Artist: RICHIE ZITO'S AVALON
Album: AVALON (CD)

Release date: 2006
Media type: CD

If there’s one guy who is able to push people, I have to mention Serafino Perugino (president of Frontiers Records), because it was he who kept asking Richie Zito to make an album.

Zito started his musical career as a session guitarist in L.A. somewhere in the 70s, but became really famous in the 80s as songwriter and producer for mega acts such as Bad English, Cheap Trick, Joe Cocker, The Cult, Heart, Eddie Money, The Motels, Mr. Big, Open Skyz, Tyketto and White Lion.

“Avalon”, subtitled “The Richie Zito Project”, must be like a dream come true for Richie. The album features a total of 12 tracks, all co-written by Zito, except for “Oh Samantha”, which was written by the man alone. Recorded with artists he had the pleasure of working with in the past, “Avalon” features no less than nine vocalists and four of them can be heard on two songs: Hugo Valenti, Eddie Money, Eric Martin and Philip Bardowell. The material can be classified as pure AOR and is of a huge quality. What makes this album so captivating, are the performances of the different lead vocalists. All of them perform well, but personally I would have heard other performers than Eddie Money on “Nightmare” and Richie Kotzen on “Forever I Will”, because their performances fall a little bit short if compared with the other ones on the rest of the album. Anyway, among my favourite tracks for the moment are opener “Blue Collar” (Hugo Valenti), “Oh Samantha” (Joseph Williams), “Avalon” (Danny Vaughn) and - last but certainly not least - “I Can’t Forget You” plus “Good Things Take Time”, both sung by an excellent Philip Bardowell!

Supported by great musicians and superbly produced by Zito himself, this is surely a project that screams for a follow-up. Conclusion: another must have album from Frontiers Records, today’s best suppliers of all things melodic rock!

TRACKLIST:

01. Blue Collar (featuring HUGO)
02. Is He Better Than Me (featuring JOE LYNN TURNER)
03. Nightmare (featuring EDDIE MONEY)
04. Oh Samantha (featuring JOSEPH WILLIAMS)
05. Avalon (featuring DANNY VAUGHN)
06. Life Got In The Way (featuring ERIC MARTIN)
07. Blue Monday (featuring GIORGIO MORODER and HUGO)
08. Forever I Will (featuring RICHIE KOTZEN)
09. I Can't Forget You (featuring PHILIP BARDOWELL)
10. I Put My Life In Your Hands (featuring EDDIE MONEY)
11. Good Things Take Time (featuring PHILIP BARDOWELL)
12. I Don't Want To Want You (featuring ERIC MARTIN)

LINE-UP:

Richie Zito (g, b, sy, ma)
Hugo Valenti (v)
Joe Lynn Turner (v)
Eddie Money (v)
Joseph Williams (v)
Danny Vaughn (v)
Eric Martin (v)
Giorgio Moroder (v)
Richie Kotzen (v)
Philip Bardowell (v)
Tommy Decker (d)
Greg Bissonette (d)
Davey Duke (bv)
Ken Pacheco (bv)
Jason Turbin (st)
Joey Carbone (pi)
Marcus Brown (k)