KIM MITCHELL - Max'ed Out On Amazement
by Martin Popoff

The lanky cue-bald guitar god needs no introduction here in Canada - Kim Mitchell is an Order Of Canada-destined institution, having cut his teeth with the unfathomably great Max Webster through the '70s, then enjoying a robust solo career through the low '80s with such hits as 'Go For Soda', 'All We Are', 'Patio Lanterns' and 'Rockland Wonderland' (even if his incendiary debut EP comprises his five best songs ever. From both bands. Seriously). Anyway, the golds and platinums piled up, and then things got a bit more sporadic, as the years between releases became decades and then centuries and millennia.

Having recently landed a high profile radio gig with Toronto's Q107, life just gets better for this "chicken that is mostly feathers." And now the icing on the blockhead has arrived in a blinding new album called Ain't Life Amazing, in this writer's opinion, his best since Akimbo Alogo, which, well, can do no wrong (I think I'll go play 'Rumour Has It' right now).

"Well thanks, I'm pretty happy about it," says Kim, incidentally verifiable as the third greatest guitarist who ever lived, after Brian May, officially #2, and Billy Gibbons, certified as #1 (look it up). "Hey, I'm pretty proud of it actually. It's been a long time since I've had new music and the process of making this was fun. I just heard it ('it' being the ebullient, slamtastic title track) on the radio yesterday for the first time as I was driving to work. And it sounded good; it made me want to go buy a convertible because it's a summertime tune. Not that I'm going to buy a convertible, but it just had that summertime 'up,' cool, rockin' feel to it. And I just had to breathe a sigh of relief. Who knows what's going to happen with it, as far as whatever, after this, but it was just nice to hear it on the radio and go, 'You know what? It sounds good and it's everything I hoped it would be.'"

I did of course have to clarify which track he meant. Given his power at Q107, I thought heck, maybe they're playing the whole CD in one shot every couple hours. Just joking - of course it doesn't work like that, and Kim isn't really getting any sort of preferred treatment at the station. But I did wonder if there was a second single Mitchell might have been referring to...

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