The unsung heart and soul of the Motor City rock & roll scene, Mitch Ryder is one of the most powerful vocalists to rise to fame in the '60s, a full-bodied rock belter who is also one of the most credible blue-eyed soul men of his generation. He first made a nationwide impression fronting Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, whose fiery R&B attack boasted a gritty passion and incendiary energy matched by few artists on either side of the color line. After exploding onto the charts in 1966 and 1967 with singles like "Jenny Take a Ride" and "Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly," Ryder went solo on the advice of producer Bob Crewe, though albums like 1967's What Now My Love and 1969's The Detroit-Memphis Experiment lacked the fire of the Detroit Wheels hits and didn't fare as well on the charts. After scoring regional success with the hard rock band Detroit, Ryder dropped out of music until he issued 1978's How I Spent My Vacation, a powerful and personal set that showed he was still a powerful vocalist and a songwriter with a unique point of view. While 1983's Never Kick a Sleeping Dog (produced by John Mellencamp) gave him a hit with a cover of Prince's "When You Were Mine," he was widely seen as an oldies act in the United States, but he enjoyed a contemporary career in Europe, especially Germany, where he performed often and released fresh material, reaching a high-water mark with 2012's Don Was-produced The Promise, while 2024's live set, The Roof Is On Fire, showed he could still work a crowd. Mitch's new studio record, which again was produced by Don Was (Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, Iggy Pop), will be released soon.