{"id":1311838,"date":"2019-06-26T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/big-blues-band-experience-comes-to-rifles-ute-theater-thursday-night\/"},"modified":"2019-06-26T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T19:00:00","slug":"big-blues-band-experience-comes-to-rifles-ute-theater-thursday-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/big-blues-band-experience-comes-to-rifles-ute-theater-thursday-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Blues Band Experience comes to Rifle\u2019s Ute Theater Thursday night"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Blues man Mike Zito brings the ultimate blues big band to the Ute Theater at 8 p.m. tonight in RIfle.<\/strong>
Mike Zito<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The ultimate blues big band is coming to Rifle to play the Ute Theater at 8 p.m. Thursday.<\/p>\n

The band is led by blues man Mike Zito, who originally hails from St. Louis, Mo. but has been living in Texas for the last 16 years.<\/p>\n

This show features a seven-piece big band sound \u2014 drums, organ\/piano, bass, rhythm guitar, sax, trumpet and Zito on lead guitar.<\/p>\n

Zito said the big band is a culmination of years of trying to do something different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always loved BB King, and I always liked that he had a big band sound but still played the guitar,\u201d Zito said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really special. We are only doing like 15 shows this year with the whole band. It\u2019s a really great show, and it\u2019s a very much a blues-oriented type show,\u201d<\/p>\n

The band will play songs from BB King and Albert King, to name a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited were able to do four shows in Colorado, and coming to different parts of the state,\u201d said Zito, who has been playing Colorado for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a great place for live music.\u201d<\/p>\n

This will be Zito\u2019s first time at the Ute Theater. He said he has heard nothing but great things about the venue.<\/p>\n

He added the show will bring a big sound and high energy to the Ute stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a sit back and relax, quiet evening. It\u2019s definitely a very lively show to get people up and dancing,\u201d Zito said.<\/p>\n

BIRTH OF THE BLUES MAN<\/p>\n

Growing up in St. Louis, Zito\u2019s family wasn\u2019t musically inclined, and they were stunned when a young 8-year-old Zito came home asking for a guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard \u2018Eruption\u2019 by Van Halen, and I had never heard anything like it. I ran home and said I had to have a guitar,\u201d Zito said. \u201cMy mom and dad bought me one from the J.C. Penny\u2019s catalog.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has been playing guitar and writing music ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t say I knew what I was doing, and I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing now. I\u2019ve developed my own style over the years, learning to play my songs and my music,\u201d Zito said.<\/p>\n

He penned his own songs and gravitated to the blues, because of the improvisational characteristic to it, where he said he could be free.<\/p>\n

Zito has been making records for over 20 years, and got his first big recording contract 12 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat kind of changed everything, and got me on the national scene, got me touring,\u201d Zito said. \u201cI\u2019ve been really fortunate in that respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a time, Zito was a member of the Royal Southern Brotherhood, a successful band with Cyril Neville, Devon Allman and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a big boost for my career,\u201d Zito said.<\/p>\n

He admits it wasn\u2019t all easy. Along the way there was drugs and alcohol \u2014 screwing up and all kinds of stuff, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are better these days,\u201d Zito said.<\/p>\n

kmills@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blues man Mike Zito brings the ultimate blues big band to the Ute Theater at 8 p.m. tonight in RIfle.Mike Zito The ultimate blues big band is coming to Rifle to play the Ute Theater at 8 p.m. Thursday. The band is led by blues man Mike Zito, who originally hails from St. Louis, Mo. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1311838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-08 13:33:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}