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2023 series of digital-only album releases.

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Blue Monday Monthly – Interview

Blue Monday Monthly — Interview by Kyle Christen
Issue 231  August 2023

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The title of this one made me wonder a little bit, but here’s a release that will just knock you out. Long-time Bluesman Mick Kolassa has been putting out recordings for about ten years, but his latest “Wooden Music”, which was just released a couple weeks ago, hits home with nary an electric guitar involved. It’s not the first all acoustic album he’s done, and hopefully there’s more to come. “Michississippi Mick” earned his moniker as though he now lives in Memphis, he was born in Michigan, and also lived in Mississippi for three decades. No acoustic instruments were harmed in the making of this CD! Mick has assembled a familiar crew of musicians to help out, plus a couple curve balls to keep you on the edge. Out of 11 tunes, only one is a cover, so stand up, sit down, or get in your car and enjoy it. First up is “Educated By The Blues,” about a guy who was expected to go to college, since he was told it’s the only way to get ahead in life. But nothing taught him like that sweet “devil sound,” and he’s learning new things every day!
Producer/guitarist Jeff Jensen plus Rick Steff on piano make this a fun shuffle. Guest stars here are Doug McLeod on slide, and Beale Street star Vince Johnson on the harp. Mick name drops that Wolf “taught him to howl,” but also mentions Sonny Boy, Jr. Kimbrough, Muddy, and Robert Johnson. That’s enough to grab your interest. Some real low down guitars adorn “You Gotta Pay The Price.” This is a tune about working men and women like you and me. More of Doug McLeod, and Rick, who doubles on accordion, laying it down in the background. Two songs in, and I’m hooked on this “Wooden Music ”

BMM was honored to speak with Mick by phone, and, while abbreviated due to space constrictions, here it is. As usual, I love it, you’ll love it, but what does Mick think of it?

“I’m especially proud of this one for s number of reasons. In putting it together, we wanted people to know that a totally acoustic album can still have have a full sound. You think “acoustic album,” and in between you and me, most folks think just an old white guy playing a Resonator guitar, right? I’ve done 3) other acoustic albums, and we wanted to show how full and rich this music can be. There were some really fun challenges with this one. On the song “Hurt People, I’d put a B3 on it in a minute, but have yet to find an acoustic B3. That’s why we brought in Reba Russell and Susan Marshall to do the “oohhss” and aaahhss” to cover that sound. “

Next one you’ll like is “Sugar In Your Grits,” which Mick starts off “Traditions get trampled when new folks come around, they might not know where something fits, maybe it’s progress, or maybe it’s wrong, to put sugar in your grits.” (Mick informed me that’s a common mistake made by visiting Northerners). The secret weapon on this one is Bob Corritore on the Harp, who has over two dozen of his own releases, and upwards of a hundred appearances on recordings by other blues performers. When artists ask you to play with them that many times, you, the listener can’t go wrong! More of Mick’s poetry. “Muddy never played a 20 minute solo, Wolf didn’t use a pedal board, Willie Dixon told a story with everyone of his songs, do lyrics even matter any more?” The excellent section of Carl Casperson on upright bass and drummer Tom Lonardo got the backing through this one and also every other cut.

“Hurt People” starts off as more traditional acoustic blues, a story about a gal who was sad, lonely, and had no love, as all she’d ever learned to do was hate. Rick is at his best on the 88’s, while the Memphis legends mentioned earlier, Susan Marshall and Reba Russell provide soulful, mournful backing vocals. Mick and Jeff continue to lay down the wooden guitars. The lyrics teach a lesson learned, and this song is good stuff. Slowing it down, just a little, is “Memphis Wood.” Great guitars (again), and more of Rick’s accordion. Maybe my favorite track? Why? Because I know we have some Tas Cru fans out there, and he’s worked with Mick many times before, here adding his guitar to a song about guitars made out of wood, and from where else? Memphis! Very cool tune. I asked Mick to talk about it.

