Mitch Ryder is a hero without honor in his homeland. One of America's most powerful rock & soul vocalists in the 1960s,
Ryder's bookings in the United States had tapered off by the '80s, and he's been mostly confined to the nostalgia circuit, where folks are happy to hear him sing "Devil with a Blue Dress On" for the umpteenth time and don't know or care if he's still writing and recording new material. For some reason,
Ryder has developed a strong and loyal following in Germany, where he's still considered a contemporary artist, and the sizable majority of his studio work from the '80s onward was cut for German labels and barely released in America (if at all). 2024's
The Roof Is on Fire allows us to hear what a German
Mitch Ryder show is like in the 21st century. Culled from three shows recorded in 2019 and 2020 as
Ryder was touring to celebrate his 75th birthday, this finds him backed by a crack band well-schooled in hard rock, blues, and soul. The sheer wallop generated by guitarists
Gisbert "Pitti" Piatkowski and
Heiner Witte, keyboard and harmonica man
Wolfram "Boddi" Bodag, multi-instrumentalist
Rene Decker, bassist
Manne Pokrandt, and drummer
Tobias Ridder sets this apart from the average oldies show, as does the set list.
Ryder's familiar hits don't make the cut; instead, he digs into edgier, more personal numbers from his own pen (like "Tough Kid," "Bang Bang," "Freezin' in Hell," and "Ain't Nobody White") along with a few covers that he and his band rework to their own specifications. The band plays with admirable force and commitment, and they're clearly happy to give their all for their frontman. As for
Ryder, his voice isn't as smooth or precise as it once was, but he doesn't seem too worried about it. He still sings with total commitment and the force of a hurricane, and the grain in his voice and the raspy moments take little away from the emotional impact he can generate in front of a microphone.
Mitch Ryder might not have a great voice in the 2020s, but he's truly a great singer, willing and able to communicate his work to his audience, and
The Roof Is on Fire documents him bloody but unbowed, an artist of lasting significance even if the folks at home don't seem to get it. ~ Mark Deming
