Richie Kotzen
Change

Richie Kotzen's career could inspire a movie: at the tender age of 17, launched by talent scout Mike Varney, he was among the best guitarists around, so much so that to find such young stars one must bring up the unfortunate Jason Becker and the Unspeakable Swede.

The term "shredder" seems coined precisely for the young Richie: the use of monstrous techniques combined with extreme speed but with an unusual mastery of melody make him an absolutely unique guitarist, capable of satisfying both the most intransigent technicians and lovers of good songs. After three excellent solo albums, in 1992, he gets a great opportunity, to join Bret Michaels' Poison in place of the fired CC Deville: hence the excellent 'Native Tongue' where one can appreciate Kotzen engaged in compositions more traditionally linked to American hard rock.

Probably, his entry into the band was due more to his "charmer" looks than his skills, but the partnership with Michaels & Co. lasted only one album, yet it gave us back a Richie mature and aware of his enormous potential. His interest in funk and fusion will attract the attention of Stanley Clarke and Lenny White, who will want him in the Vertu project. More fusion albums, two excellent ones with Greg Howe, collaborations with Billy Sheehan's Mr Big, then something changes in Richie.
Realizing his excellent vocal abilities and compositional ease, he decides to put aside his guitar hero career and focus on his passion for traditional American rock. This 'Change' clearly showcases the immense musical background of the talented guitarist, delighting us with sounds that are certainly not new but played with class and passion. It is the classic album to listen to on an endless American route, bordered by the desert, with dust parching your throat and the relentless sun peeking over your convertible.

Richie proves to be an excellent singer as well, with a slightly hoarse bluesy timbre, yet the aggressive opener Forever One, with its very distorted guitar with a vague Zeppelin flavor and the astounding central solo, still reminds us of the more virtuoso Kotzen. But already with the next Get a life, the tones calm down to make room for classic road movie pop rock. The splendid title track is an acoustic fresco to sing loudly while the blues of Good for me has the taste of Jack Daniels mixed with desert dust. The ballad High could make even the most romantic Eagles and west coast rock enthusiasts envious, while in Am I dreamin, rapid acoustic scales introduce us to a track with a vague gypsy flavor, perhaps one of the album's most successful. In Fast money fast cars, Richie revisits his passion for '70s disco funk, and despite the genre, its presence does not spoil the album's atmosphere, just like the swinging instrumental Unity.

One wonders why an artist who seems to have all the qualities to break through goes unnoticed. In short, the aesthetics are there (which is ugly to say, but it helps), and the music, while not trivial, is absolutely mainstream.
Perhaps the explanation is in his versatility that allows him to easily shift from rock to blues to fusion to funk, and these multiple influences might baffle the potential listener.

But we need not worry, Richie shrugs and continues undaunted to gift us with great music.