“You can tell from this one that I’m really fond of the sound of an acoustic guitar. I started playing around with that term, and the Ist line is the Ist phrase from “Norwegian Wood ” I didn’t pattern this one after the Beatles, but it starts, “I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.” During the last IBC here in Memphis, Tas showed up and was going to stay with me for a few days. I played him a rough demo, and he reached over for my guitar, and started playing this beautiful solo. I said “You are now going to be on the record! To have someone like Tas, who just loves music…a lot of musicians, it’s their job, but I’m so thankful to play with people like him. This is my love song to acoustic guitars.”

Just the basic band on “If Life Was Fair,” which includes some nice honky-tonk blues piano from Rick. This would be a great one to see live. It ’11 make you feel like you’re sitting in some side street blues dive with your friends, on a rainy night, enjoying the music and a few Old Style’s. “Over My Shoulder” is upbeat, “I can’t live in the yesterday with tomorrow just waiting for me. You can spend your time looking at the past, complaining it’s not here no more.” A real forward looking kind of guy. The acoustic guitars sound damn near electric, and more terrific input from the core band. Really nice groove that compliments the words.

On the press release, Mick mentioned he wanted to really craft the songs, and not just play them. I asked him to expand on that.

“By putting a a limit on myself, like only acoustic, you have to be more creative. Jeff and I spent hours and hours finding the right instruments, going through the songs, and deciding what keys, what sound, and what tempo I wanted on each cut. I wanted every tune to sound as big as it could be. There’s more drums on this one from Tom Lonardo. Tom was with me on my last release, but he was restrained. This time, we just let him play. Like the song “If I Told You, ” it opens with his drums, which you’re not expecting. The sheer pleasure of sharing Vince Johnson on harmonica. He’s a national treasure, and plays 5 nights a week on Beale Street. I’m lucky to have friends like this. I want to be true to the blues, and not what older white guys want it to be.”

The guitar chords leading in to “One Hit Wonder are then joined by the whole cookin’ band is really good stuff.
And the lyrics are worth the price of admission alone. I’II leave this one for you to check out on your own, and you’ll love it. I’m purely guessing, of course, that there’s a number of BMM readers (and maybe a couple writers) who are
“One Hit Wonders” in their own right. Check it out! To finish up is the country/blues infused southern “Michissippi style fun of “Gas Station Sushi.” “Girl you remind me of gas station sushi, you sure seemed like a good idea at the time, but it didn’t take me long to find out I was wrong.” Any of you remember being in elementary school during the mid 1960’s? The instrument that any of us could play instantly? Well, just for you, on this final cut, Mick whips out the Kazoo! What a great end to this excellent disc.

I asked Mick what is next for him?

“I’ll be playing in Three Rivers, Michigan on August 6th, the Sean Costello fundraiser in Peoria the night before the Blues Blast Awards (Sept. 22), and the Oxford, Miss. Blues Fest (Oct. 14th). I did a show here with Doug MacLeod and Jeff Jensen in June called “Blues Free For All.” We’d like to do those quarterly in Memphis, and add some other artists. I also put out 3) CD’s last year, which is great except when it’s “Hey Mick! Let’s talk about your new album” and I’m like “Great! Which one?” I also want to get back playing live in Europe, which I miss, and at some point, start on the next album, which will be my 15th.

For being a real-deal bluesman, Mick has quite the background, including a Ph. D in Pharmaceutical Marketing from Ole Miss University, is the former CEO of Medical Marketing Economics, and also authored a book titled “The Strategic Pricing Of Pharmaceuticals.” But that’s maybe for another time. His albums are a true labor of love, as 100% of the net proceeds from all his releases go to the Blues Foundation, split between the HART Fund and Generation Blues, both very worthy causes. The way Mick has put these songs together, along with Jeff’s production, have come together to form a huge sound. It’s full, certainly not skinny, and it’s hard to believe that there were no electric instruments used at all, because on many cuts, you’d swear there were. And a bunch of friends adding in their musicianship, so precise and skilled, you’d think they’ve been playing together for years. Make no mistake “Wooden Music’? Yes… and the Blues? Hell, yes. Highly recommended that you get this one.

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CD REVIEWS – Wooden Music

Living Blues

Memphis-based guitarist “Michissippi Mick” Kolassa calls his brand of music “free range blues.” It’s his way of getting across the idea that he doesn’t confine his style to any one corner or subgenre of the form. He performs and records in a variety of styles, from electric blues rock to jump blues/swing to acoustic
Delta/Piedmont blues. The prolific Kolassa has explored myriad musical pathways on a string of more than a dozen albums, plus six digital-only releases, all released in the last decade.

