Zed Mitchell – Route 69
With ‘Route 69’ Zed Mitchell has released his eighth solo album. Born in Belgrade in 1951, the guitarist has lived in Germany since 1991 and has been a much sought-after studio musician there for many years, having worked with artists such as Phil Collins and Tina Turner to name a few and his work can be heard on the soundtrack of the film ‘Indiana Jones’, where he worked closely with composer Elmer Bernstein. He toured with B.B. King, Santana, Eros Ramazotti and Udo Lindenberg. In addition, as a guitarist, he was part of the MSSO, the Munich Symphonic Sound Orchestra. In recent years his attention has been focused on his own band.
On ‘Route 69’ he is accompanied by guitarist Todor Manojlovic, drummer David Haynes, keyboardist Sascha Kuhn and Saxophonist Max Schurakowski. The album contains twelve self-written songs, of which four lyrics are written by Pete Feenstra. You could describe Mitchell’s style as laid-back blues-rock. That is immediately clear with the pleasantly slightly swinging “By Sundown You’ll Be Gone”, with which the CD is opened. This relaxed sound, we hear it as well in tracks by Chris Rea, is never boring.
The songs are simply very good, are musically and lyrically well put together and manage to hold the attention from start to finish. In my opinion, songs that deserve a special mention are the emotional “The Girl That Broke Your Heart”, the sharper “Life Will Always Find You” and the jazzy ballad “Midnight Melody”. A very fine album. (8/10) (Z Records)
