbed your paintbrush and said, ‘What am I going to do here?’ It was like, ‘I know exactly what I’m going to do. I know how to do it.’ And I feel we did it. We did it really well.”

While the album certainly has a through line, the songs are impassioned, not morose.  Zito's compositions like "Forever My Love" (not to be confused with the '60s pop song by the Association) are highlights, along with some well-chosen covers.  The Lefty Frizzell country classic "No One To Talk To (But the Blues)" gets a rowdy new arrangement, with room for Zito to stretch out on guitar.  The Guess Who song “These Eyes” speaks to love, devotion and loss.

“People there in the studio, they got emotional. The background singers, they got extremely emotional when they heard certain songs. But I would think, ‘It’s your turn to cry. I’ve cried for over a year. I’m done crying.’”

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Zito went into the studio shortly after his wife’s passing. “I was ready to move on,” he says. “I have kids, I have a life. We have things to do, let’s get after it. We did this, and it was really, really hard. But [moving on was] what she wanted us to do.”

What was the mood like during recording? “It was extremely cathartic to go make the record. I never got emotional,” Zito recalls. “People there in the studio, they got emotional. The background singers, they got extremely emotional when they heard certain songs. But I would think, ‘It’s your turn to cry. I’ve cried for over a year. I’m done crying.’”
Life is Hard is a testament to the healing power of music. Has music helped Zito in the past? “Always,” he declares. “I’m really fortunate. I’ve got two outlets in my life that most people don’t when they’re dealing with any kind of tragedy or struggle or trauma. One is music, playing the guitar. I’ve always got the guitar. It’s wonderful that I’m able to get on stage and play and get it all out. Most people don’t get to do that,” Zito says.

“And the other part is that I’m a sober guy,” he continues. “I’m part of recovery programs. And it’s like they trained me. They trained me for 20 years in AA.”
As Zito moves forward with his life, there is plenty to occupy him aside from playing gigs, namely running his record company, Gulf Coast Records. The guitarist founded the label in 2018 with British businessman Guy Hale, who, Zito says, “wanted to do something fun. He was like, ‘What can we do?’ and I was like, ‘Well, I dunno, we could start a record label, I guess.’”

Six years later, Gulf Coast Records has developed an impressive roster of talent, focusing on blues and roots music. Naturally, there are a bunch of guitar players on the label, including Popa Chubby, Albert Castiglia, Mark May and Joanna Connor.

“These are artists that are working, touring and still making music, selling the catalog. Nobody’s getting rich,” Zito laughs, “but it’s all working.”

For more information on Mike Zito and Gulf Coast Records, visit GulfCoastRecords.net.