There is no perfect day to hear the blues. You don’t choose it. It chooses you.
Another artist on the bill has an interesting story. And I’ll probably get it wrong. But, Roberto Morbioli grew up in Italy with a family of musicians. Somewhere between the bruschetta and stuffed mushrooms, Roberto fully marinated himself in blues music. First rhythm, then more rooty, traditional blues. Now, it appears, he does it all.
GSM had a back-and-forth with the promoter, Mr. Nick David, lead singer of the Wicked Lo-Down, has been putting on these shows around New England for over a decade. This one being the final show of this New England wide Blues series.
I am open to all styles of the blues when booking this festival. We have run the gamut over the years from legendary Chicago Blues, Texas Blues, Piedmont Blues, West Coast Blues, Jump Blues, Country Hill Blues, Blues Rock, R&B and more. This year, while it has a distinctly guitar-laden theme, covers a number of different styles.
2. The Nick Moss Band sounds super groovy. Great to see them on the bill. Tell us something about them, please.
Nick Moss is a modern-day, real-deal blues great. Though he has a style that is his own he has studied all the great blues guitarists. His pedigree runs deep. He was in the Jimmy Rogers band for heck’s sake. He will be backed by members of The Wicked Lo-Down for this show.
3. As a promoter, how do you like putting on a show on a Sunday afternoon? Personally, I love live music on Sundays. Slightly different vibe, but it certainly can provide for some extended focus on the music.
I like putting on a show any day that we can do one successfully. I do like the Sunday shows on these tours as we have already had 3-4 shows by that time and the musicians are well-primed and ready to rock.
4. Roberto Morbioli from Italy, who is also on the bill, has a very interesting story. He grew up in Italy, heard his first blues song as a kid, became obsessed with the music and hasn’t stopped playing it since. How did you come across Roberto?
Roberto has been coming to the Northeast for the last 15 years or so and has built quite a fan base here. I met him maybe 10-12 years ago when he was on John Guregian’s radio show, Blues Deluxe, on WUML in Lowell. I came down to the station, we hit it off and have been friends ever since.
Well you can certainly expect Mike Zito to tear the roof off the joint. He is high-energy, hard-rocking Texas Blues and he will not leave you disappointed.
Like Nick Moss and Roberto, Mike will be backed by my wicked band, The Wicked Lo-Down which I formed with Paul Size (from the famed Red Devils) just before the pandemic. We started out getting together and writing music and soon realized we needed to put a band together. We put together a group of a-list musicians. Every one of our first calls said yes when they heard the music. We recorded an album of all original Texas Blues/Rock-n-Roll/East Coast R&B burners that people are going nuts over. It’s been a real challenge to launch a band in the middle of a pandemic, but we are getting out there more and more and people are starting to take notice.
This is the thirteenth year I have been doing this festival/tour and it sells out everywhere we do it so get your tickets now!