Blues With Friends Dion

• 1 Blues Comin’ On 04:48
• 2 Kickin’ Child 04:00
• 3 Uptown Number 7 03:51
• 4 Can’t Start Over Again 04:26
• 5 My Baby Loves To Boogie 05:19
• 6 I Got Nothin’ 05:05
• 7 Stumbling Blues 03:00
• 8 Bam Bang Boom 03:57
• 9 I Got The Cure 04:07
• 10 Song For Sam Cooke (Here In America) 04:25
• 11 What If I Told You 04:44
• 12 Told You Once In August 05:34
• 13 Way Down (I Won’t Cry No More) 02:58
• 14 Hymn To Him 04:30
• Total Runtime 01:00:44

Info for Blues With Friends

Dion’s Blues With Friends represents the fulfillment of a lifelong vision. Dion explains the album’s impetus, “I wanted an album of songs that were strong and memorable and told stories that were worth telling.” His songwriting efforts were supported by a cadre of great players, each of whom jumped at the chance to collaborate with a music legend they think of in heroic terms. He’s quick to point out just how enduring this creative relationship has been, “The blues have been at the heart of my music since the early 1960s. ‘The Wanderer’ is a twelve-bar blues and I was covering Willie Dixon and Jimmy Reed in my early years at Columbia — much to the dismay of my corporate masters.” That’s the way it’s long been for the man Lou Reed inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame more than thirty years ago. That night the normally taciturn Reed exalted, “And then there was Dion — whose voice was unlike any other I had heard before — a voice that stood on its own, remarkable and unmistakably from New York. Bronx soul.”

As one of the very few first-generation rock ‘n’ rollers still seriously pursing new avenues of expression, Dion’s Bronx soul is very much in evidence on this new album, a full-tilt blues offering. The blues songs therein are not “covers” nor Dion’s versions of blues standards. These compositions are, in fact, blues originals, destined to become classics in their own right. He came up with the music and words for twelve of them and finished those with co-writer Mike Aquilina. The two exceptions are “Hymn To Him” which Dion wrote with Bill Tuohy and “Kickin’ Child,” written with Buddy Lucas.

To tell those stories, Dion recruited help from a few notable friends and admirers. He thought, “I needed to round up the best guitarists and musicians alive and pick them from every generation, every variation of blues.” And that’s just what he did, surrounding himself with those who feel the blues spirit as he does.

The album’s guests include the cream of the contemporary scene’s blues-rooted slingers including Jeff Beck, Billy Gibbons, Joe Bonamassa, Brian Setzer, Sonny Landreth, Samantha Fish, John Hammond Jr., Joe Louis Walker, Rory Block , Jimmy and Jerry Vivino, vintage guitar guru Joe Menza as well as icons Stevie Van Zandt, Patti Scialfa, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison and Paul Simon. Yes, that’s a whole lot of star power but each participated not because of his or her marquee appeal but because of what each could add musically. The result is one reflective of nuanced devotion to the blues rather than a gratuitous display of individual virtuosity. It’s very much Dion’s album and those bold face names participating are most convincingly there for him.

For this outing, Dion worked with producer Wayne Hood in whose Florida studio the basic tracks were recorded. “From the first day, I was at home. We hit it off like brothers on a mission. We caught the same vision and sound and off we went.” Over the course of the last part of 2019 and the first part of 2020, the album began to take shape. Dion had the songs and the collaborators began to reveal themselves. As Dion tells it, he ran the album’s first track, “Blues Comin’ On,” past Joe Bonamassa. He noted, “It’s funny how a song evolves. For me it usually starts with a few words. In this case it was “If I didn’t know better" I wanted to sing those words, so I wrote a song around them. Joe Bonamassa is a monster and took the song to a whole new level.” Joe would be the first of many of Dion’s Blues With Friends co-conspirators.

Ever the no-nonsense sage, Dion bottom lined just what makes Blues With Friends a project for the ages: “Great songs, great guitarists. What more do you need?” he asks.

