RITCHIE KOTZEN

 
 

My memories towards Ritchie Kotzen go long way back.

I guess it was somewhere in the middle of the eighties, maybe end of, when Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records did send me a demo over, asking what I thought of the stuff on „that” tape with Ritchie Kotzen written on it. Yes, we are indeed talking about those good old days, featuring demo tracks on cassette… and if the dream would come true, maybe even a recorddeal to follow up. I did work a bit with Mike in the early eighties, when he just started his Recordlabel as a young guy, full of R&R dreams (hopes and goals) and my name even ended up on some of his first US METAL releases during those magic moments.

Back to that demo and back to when it all started, it is not really needed to say that Kotzen has travelled a long way since. Somehow I must say that my interest in his music had some serious hills to climb. Going up and sometimes falling even deeper down. Of course there was his period in Poison, his amazing Project with Greg Howe, his work with Mr. Big and for sure not to forget, his immense victory with the Winery Dogs… But solo-wise I did miss a few steps in his career. Let’s say somewhere between 2000 and 2010 I kinda lost him out of sight.


As writing the words „victory” before, I must say it is an understatement, when Ritchie returned with Mike Portnoy and Billy Sheehan to give it a hit once again, when their debut album came out in 2013. I must say, at the first moments I was full of anger. Winery Dogs should have been the project of Mike, Billy and John Sykes, right? Sykes, one of my all-time heroes, since he first picked up his guitar with the Tygers of Pan Tang and blew away the complete Ian Gillan Band during their first big European Tour… Probably the one who could NEVER be replaced before the project was started, anyway not in my mind! :-) But I was wrong… so wrong. When the album of the Dogs hit the streets I was smashed with my head flat on the ground. When I saw them live in Germany I was thrilled to have witnessed the Best Concert of the Year 2013 and when their double DVD Live in Japan was released I just happened to pick it up in the best recordshop in Tokyo and listened for the rest of my Japanese stay just to one gig…  (And I must say Tokyo owns quite a lot of good bootleg shops!). What an awesome release!


One of the reasons why the Winery Dogs cd is so great is the fact that Ritchie Kotzen is the main person who carries the whole project. Don’t understand me wrong, I am one of the biggest Portnoy-Sheehan admirers (I’m too old to be a „fan") on this planet (And I will be the rest of my life) but Ritchie… Well he is the main character in this road movie. Let’s be fair and honest; The Winery Dogs album could have been a perfect solo cd of Kotzen. Most of the songs are written (lyrics) or co-written by Kotzen and if I remember it right, some songs made it also as a  RK demotrack, even before there was talk of a Winery Dogs band (Damaged and Regret, right?).


I am pretty sure that if Ritchie will/would read this review, he would say „what the f**ck” is he talking about the Winery Dogs, it should be about me, my solo-band… right?

Right! But not completely! The Winery Dogs were the reason why I started to dig back into Ritchie back catalogue, and bought myself the most of his 2000 releases.

Hell,… I missed a lot! If I got it right by now he managed to play 19 solo albums full, and as he said during the gig at Spirit of 66, his 20th is on it’s way.

Should you go out and get all those 20 solo efforts right away? Not really needed, as Kotzen’s recordlabel just put out a triple „The Essential”-album featuring something like 23 songs and 11 of his videos… And I’m pretty sure that this „Greatest Hits” is enough to start with (SO GET IT!).


So "enough to start with…” is probably also the reason of this small European tour! I mean the man has such a great „repertoire” on it’s own, that it would be ridiculous not to do a tour to support this „Best of” on the road. Which brings us to the tour and the gig in Verviers.The thing I have to say right in front... and the thing I will never get (I FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE…) is the fact that Belgium might be blessed with hundreds or more guitarplayers who play in a rock (and roll) band… and who consider themselves to be a part of the R&R universe… and than, when you go out to a gig like this, you see NONE of them. I mean, there should be hundreds of them, FIGHTING for the front row and look, watch with their mouth wide open. But no, I guess they prefer festivals, where some bands play their „Best of” of the last years, do their job, smile and go home!


Let’s make a statement! The best gigs I saw during the last years are ONE BY ONE club concerts. Gigs where musicians go back to their roots, go back hand in hand with their feelings… Smile, make a joke…. And say: "I like what I am f**cking doing righ here! Wanna hear another song???"