Kolassa’s latest offering is Wooden Music. By design it’s a completely acoustic set of songs, with a decidedly spare arrangement aesthetic. Kolassa sings and plays his guitar, adding percussion and (on one cut) kazoo. He’s joined by a skilled and sympathetic core group of musicians—lead guitarist and session producer Jeff Jensen, upright bassist Carl Caspersen, Rick Steff on piano and accordion, and Tom Lonardo on drums. A variety of friends and guest artists add their distinctive talents on select tracks; among the notable names are Tas Cru (guitar on Memphis Wood) and Bob Corritore (harmonica on Sugar in Your Grits).

Educated by the Blues is a story song set against a loping, jaunty backing. Kolassa name-checks some of the artists whose work has inspired him. Eric Hughes, one of three harmonica players on the album, turns in a
bright, if too-brief, solo. Guest player Doug MacLeod’s slide guitar shines mid-song. Kolassa adopts a huskier vocal timbre for You Gotta Pay the Price; that tone fits the tune’s theme and highlights Kolassa’s vocal range. Steff’s subtle accordion work adds a contemplative feel to the arrangement.

Kolassa packs a lot of lyrics into Sugar in Your Grits; the song’s title is a metaphor for adding unnecessary ingredients to music. “You might think that you like the blues,” Kolassa sings. “But tell me: is that what you’re playing?” Corritore’s harp work is a highlight.

The sole cover tune on Wooden Music is a reading of Guy Clark’s Baby Took a Limo to Memphis. Libby Rae Watson helps out on vocals as Kolassa bends Clark’s song into a shuffling, country blues shape. Thanks in large part to Lonardo’s approach to drumming on the track, If I Told You presents a kind of acoustic rock feel; in that regard it’s quite successful. The emotion-laden Hurt People takes things in a more serious direction.

Wooden Music’s title track features sweet accordion backing and lovely acoustic picking from Cru, all in support of Kolassa’s narrative, storytelling lyric. Steff’s agile piano forms the musical core of the bouncy If Life Was Fair. Country blues come to the fore on Over My Shoulder. The autobiographical One Hit Wonder finds Kolassa comparing present-day life with his rowdier early days; though the tune is infused with nostalgia, he makes it clear that he’s happy with life in its current form.

And that wry, up-tempo character follows through for the album’s closer, Gas Station Sushi. A clip-clop percussion foundation moves the song along, and while the kazoo chorus is a bit silly, in this context it works. Overall, Wooden Music blows along at quick pace; working within a specific category of the blues, Kolassa demonstrates the variety that can be found within it. ~ Bill Kopp, Living Blues (Issue #286 • Vol 54, #5)


Jazz Weekly

If for no other reason, you gotta get this latest album by back porch blueser Mick Kolassa simply to memorize the lyrics to “Gas Station Sushi”, with classic kiss off lyrics such as the word images of “You remind me of gas station sushi; you sure seemed like a good idea”. The rest of the album is filled with avuncular yarns, mostly originals, as Kolassa sings and plays guitar, percussion and kazoo with a core team of Jeff Jensen/g-slg-perc, Carl Casperson/b, Tom Lonardo/dr Rick Steff/p-acc and a variety of guests. Eric Hughs blows a mean harmonica on the easy shuffling “ Educated By The Blues” while Staff’s accordion gives a bohemian atmosphere to “Memphis Wood” and his saloon takes you to the local saloon on ”If Life Was Fair”. There’s a relaxed folk feel to the strummed “One Hit Wonder” and “Hurt People” while Kolassa picks and grins out “Sugar In Your Grits”. Well spun musical yarns. ~ George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly


