photo credit: Norma Touchette

***

When Mike Zito’s wife, Laura, received unimaginably dire news— a cancer prognosis giving her a year to live—she turned to Zito and said, “You’ve been saying you haven’t had anything good to write about in years. Well, now you do.” He understood what she was proposing. It had been Laura, his “biggest fan,” that had pushed him back on the road during her final 12 months. And now, it was Laura who would not only inspire Zito but also his producers and backing band to create Life Is Hard—a dozen-song set that pays tribute to her life, their love and the healing spirit of the blues.

Zito has routinely been touted as an award-winning blues-rock tastemaker since releasing his international breakthrough, Today, a decade and a half ago. Even so, the singer and guitarist had resisted the idea of recording what he would strictly call a blues album. For Zito, the blues is more than a hallowed genre of American music. It’s also an art form deeply rooted in the expression of Black history and culture. As a self-described “white guy from south St. Louis that grew up in the ‘70s listening to rock-and-roll,” Zito carried such reverence for the music that he had to be certain of his motivation and intent whenever he approached the blues.

“I love blues. I’m a student of it. It means a lot to me. But, never, ever, do I say I’m going to make a blues record,” Zito says. “With this particular situation, I thought, ‘I can make a blues record because this is a blues situation. This is very much the blues, what I’m going through right now.’”

With his conscience clear, Zito embraced the concept. In September 2023, he enlisted two of the top blues guitarists on the planet—Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith—to co-produce sessions at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. He also made Bonamassa and Smith aware of his commitment to honor Laura and asked for their song suggestions.

“There was no way I was going to write an album about how I feel about what’s going on because I don’t know how I feel,” Zito admits.

He and the producers spent six months compiling a list of possible songs. Zito knew he wanted to record the titular track. He loved Johnny Winter’s rendition, which featured special guest Dr. John, and, for years, had included it in his live set.

Bonamassa thought the record needed some uplift and brought in “No One to Talk to (But the Blues).” Smith urged Zito away from the obvious choices or those too obscure, asking him to consider The Guess Who classic “These Eyes.” At first, Zito resisted.

“One, it’s not a blues song. And, two, I can’t sing like Burton Cummings. That’s ridiculous. Nobody can sing like Burton Cummings,” says Zito.

Smith assured him that, with a soul arrangement, it would be a perfect fit. Just before the session began, Zito relented. “It’s probably my favorite thing on the whole record,” he says.

They fleshed out the repertoire with a pair of Zito’s originals, cover selections by contemporary blues merchants Tinsley Ellis, Tab Benoit and Walter Trout, and vintage cuts from Rev. Gary Davis and Stevie Wonder.

Bonamassa and Smith also played guitar on the sessions, stocking the backing ensemble with top-tier talent, including Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble keyboardist Reese Wynans. Bonamassa and Smith pressed Zito and the group— who tracked live as a band—until they felt they’d truly captured the keeper take. “Everybody put their hearts into it. Everybody was super respectful and sincere,” Zito says. “I just had to sing and play as best I could and put all of my emotions into the performance.”

Zito also found an unlikely source of comfort the summer before the September sessions commenced. He’d specifically avoided listening to particular types of emotionally triggering music—especially acoustic singersongwriters—as he grieved following Laura’s passing. And then his teenage daughters turned him on to Miley Cyrus’ Endless Summer Vacation.

“It killed me. I listened to it over and over. I wore that record out. It was totally music I never would have listened to,” says Zito, who, coincidentally, tracked Life Is Hard in the same studio where Cyrus cut her album. “For whatever reason, it hit me.”

When asked if Life is Hard will remind him of what was undoubtedly an exceptionally difficult time in his life, he says, “The worst part is over.” He’s confident that this is the best album he’s ever made and fully believes that playing these songs every night onstage is a gift. “It’s cathartic, for sure,” Zito says. “I get to pay tribute to a great woman, a great human being, who died way too young.”