GUITARIST RICHIE KOZTEN RELEASES NEW SINGLE, “RAISE THE CAIN”
Guitarist/vocalist Richie Kotzen has just released a new solo single, Raise The Cain. The official lyric video which can be seen below, features a guest appearance Kozteb’s The Winer Dogs bandmate, drummer Mike Portnoy.
Raise The Cain marks the first new solo music from Kotzen since the release of his 22nd solo album, 50 For 50, which came out on February 3rd through his own custom label, Headroom-Inc. That three-disc set was just what the title implies: a collection of 50 previously unreleased compositions produced, performed and written by Kotzen in honor of his birthday.
The guitarist explained, via social media, his decision to release Raise The Cain, writing, “So after releasing a 50 song original album at the start of 2020 I had absolutely no intention of releasing any more new music at any point this year. At least after doing some touring to support the 50 for 50 release… Well, that didn’t happen…LOL. Suddenly I found myself like all of us locked up wondering what now? As one could have easily predicted I started receiving some new musical inspiration and new ideas from who knows where…
The nucleus of this song came out of a phone conversation I had with my fellow Winery Dog band mate @MikePortnoy at the start of our Covid quarantine. He mentioned his drums were miked up and that he had been doing some recording. I said ‘hey Mike, I’ve got an idea for you if you’re up for it… Take 4 or 5 different tempos and different grooves and lay down a few song forms. Pretend I’m jamming with you and record as if it were a song. Once you get them sorted send them off to me and I’ll see if I can edit some of your beats and possibly write them into songs.’
I ended up writing the riff to Mike’s 7/8 drum groove which then lead me down the road to completing a song which is Raise The Cain.
Initially I thought of sitting on the track to include on a full length album down the road, but then reality sank back in. Why bother? Why bother sitting on a finished track and letting it sit on a hard drive until who knows when? No good reason to do that so here we are with yet another RK single release featuring some badass drumming from Master @mikeportnoy..
I hope you all dig it!”
Back in April, Kozten released a self quarantined video for the song, As You Are, from his 50 for 50 album, which can be viewed here.
I recently read an article that Kotzen is working on a project with Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden. If true, I think that would be cool…..
I did, as well, but I wanted to wait until there was something concrete, before actually posting about it.