Dion, vocals, guitar
Joe Bonamassam, slide guitar
Jeff Beck, guitar
Brian Setzer, rhythm guitar
John Hammond, harmonica, slide guitar
Van Morrison, vocals
Joe Louis Walker, lead guitar
Jimmy Vivino, guitar
Jerry Vivino, saxophones
Billy Gibbons, lead guitar
Sonny Landreth, slide guitar
Paul Simon, vocals
Samantha Fish, lead guitar
Stevie Van Zandt, guitar
Wayne Hood, guitars, bass, Wurlitzer electric piano, Hammond organ, drums
Patti Scialfa, vocals
Bruce Springsteen, guitar
Patti Scialfa, backing vocals

Dion DiMucci
Singer Dion DiMucci, better known simply as Dion, epitomized the indigenous music of the Bronx streets where he was raised. Dion was born on July 18, 1939, and was raised in the Little Italy section of the Bronx. He started singing at a young age, and he had a variety of musical influences. As he wrote in his autobiography: "I was picking up influences from all over the place, mixing in early R&B with doo-wop. Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley and, of course, Elvis. In other words, like every other teenager in America, I was discovering rock & roll."In 1957, he teamed up with three neighborhood pals – Fred Milano, Angelo D'Aleo and Carlo Mastrangelo – to form a vocal group that earned a reputation as the best street-corner singers for miles. Dion and the Belmonts (named for Belmont Avenue, in the Bronx) perfected four-part harmonies while falling under the spell of rock and roll. Dion, a tenor, became the group's lead vocalist. His father was eager to help Dion break into the big time and arranged a meeting for him with the head of Mohawk Records, a small New York label. Dion auditioned by singing the Five Satins' "Wonderful Girl." He became the second artist signed to the label. However, the Belmonts were not part of the deal.Dion's first single, "The Chosen Few," created a stir in the Boston area, prompting Dion to quit school and pursue his career full time. He then convinced Mohawk – which had changed its name to Laurie Records -- to bring the Belmonts on board, and in 1958, Dion and the Belmonts recorded their first Top 40 hit, "I Wonder Why." They followed that with "No One Knows" and "Don't Pity Me." A year later, they cracked the Top 10 with "A Teenager in Love," written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. That winter, as the single moved up the charts, Dion and the Belmonts joined the Winter Dance Party, a package tour. Because he balked at paying the $35 it would have cost him, Dion, who was 19, declined an invitation to fly on the chartered plane that went down on February 3, 1959, killing fellow musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson. Dion and the Belmonts scored their biggest hit, "Where or When," in 1960, but the group found itself being steered in a polished, adult-pop direction, so Dion left to reclaim his rock and roll roots. His first solo hit was "Lonely Teenager," which reached the Top 20. Then, in 1961, he hit upon a loose, swaggering style that he could call his own with the songs "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer." At this time, Dion was nearly alone among all the "teen idols" in attempting to equal the sultry charge that Elvis Presley had brought to rock and roll. Other hits in the same swinging, spontaneous vein followed: "Lovers Who Wander," "Little Diane," "Ruby Baby" and "Donna the Prima Donna."Dion's star subsequently dimmed in the wake of the British Invasion and some personal setbacks that included a struggle with drug addiction. However, he re-emerged in 1968 with a more introspective, folk-based style that earned him his 11th Top 10 song, a thoughtful ode to slain martyrs entitled "Abraham, Martin and John." He then released a folkish version of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" and recorded an album that included covers of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan songs. By 1969, he had signed with Warner Bros. Records and released Sit Down, Old Friend, You're Not Alone and Sanctuary.In 1973, Dion reunited with the Belmonts for a concert at Madison Square Garden that resulted in a well-received live album, Reunion. In 1979, Dion became a born-again Christian and began adding Christian music to a stylistic canon that includes folk, doo-wop, rhythm & blues and rock and roll. In 1987, he performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and the show was released as a two-CD live album. The following year, his autobiography, The Wanderer: Dion's Story, was published.In 2002, Dion's "Runaround Sue" was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2009, Dion performed "The Wanderer" with Paul Simon at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden. He has continued to perform and release albums, including Tank Full of Blues, which came out in 2012.

This album contains no booklet.