Customer Reviews

It Was All Right: Mitch Ryder's Life in Music (Painted Turtle Books)

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The rock-and-roll lifestyle of the second half of the twentieth century the was the hectic lifestyle that so many people want to live. "It Was All Right: Mitch Ryder's Life in Music" follows famed artist Mitch Ryder as he relates his life story of nearly half a century in the music industry, making over 8,000 performances. Ryder's biography is well-written and enthralling, sprinkled with great road stories, and highly recommended for community library music collections as well as to any fan of the man himself.

Author James Mitchell obviously has a deep well of respect for Mitch Ryder. This respect is not only for his brand of blue-eyed soul, but for Ryder's later self-penned work. But this bio is flawed in many ways. A fact checker would have helped (Mitchell has Mike Bloomfield as a member of the Blues Project and writes of rock festivals occurring that never got off the ground). His timeline is erratic as events skip forward and backwards - years at a time - with little transition. Too much is made of Ryder's post-Detroit Wheels years, as crucial as they may be to many. Mitchell should be given his props for finding a publisher to put out Mitch's bio, but until Mitch finishes his long-promised autobiography fans will have to settle for Mitchell's earnest, but flawed, book.

I have been a Mitch Ryder fan sinsce the 1960's. To this end, I was excited when I heard about this book. It filled in a lot of the blanks as to why this very talented man seemed to de-rail at various times in his career. It's all there in black and white.It Was All Right: Mitch Ryder's Life in Music (Painted Turtle Books)