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Odds Lane, 'Lost and Found' Debuts on Gulf Coast Records
A crunching guitar riff leads off "Don't Give it Away," from Lost and Found, the Gulf Coast Records debut for Odds Lane. Since its formation in 2003, the band is the collaboration of songwriters Doug Byrkit and Brian Zielie.
"(The title) comes from a Stephen King novel," Byrkit says. "When we first started writing together back in '03, we were the Breakthroughs for a while. It turns out there was a band with that name. They came to America, and Little Steven van Zandt signed them to his label and bought the name from us. And we said, 'Well we need another name, let's find something else in that book'."
Lost and Found is a mix of strong songwriting, some definite thought, and play between three people, Byrkit, Zielie, and guitarist/producer Mike Zito. More on him in a moment, as the songs took priority for me. The title track, the funky "Moth to a Flame," "Blood on the Van," and a cover of the Smithereens "White Castle Blues" are part of a solid outing, much out of the work the partners have put in over the decades.
"We started playing together in bands when we were in eighth grade," Byrkit says," so it's been twenty-five plus years. I'd have to get out the abacus to give you an exact time," he adds with a laugh, "but it's been a long time. It was really around the mid-aughts when we started wanting a vehicle for our stuff. We'd played together and worked on songs and done original material with other bands, but it was always in bands, there was somebody else. And it was never the two of us doing exactly what we wanted to do, but it's been almost a couple of decades of that, and I think we're starting to get an idea of what we want to do."
While Mike Zito has made a name for himself in the blues world, and through the launch of Gulf Coast Records, Byrkit and Zielie have a deeper connection. "This goes back twenty years we've known Mike," Byrkit explains. "We used to be in a band when he was still in St. Louis, and we all lived in a little tiny house that we rented from his sister. We played as a trio sometimes seven, eight times a week, and we basically lived together, played together for a couple years, till Mike kinda got a little lost and went down to Florida for a while."
Zito's past issues was a story the man himself told me about, and his return brought him back together with his old mates. "We reconnected with Mike many years later," Byrkit recalls. "He'd gotten himself sober and been doing really well; we kinda wanted to get back together to see if there was something still there, work-wise and playing wise. It culminated in the re-release of Blue Room, which we played on with Mike in 1998." (That album is a recent re-release, and worth looking for.)
Recorded in Zito's studio. Byrkit says Lost and Found hearkens back "...to that Blue Room, blues-rock style but me and Brian had so many influences other than that, that it's hard to not put them in.
"The style would just creep into whatever we're doing," Byrkit continues. "Brian is such a versatile drummer I can throw just about anything at him, and he'll be able to mold it into something like us. The other added influence on this one was having Mike as a producer, really helped to flesh out the better ideas, stuff that we wouldn't do on our own. Mike was in the room, kind of directing, leading the way. "
The changes in the blues are a subject I've written about in recent articles, and while some are concerned about the music changing too much, Byrkit feels it is good. "The thing about blues," he notes, "if you really learn the history, is that it was first and it's in everything. The blues have always been an influence on every style of music, and the widening of the door is letting more things through. I think it's a good thing, the more variety and different options you have can only lead to better and better music. The restrictions it must be this it must be that, we'll have this conversation with ourselves, a lot. It's all blues you know, why not, so put this extra jazz riff in if it's gonna help the song."
After some shows in new venues in Florida with Zito, Odds Lane is back in St. Louis for some area shows. Byrkit considers Lost and Found as a step forward in his work with Zielie. "I think we are just a couple of friends that have played music forever," he says. "We really enjoy doing it, and we try to put personal experiences into the songs, silly things, like 'Seven States,' talking about traveling, all kinds of things that fit very well to blues songs.
"We've just been friends this whole time, and that's one of the things that l would like people to know. We have fun making music together; we've been doing it together, we're gonna be doing it, and you know that's us, we're not trying to put on a front or anything like that. It's just what we do, and we hope people like it.
(Photos courtesy of Odds Lane, except where noted)
https://www.gulfcoastrecords.net
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