ABS Magazine

Mick Kolassa is an American singer, guitarist, composer and producer. He was born in 1952 in Michigan, but lived for more than thirty years in Mississippi, hence his nickame “Mississipi Mick”. Today, it is located in Memphis. It is not very well known in Europe, despite its implications in the field of blues. He is a member of the board of directors of the Blues Foundation. In 2014, he released his first album when he was over 60 years old and in 2018 he created his own label, Endless Blues. He now released “Wooden Music”, his fourteenth album. While in his previous productions he toured all the blues styles, from Delta to Chicago, solo or electrically formed, the eleven pieces of this new disc are acoustic. For Kolassa, the aim of this album is to demonstrate that musicians using only acoustic instruments can compete with any power group. The result is no appeal, it is difficult to realize that all the pieces are acoustic. So here’s an excellent and original blues record that is the work of an extraordinary American; indeed, Kolassa is also involved in public life by being a virulent anti-Trump and organizing concerts in favor of Ukrainians. ~ Robert Moutet, ABS Magazine


The Rock Doctor ****

Another beautiful blues excursion here from Mick Kolassa. Wooden Music is the kind of record you’d expect, given the title, yet Kolassa and his cohorts have crafted an album as big an full as an electric blues disc.  Being acoustic doesn’t have to mean ‘sparse’- not that there’s anything wrong with that! Taking this path also dictated a sort of cool creativity, resulting in a warm and thoroughly engaging listen.

Instead of slowing down at this point Mick Kolassa has become more prolific, releasing 4 albums last year alone including a Christmas record. Wooden Music refers to the sound, and there’s a relaxed swing to these numbers overall that’s real inviting.  The disc is 11 songs, 10 originals plus a cover of Guy Clark’s Baby Took A Limo To Memphis.  If you’re into Mick’s stuff (I have 11 of his cd’s) you’ll notice some of the musicians involved here have been involved in several of his previous discs.  Guests you might recognize include Tas Cru on guitar (Memphis Wood), Bob Corritore on harp (Sugar in Your Grits) and Doug MacLeod on guitar and slide guitar (Educated By the Blues, You Gotta Pay The Price).  Harmonic player Eric Hughes is the only musician involved who’s played on every one of Mick’s records- except Mick, of course!  These cats obviously know each other well as there’s the sort of comfort in playing music with each other that only comes from experience.

For Wooden Music Kolassa is joined again by Jeff Jensen as principal guitarist and producer.  The rhythm section is Carl Casperson and Tom Lonardo who also powered last year’s They Call Me Uncle Mick.   In creating this album Mick was intent on crafting the songs not just playing them, and that effort is readily apparent as you listen.  With the superb musicianship and production here the word I would use to sum up Wooden Music is ‘jaunty’.  Mick Kolassa makes good records, but this is the best thing he’s done in quite some time. ~ By John Kereiff Features – Music Reviews & Get Off My Lawn!


Blues Bytes

The ever-prolific Mick Kolassa returns with Wooden Music (Endless Blues Records), his 14th album in ten years (plus six digital-only releases). The most impressive thing about Kolassa’s growing catalog is that it remains remarkably consistent and original in content, both lyrically and musically. Part of this has to be due to his supporting musicians, many of whom have played on nearly all of his recordings — guitarist Jeff Jensen, keyboardist Rick Steff, and harmonica ace Eric Hughes, along with upright bassist Carl Casperson and drummer Tom Lonardo.

The rest of the contributors on this disc are a most impressive crew as well — harmonica players Bob Corritore and Vince Johnson, guitarists Doug MacLeod and Tas Cru, and vocalist Libby Rae Watson, with background vocalists Reba Russell and Susan Marshall. The premise behind Wooden Music was to craft songs from scratch in an acoustic setting to allow for more creativity. The result of their efforts is a big, full sound that rivals the usual electric blues album, and Kolassa has brought ten excellent songs to the proceedings (plus one cover).

“Educated By The Blues” opens the album, as Kolassa sings and plays kazoo and basically tells his story of how he came to play the blues and the many artists who influenced him along the way, wtih Hughes on harmonica and MacLeod on slide guitar. MacLeod also guests on the “life lesson” tune “You Gotta Pay The Price,” and Corritore plays harp on “Sugar In Your Grits,” a light-hearted jab at those who venture too far from the traditions of the blues (and grits).

Guy Clark’s “Baby Took A Limo To Memphis” teams Kolassa with Ms. Watson on vocals and she adds plenty of sass and attitude to the tune, and “If I Told You” is blues with a country feel and features harmonica from Johnson.

