The rock ‘n’ roll elder statesman DION has released a brand-new track “I’ve Got To Get To You.”
His album ‘Blues With Friends’ released last June via Keeping The Blues Alive Records featured 13 tracks with special guests including Billy Gibbons, Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Beck, Paul Simon, Joe Bonamassa, Van Morrison, Brian Setzer, Sonny Landreth, Joe Louis Walker, Samantha Fish, Stevie Van Zandt and many more.
We thought his “Song For Sam Cooke” was a gentle acoustic strum, with lofty vocals, and a friendly sense of nostalgia. We said it clearly decanted the memory of a figurative America that Paul Simon once sought to find (in 1964) and we all once dreamed of… thus, it was a song that brought with it a profound sense of pertinent —possibly even threnetic — heartbreak.
We thought DION’s music collab with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons on “Bam Bang Boom” was “moody, mean and efficient…” while “Blues Comin’ On” (recorded with Joe Bonamassa) was a “high-tension roller […] filled with rawboned rhythms.”
Dion’s energy level has never been higher and to underscore this fact, he’s been hard at work over the past few months recording the follow up album to 2020’s successful album.. The new project — more details to come — will be out this fall on Joe Bonamassa’s independent label KTBA Records.
The new song features vocals from the great Boz Scaggs as well participation from the father and son guitar team of Mike and Joe Menza (the Menza Madison Band.) You may recall that Mike was one of the “Friends” on Blues With Friends.
Stream the new single here: https://bit.ly/DDGetToYou Watch the music video below.
“I’ve Got To Get To You” was written by Dion with long-time collaborator Mike Aquilina.
DiMucci-Aquilina songs have been recorded or performed by Van Morrison, Jeff Beck, Joe Louis Walker, Billy F. Gibbons, Sonny Landreth, Samantha Fish and many more. This one has an eager beat, lemon rind guitar and low scoops of greasy boogie. The vocals are breezy ‘n’ relentlessness!
To make music with friends, and make friends through music: I can’t imagine a better life than this!
DION
As far as the song’s lyric is concerned, Dion remarked, “I tried to get every form of transportation imaginable in this one…”
He notes, “Boz Scaggs is one of my wife Susan’s favorite singers, and I’m right there with her. For decades I’ve wanted to record a song with this guy. There’s no mistaking his voice for anyone else’s — and here it is, as pure and clear as ever, on ‘I’ve Got To Get To You.’
“I was inspired to write this song after a conversation with Roy Orbison more than fifty years ago. Now that Boz has sung on it, it’s finally done. It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Boz Scaggs was equally enthusiastic. He remarked, “Dion is one of my favourite singers. With a single phrase he can open up a wide range of musical experiences. His early rock foundation and doo-wop sets me free. His style — in words and music — is timeless and beautiful to me.”
Boz added: ‘I’ve Got To Get To You’ is a fun track… rockin’ guitars and Dion’s lyrics are wild. Our voices are a natural blend.”
Dion sums up his recent creative efforts most succinctly, “To make music with friends, and make friends through music: I can’t imagine a better life than this!”
Main photo credit: © Steve Celi