Dion Di Mucci Alias "Dion" erblickte am 18. Juli 1939 in der New Yorker Bronx das Licht der Welt. Mit 12 Jahren schenkte ihm sein Onkel eine gebrauchte Gitarre und Dion machte es sich fortan zur Aufgabe, das Musikinstrument zu erlernen und sich für Blues- und Country Music zu interessieren. Schon bald wurde er auf die Musik von Hank Williams aufmerksam und komponierte erste Songs.

Anno 1957 nahm er für "Mohawk Records" einen ersten Longplayer auf und rief seine Begleitband "The Belmonts" ins Leben. Im April 1958 gelang "Dion And The Belmonts" mit "I Wonder Why" ein grosser Hit. Der Song erreichte Platz 5 der Billboard Charts und machten Dion zu einem erfolgreichen Vertreter des Woo-Wop.

Bis heute releaste Dion 15 Studioalben und feierte mit diversen Kompositionen Top-Ten Platzierungen. Darunter finden sich Evergreens wie "Sunaround Sue", "The Wanderer", "Where Or When", "Ruby Baby", "Donna The Prima Donna", "Drip Drop" oder "Abraham, Martin and John".

Am 5. Juni 2020 kommt Dions brandneues Album in den Handel. "Blues With Friends" ist ein Kompilationsalbum mit zahlreichen Gästen wie Joe Bonamassa, Brian Setzer, Jeff Beck, John Hammond, Van Morrison, Jimmy Vivino, Billy Gibbons, Sonny Landreth, Paul Simon, Samantha Fish, Steven Van Zandt, Patti Scialfa und Bruce Springsteen.

Bruce Springsteen und Ehefrau Patti Scialfa steuerten zu "Blues With Friends" den Song "Hymn To Him" bei. "Hymne To Him" stammt aus Dions 1987er Gospelalbum "Velvet & Steel".
 
Tracklist - "Blues With Friends":

"Blues Comin' On" (mit Joe Bonamassa)
"Kickin' Child" (mit Joe Menza)
"Uptown Number 7" (mit Brian Setzer)
"Can't Start Over Again" (mit Jeff Beck)
"My Baby Loves to Boogie" (mit John Hammond Jr.)
"I Got Nothin'" (mit Van Morrison und Joe Louis Walker)
"Stumbling Blues" (mit Jimmy Vivono und Jerry Vivino)
"Bam Bang Boom" (mit Billy Gibbons)
"I Got the Cure" (mit Sonny Landreth)
"Song for Sam Cooke (Here In America)" (mit Paul Simon)
"What If I Told You" (mit Samantha Fish)
"Told You Once in August" (mit John Hammond Jr. und Rory Block)
"Way Down (I Won't Cry No More)" (mit Steven Van Zandt)
"Hymn to Him" (mit Patti Scialfa und Bruce Springsteen)

Offizielle Pressemeldung:

Dion’s Blues With Friends, CD out June 5, 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 thecollaborators 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 Friendsco-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’s Blues With Friendswill be released on June 5th through Keeping The Blues Alive Records, a new label started by Joe Bonamassa and his manager Roy Weisman and is an offshoot of Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation, Bonamassa’s non-profit that aims to conserve the art of music and the rich culture and history of the blues. The label’s objective is to provide a platform for musical talent in blues and blues-rock based music and to help encourage the careers of extraordinary musical talent. 10%of all profits from the label will be donated back to the Non-Profit for promoting music education to students and schools in need.