The wistful “Hurt People” leans toward country/soul, compliments of Steff’s piano and the background vocals of Russell and Marshall. Steff plays accordion and Cru guests on guitar for “Memphis Wood,” an easy-going song about turning to music to get through the hard times. The rollicking “If Life Was Fair” is a song that everyone can relate to, whether they’re blues fans or not.

On “Over My Shoulder” Kolassa encourages us to focus on what’s ahead instead of what’s already happened, but the hilarious “One Hit Wonder” looks at the past and how things do change and how we slow down over time.The country-flavored closer, “Gas Station Sushi,” also hilarious, looks at a hook-up that shouldn’t have been.

Wooden Music is another winner for Mick Kolassa, with lots of great, entertaining songs and excellent musicianship. As with all of Kolassa’s releases, 100% of the net proceeds go to the Blues Foundation, split between the HART Fund and Generation Blues. Even more reason to check out this fine album, and all of his others. ~ Graham Clarke, Blues Bytes


The Rocking Magpie

Blues Rocker Goes Acoustic With All of His Heart

I know Mick Kolassa is a Blues Rocker of the finest hue; so was intrigued when I saw the CD cover and subsequently glimpsed at the Press Release …. Kolassa Goes Acoustic!

I doubt this will have his loyal fans screaming “Judas!” any time soon; as it’s a logical direction for any Bluesman to take in one form or another.

As he’d hoped during the concept for this album, Kolassa was right in thinking a bunch of great musicians playing acoustic instruments can still kick up a ruckus to rival any electric band … and that happens right from the off, with the sizzling Educated By The Blues, which is first and foremost a cool song; but the piano, slide guitar, harmonica, upright bass and more combine to create a fabulous song to get the house party started.

I think you’d have to own incredibly sensitive ears to realise that these songs are 100% acoustic; such is the quality of the playing and production here.

While taking a traditional format to create these songs; these songs manage to straddle the Classic and Contemporary styles of The Blues with ease; with and Over My Shoulder being prime examples of songs that sound decades old, but were written and recorded for this project.

There’s only one cover song here; and it’s never been a Blues song in my memory; but Kolassa takes Guy Clark’s words and melody on Baby Took a Limo To Memphis, added the vocals of Libby Rae Watson, and makes them sound like something Big Bill Broonzy might have sung, back in the day.

As a ‘non-musician’ I never fail to be impressed when songwriters find new ways to write and sing about L.O.V.E in all it’s ways; and here Mick Kolassa made me sit back in wonderment the first couple of times I heard If Life Was Fair and If I Told You because they use the normal Blues formula and take it into a whole new rarefied direction.

One Hit Wonder sounds like a really personal song to Mick; but his words will resonate with many people who hear it, and isn’t about what the title suggests it might be.

While I love this album from start to finish, there are a couple of tracks that have not just ‘touched my heart’ but really, really impressed me.

Sugar in Your Grits is as romantic a piece of Bluesy Americana as you can imagine, and features some syrupy sweet harmonica too.

But, Memphis Wood is a beautiful and melancholic tale, that sounds as if The Band are in residence behind him …. and Kolassa’s voice never sounder finer …. making this my Favourite Song.

There are songs here that will affect you in a million different ways; and these days there’s very little room on radio for songs like these these days, so it’s a case of buying the album to hear it … and if you do I guarantee you will cherish it forever.


Blues in the South

Mick Kolassa pops up fairly frequently in these pages with a string of consistently fine albums from his base in Memphis. Here’s another, made, as Mick puts it on the sleeve, “with love, soul and wooden instruments”. It does support Mick’s contention that an acoustic album can sound as big and full as an electric one.

Mick’s voice is easily identifiable once heard, and he has long been a passionate advocate for the blues – listen to the lyrics of ‘Sugar In Your Grits’ for his take on the current blues scene, and ‘Educated By The Blues’ for some of his own influences and what he has taken from them. He strays into Americana at times too, as on ‘Memphis Wood’ or ‘One Hit Wonder’, both with fine accordion by pianist Rick Steff. ‘Gas Station Sushi’ is a nicely whimsical-sounding closer, with a ragtime feel and good-humoured if pointed lyrics.

