* En anglais uniquement
Nitzinger is the band named after Texan guitarist
John Nitzinger, whose long career has yielded sporadic releases and on-stage appearances for over three decades, starting in the late '60s. Hailing from the city of Fort Worth,
John Nitzinger was, by his own account, a precocious songwriter and musician and was involved in several bands and nondescript single releases in the mid- to late '60s. But it wasn't until the next decade that the
Nitzinger name began gaining recognition -- first as a sometime songwriter for fellow Texans
Bloodrock, and then, after recruiting bassist Curly Benton and drummer Linda Waring, to create a power trio named after himself. This lineup recorded an eclectic eponymous debut album (part bluesy boogie rock, part esoteric post-psych) for Capitol in 1971 and briefly broke into the American charts' Top 200 with a spunky Southern rock single called "Louisiana Cock Fight." A sophomore effort named (perhaps somewhat prematurely) One Foot in History followed in 1973 and introduced second guitarist
Bugs Henderson, but achieved no repeat trip into the charts. So, after collaborating with
Henderson on another Southern hard rock album billed simply to Thunder, it wasn't long before
Nitzinger -- the band -- had been reduced to
John and assorted session musicians, recklessly experimenting with everything in between rock and disco on 1976's Live Better...Electrically. The guitarist would later work with
Carl Palmer's PM project and
Alice Cooper during his
Zipper Catches Skin album and tour, but has otherwise been largely forgotten outside the state of Texas, where he informally retired to after years of road work (he also reportedly conquered a few addictions and won a battle with cancer). The new millennium finally saw
John Nitzinger record another album, mixing both new material and re-recorded classics for the appropriately named Going Back to Texas, released in 2002. And since then,
Nitzinger has carried on performing occasional gigs, fostering an on-going musical partnership with former
Bloodrock buddy
Jim Rutledge and basking in a steady rediscovery of his early work thanks to the information-spreading power of the Internet. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia