A Few Words From The President

Ana Popovic arrived in Los Angeles from Amsterdam on February 4th just as Rand Chortkoff, Kelly Davis, Frank Roszak and I were returning from the International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis. In spite of the long flight, Ana was as radiant as ever and couldn’t wait to start work on the “Still Making History” remix with Rudy Maya. The album will contain 8 remixed versions of the album’s songs and two brand new originals. Let me tell you, they are all entirely new tracks and definitely different. The remix project is designed to take Ana to a new level and a new audience and something we have been planning on doing since the album was first released. Everyone who has heard the remix and the original recordings express amazement and excitement over the impending release. Personally, I loved the old album and it just keeps on being one of our top selling albums both here in America, throughout Europe, Down Under and throughout the Far East and Asia.

I am convinced that this new album will be a huge commercial success and will cross Ana over to a whole new audience without losing her already considerable fan base. I think she is well on her way to becoming one the top performers in the world, and deserveably so. She is, of course, fantastic, and those of you who have watched her perform know what I’m talking about. But, her biggest fans to date know her as a “Blues Artist.” That’s like calling Eric Clapton a “Blues Artist.” There’s no question that both Eric and Ana are incredible Blues artists, but both qualify as cross-over artists. With this new remix album, I am confident that Ana will be getting the recognition she deserves very soon.

After fourteen weeks on the Billboard Blues Charts, Ana’s “Still Making History” dropped off for a week.  But, as I write this the second week of February, I received a chart alert for the 2/16/08 Billboard issue date showing the album’s re-entry at #12 back on those charts. And, as we go to press, the Billboard 2/28/08 chart is showing the album still in the top 15. It continues its strong showing, despite its close to 4 month run.

I am convinced that both albums will be collector’s items. In that regard, “Still Making History” is an appropriate title. Of course, I’m prejudiced, because I am an incredible fan. But, if you read the reviews of her album and her performances, you will see I am not the only one!

I’ve been checking in with Jason Ricci & New Blood everyday to make sure these hard-working road warriors don’t kill themselves on the road. All winter long, they have braved snow and ice-storms all through the Northwest and gone places day after day in horrible weather no one would expect was possible.

If you read Jason's account of what happened to him last month in Sharon, Pennsylvania, during a performance there, you’ll understand what I mean. In short, while performing at a club there on Monday night, the club manager became a bit over-enthralled dancing in front of the band in the midst of an electrifying set.  Jason, caught up in the usual passion of his music, was totally oblivious to the fact that the inebriated manager was toting a strippers' pole as he danced in a frenzy and turned, smacking Jason in the head, knocking him backwards and leaving him on the floor, unconscious.  Now most of you know Jason and the band perform about 320 shows a year coast to coast no matter what the season or the weather, and calling them all road warriors is probably an understatement. From battling raging snowstorms and impossible conditions  in order to bring his special brand of music and performances to thousand of ski fans in snow country, to lounging on the golden beaches of Florida while most of us in the country are freezing. To be fair, of course, the band performs nightly wherever they are, sometimes in the afternoon and evening.

By the way, while Jason and the band were performing in Key West this week, Jason found time to do a guest artist role on a track for Walter Trout’s new CD “The Outsider.” Interestingly, Jason & New Blood’s producer, John Porter, were re-united there, as the legendary Mr. Porter was producing Walter as well.  In Jason’s words, “How many people get to perform with John twice in six months on two amazing projects?  I couldn’t be happier about all this.”

Be sure to check out Jason Ricci & New Blood’s upcoming dates on our website and if you’ve never attended one of their dates, do it as soon as possible. You won’t be disappointed, I promise! While you’re at it, look at the incredible reviews both the shows and the CD are garnering everywhere. That should give you reason enough to realize he’s well on his way to become a legendary force on the music scene.

Mike Zito’s new album, “Today,” although not due out officially until May 20th, is already garnering major critical reviews. The first single, “Love Like This” goes to radio March 24th, and we feel very confident that you are going to react very favorably to not just the song, but Mike himself. We are preparing a major promotional campaign for Mike and we are expecting very big things from him.  I think you are going to find that with all the pessimism and negativity in the world today and the concern with the economy, the war, the health care situation, and the political climate, Mike is a much needed and long awaited breath of fresh air. Zito’s music conveys a positive and inspirational message and we think it’s going touch you and rock you in a way that no artist has done in a long time. Mike himself has overcome many obstacles on his life, one of which was addiction.   Now, after 6 years being sober he has turned his life around and hopes that through his music he can help those on the road to recovery as well as enlighten all of our daily lives with his message.

Mike is another road warrior, timelessly touring the country. Check out his schedule and if you’ve never seen him before, make it a point when he is in your vicinity to spend an incredible evening  you won’t forget.

Here, at Eclecto Groove Records, we have some other really exciting and interesting new acts set to debut on our label in the coming months. You’ll be reading and hearing about them, as well as Ana, Jason and Mike, for a long time to come on these pages, on the radio and in live performances near you.

As always, we enjoy and value your input and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Robert Fitzpatrick