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Dean Zucchero—Song for the Sinners—Pugna-
cious ASIN : B0DPBHQY4C
Bass player Dean Zucchero is originally from New
York where he played with acts like Poppa Chubby
and Michael Powers before spending nearly 10
years in Europe and ending up in New Orleans on
his return to the States. Like his previous album
‘Electric Church for the Spiritually Misguided’, this
one features Dean on bass with different singers
and musicians such as Mike Zito, Bobby Rush and
John Bouté on each track. We begin with the driving ‘Biting Through’ featuring
Jimmy Vivino on vocals and guitar and Johnny Burgin on lead guitar, while the gentle
country-ish ‘Lullaby’ has Jerry Dugger on vocals, Bobby Rush on harp and Jake
Eckert on dobro and ‘Shine’ with Albert Castiglia is in a similar vein with Tiffany
Pollock and Whitney Alouiscious on backing vocals.
‘She’s Saturday Night’ is a fun rocking boogie featuring Victor Wainwright singing
and on piano and Mike Zito fronts the poignant Cajun ballad ‘Tone of the City’, while
‘Mama’s Bottle’ is Western swing with Sean Riley singing and playing dobro with
Waylon Thibodeaux on fiddle. Tiffany Pollock is back to help out John Nemeth on
vocals on ‘Never Fade Away’ with John also adding his harmonica to this reggae song
and the album ends with a fun down-home blues ‘Foul Play’ with Little Freddy King
on vocals and rhythm guitar and Jake Eckert on electric slide. Dean and his friends
certainly give us variety on this album as they dish out blues, Cajun, country, West-
ern swing, rock and roll, jazz etc. etc. Dean wrote all the songs and many of the
artists play in styles you wouldn’t expect and there is also a fun element to some of
the songs and while this isn’t the deepest blues album you’ll ever hear it is
entertaining.
Graham Harrison
Jimmy Vivino—Gonna Be 2 of Those Days—
Gold Coast Records ASIN : B0DQ4QHMWZ
Jimmy Vivino is from New Jersey and has for many
years been in the house band on US TV’s Conan
O’Brian show as well as his own Black Italians
band, with Jimmy singing, playing guitar and key-
boards. This new album, his debut on Mike Zito’s
Gulf Costa Records, starts with ‘Blues in the 21st.
Century’ a chugging song about modern times and
the pandemic featuring Joe Bonamassa but the fol-
lowing ‘Ruby is Back’ features tasty guitar from Jimmy himself. The title track also