You'd Bitch At A Cloud

Hey Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew just dropped the needle on something raw and real from deep in the Texas dirt, "You'd Bitch At A Cloud" by the one and only John Nitzinger off his album Kiss Of The Mudman. That track hits like a long ride down a dusty highway with the wind in your face and no apologies in the tank. It's pure rock and roll grit from a Fort Worth legend who never stopped spinning the truth, even when the road got rough as hell. You can catch the full ride and all the freeform album rock magic over at THE ZOO, where we keep the classics alive without any commercial static getting in the way.

Kiss Of The Mudman came out around 2007 on Nitzinger's own independent label after years of waiting, and it stands as a testament to the trials and tribulations he walked through to get there. Recorded right there in Fort Worth at Eagle Audio Recording, it carries that signature Texas rock and blues sound he helped shape back in the day. Folks who know the man's journey say this one ranks among his best work, a comeback that feels like he finally got to lay it all out without holding back. The album got picked up later by SPV Records over in Germany and then by BMG, spreading that Fort Worth fire across the water. But the real story behind the music runs deeper than any chart position. While he was putting this record together, Nitzinger was fighting his way through cancer, a stroke, and a bout of pneumonia. It took him about five years to finish the thing, and he called it a celebration of eleven years of sobriety at the time. He told interviewers it was incredible he was even here to make it, and the songs carry that hard-won clarity. Tracks like "Calling" from the same album speak to reaching out to anyone who cares, stepping up when a brother is down, no looking the other way. "You'd Bitch At A Cloud" fits right into that honest, no-nonsense vibe, the kind of cut that doesn't sugarcoat the ride. It's the sound of a man who has been through the wringer and still has the fire to crank the amps and tell it straight. Nitzinger has always been about that Texas edge, from his early days writing for Bloodrock to touring with the big names, and this album feels like the full circle where he poured the personal battles into the grooves.

That same spirit shows up in how he has given back since then. After the health battles, he founded Nitzinger's Music Factory to teach kids and adults how to play, sing, and write their own songs, especially working with inner-city youth on the east side of Fort Worth. Rock camps, workshops, the whole deal, pushing originality, spirituality, and staying clean and sober. He has spoken at schools, hospitals, and prisons, sharing the message that music is the most powerful tool we have for turning things around. You can dig into the full story and more of his work on his official site at nitzinger.com, and catch updates from the man himself on the official Facebook page at Nitzinger on Facebook.

Now let's roll back to how this Fort Worth son got started in the first place, because the roots run deep into the local scene of the mid-sixties. John Nitzinger was born August 29, 1948, right there in Fort Worth, and he picked up the guitar when he was about nine years old. He had wanted to be a tap dancer at first, then thought an accordion would be the ticket after watching Lawrence Welk on the tube, but his folks could not swing that, so they handed him a Gibson acoustic instead. That guitar stuck. By junior high he had formed The Barons, a local band that played sock hops, Teen A-Go-Go events, and school dances all over the Fort Worth teen circuit. They cut about four singles and even turned up on local TV like Sump'n Else. The scene was wild back then, with after-hours spots like The Cellar running from six in the evening until six in the morning, bands rotating through hour slots to build their chops, and the whole place buzzing with that raw energy. Nitzinger was right in the middle of it. In 1968 he cut two singles, "Plastic Window" and "Life Of John Doe," produced by a young T Bone Burnett at Sound City Studios. They did not get much airplay, but the experience put him on the path. There was even a wild stretch where Huey Meaux hired him to stand in as a fake Sir Douglas Quintet after Doug Sahm got busted, complete with wigs and a tour through Louisiana. That is the kind of rock and roll story that only comes out of Texas in those years.

The big break came when Jim Rutledge from the band Crowd + 1 walked into a gig at The Cellar and heard Nitzinger's original songs. Rutledge's new outfit, Bloodrock, needed material, and Nitzinger ended up writing half the songs across five of their albums. Bloodrock 2 went gold, and that opened the door for Nitzinger's own Capitol deal. His self-titled debut hit in 1972, followed by One Foot in History in 1973, with tracks like "Louisiana Cockfight" becoming the kind of regional classic that still gets covered. He toured hard, opening for B.B. King at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, sharing stages with Leon Russell, Freddie King, and the rest of the heavy hitters. There were international stops too, like the Mar y Sol festival in Puerto Rico alongside the Allman Brothers and Alice Cooper. Later came the 20th Century album Live Better Electrically, the PM project with Carl Palmer, and writing and touring with Alice Cooper on Special Forces and Zipper Catches Skin. Through it all, that Fort Worth fire never dimmed. He has always been the concept guy with the guitar, turning the local grind into something that traveled the world and then came back home to keep teaching the next wave how to keep the rock and roll spirit alive. That is the long ride that leads right into a track like "You'd Bitch At A Cloud," a song that carries the weight of all those miles and still rocks like it is the first time out on the highway.

So crank it up, Zoo Freaks. This is the real Texas deal, straight from the man who helped build the sound and then rebuilt himself to keep delivering it. The Zoo Crew will keep spinning these deep cuts for you, and you can always roll over to the station to hear more of the freeform album rock that keeps the freaks rolling.