Over decades, many a Saturday night has been basted in the blues of a serious order, thanks to the hoary Santa Barbara Blues Society (SBBS), sneaking up on its 50th anniversary next year. The venues have changed, but the mission and the service remain. The Carrillo Recreation Center, steeped in history and outfitted with a spring-loaded dance floor, has been a more than happy home for several years now, and long may that relationship run.
Breaking slightly with tradition, the SBBS’s next Carrillo Rec show, featuring steamy fine bluesman Mike Zito, lands on a Thursday, May 28, but Saturday night vibes are sure to transpire. The St. Louis native Zito, now 55, excels on the borderland where deep blues and rock ‘n’ roll converge, with his dirty-toned Les Paul issuing fistfuls of gutsy riffs without a bottleneck, and sings with proper grit intact.