Kotzen is such a musician, no doubt about that. From the moment he walks on the stage, you see he enjoys what he’s doing! He could have sell out the same night a gig with the Dogs somewhere in the States for a crowd of maybe 2000 or 3000 people, but no… The guy was right here, right now… And enjoying HIS gig in front of maybe 150 people. 


And let’s be honest,…It’s a long time ago I saw a crowd standing with their mouth quite far open. What they saw right here, right then is history.

No Sheehan or Portnoy to back him up, but he brought two lads over from the States who kicked ass. Sorry maybe I didn’t get the musicians names right (Dylan Wilson and Mike Bennett?) , but saying they were awesome is an understatement. For sure also grew up far away from the metal school, but this is what the sound and vibe made so special. The bass player HOPping around in a WU-TANG T-shirt, describes maybe best what was going on, on stage. A mix of rock, blues, fusion, sometimes in a funky way combined with a dose of spirit (of 66?) which digged into the veins of many other musical directions! The drum-bass solo was awesome, Ritchie taking over the drums hoping that the drummer would start to sing „Stand”… But ok, I guess that would have been asked for too much.


Highlight of the evening for me, was when -indeed- that rhythm section left the stage and Ritchie started his song on it’s own… Left alone with his Brown Sunburst to protect him and his fragile, almost vulnerable soul. I am not the guy who writes down each song title, and for sure I can’t recall the order of the songs, but Ritchie made a terrific choice out of his collection. In fact  the songs of the gig come quite close towards the first CD of „The Essential” starting of with "War paint", having „Love is Blind” and „Go Faster” in the back pocket as songs that can blew every audience away. Two new songs hit the stage, if I remember right „Cannibals” and „Walk with me”, which is also the second song on his new triple cd.


Kotzen used ONE guitar during the full songlist. ONE! Sometimes you go out for a „Acoustic/solo night with…” and you see that the main „character" has to change guitars with every song, because "that guitar sounds solo much better with thàt track". All bullshit"! Intimate and down to earth, that’s how to describe a Ritchie Kotzen concert the best. No space for „All along the watchtower” although I thought he could roll into it in the middle of „Love is Blind”, no time for „Stand”; although the crowd wouldn’t have mind for sure. I hoped for a „dressed out” version of „Regret” or „Damaged”, but Kotzen didn’t touch any Winery Dogs stuff. A pity, as the Winery Dogs NEVER played Belgium so far, but on the other hand also a sign of his own power. Kotzen solo doesn’t need any Winery Dogs song, doesn’t need anything from „outside”… He has such a great bunch of songs, that he could fill up easily a double show on his own.


In Verviers he left the audience breathless and with their mouth wide open. Kotzen wrote history. On his own, in HIS own way!

I saw quite a lot of bands in 2014 and for me this was the second best gig of the year!  Could it have been better…? Maybe yes!. When the gig was not even half way, suddenly I had Layla Zoe standing right in front of me, just coming out of nowhere. La Zoe, for most people probably unknown, but this Canadian „diva”  has definitely one of the best female blues voices around these days. There must be a reason why they call her „Canada’s Darling of the Blues”, right? For a moment I hoped, I even believed, that we would witness something extra (ordinary) that same evening. „Paying Dues” in a duet? 

Or in his own words... „Help me, Lady. Help me remember. Help me I’m unfortunate. Lady I’m just a poor boy”. Would they mind writing Belgian history together? No way, this trio didn’t need help! 

To be honest maybe Ritchie never heard of this lady before…


So a resumee… Give me one bloody reason NOT to go out and see Kotzen alive in Holland on the 18th in „De Boerderij” in Zoetermeer or de „Groene Engel” in Oss one day later. And yes, we would be ashamed not to mention: Layla Zoe’s dates on the 14th of November in de Bosuil in Weert and on the 5th of December in our „own” Spirit” of 66. Ritchie Kotzen announced his new solo CD comin’ up later this year/early next year… But for now. Still 6 cd’s missing in my Ritchie Kotzen collection. Gotta get things moving, gotta get things done. If God  only would have told me to keep and cherish those early Varney-tapes for ever and ever…



ALL PICTURES © PURE ART bvba

Taken by DOMINIKA WALUS and JOHAN LEURS

Text: JOHAN LEURS


Interested in our pictures? info@pure-art.be

(Last picture photograph Dominika with Layla Zoe).

RITCHIE KOTZEN