Long-time associate Jeff Jensen is also present on guitar, as usual, but Mick has also drafted in some guests who share a similar stance to his own – people like harmonica ace Bob Corritore, guitarist Doug McLeod, singer songwriter Tas Cru and singer Libby Rae Watson. Taken altogether, it makes for a rather tasty album all round. ~ Norman Darwen


ZicaZic

TRANSLATION: A key figure on the blues scene in Memphis and more broadly in the South of the United States, Mick Kolassa is a generous and committed artist who puts his elegant guitar playing and his rocky voice at the service of many works, not the least of which are those of the Blues Foundation to which he donates all the profits from his albums to finance the health expenses of artists and the training efforts of young bluesmen in the making. Prolific musician delivering several albums each year, Mick Kolassa strives this time to offer us an exclusively acoustic work, determined to remember that the term is not a synonym of soft and boring and that it is possible to make a blues groove in a very beautiful way without using and abusing the assets of the fairy electricity. Accompanied by his faithful accomplice Jeff Jensen on guitars and production and his shocking rhythm section with Carl Capserson on double bass and Tom Lonardo on drums, joined by Eric Hughes, Bob Corritore and Vince Johnson on harmonicas, Rick Steff on piano and accordion, Doug MacLeod and Tas Cru on guitars, Libby Rae Watson on vocals or Reba Russell and Susan Marshall on backing vocals, the bluesman splits this time from ten compositions that flit from folk blues to Cajun and zydeco but also an interesting rereading of “Baby Took A Limo To Memphis”, a title by Guy Clark recorded for the first time in 1995. There are some beautiful boogies and other shuffles but what seduces above all in “Wooden Music”, it is this ability that Mick Kolassa has to offer colorings that take us to music full of originality where we occasionally find a touch of jazz or a touch of Americana. From the excellent “Educated By The Blues” to the no less deductive “Gas Station Sushi”, these are pieces full of mischief, good words and elegant rhymes but also with a touch of melancholy that Mick Kolassa and others deliver to us, titles like “Sugar In Your Grits”, “If I Told You”, “Memphis Wood” or “Over My Shoulder” which manage, as always, to make everyone agree! From the great Mick Kolassa, as always… MORE >>


Michael Doherty’s Music Log

Mick Kolassa released three great albums in the second half of 2022. And here we are in June of 2023, and only now getting his first disc of the year. What happened? What slowed him down? Well, nothing happened, nothing slowed him down. In January, he released TrouTunes And Other Fishing Madness, an album of songs about fishing, but it was released only digitally. And since then, he has put out three compilations of his work – Slow Blues Essentials, Americana Essentials, and Endless Blues Essentials – all of which were also released only digitally. So Wooden Music is actually his second album of new material in 2023, and fifth overall release this year. And there is another compilation coming out soon, I hear. So there. This guy is a creative force, with seemingly endless energy and song ideas. Wooden Music features mostly original compositions, with just one cover. Joining Mick Kolassa on these tracks are Jeff Jensen on guitar, slide guitar and percussion; Carl Casperson on upright bass; Tom Lonardo on drums; and Rick Steff on piano and accordion. There are also several guests on various tracks. MORE >>

 

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2023 Blues Blast Award Nominee!

We are thrilled to announce that Mick’s album, They Call Me Uncle Mick, has received a Blues Blast Award nomination for Acoustic Blues Album! Voting is open until August 18. Check out what it’s all about and get the entire list of nominees and place your votes – HERE >>

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NEW – Wooden Music

CHECK IT OUT – listen / stream it / buy it!


July 2023 Release

ORDER HERE ->


In doing this album Mick wanted to really craft the songs, not just play them. We knew from the beginning that this would be another totally acoustic album, by choosing to restrict ourselves to just acoustic instruments it drove a cool creativity. We wanted to really show that an acoustic album can sound as big and full as one using the typical electric instruments – being acoustic doesn’t mean that it has to be sparse (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Mick is blessed with amazing musical friends, and many joined him on this album. Of course, Jeff Jensen came onboard, both as producer and as principal guitarist. Tom Lonardo and Carl Casperson, who added their magic to “They Call Me Uncle Mick” provided a rock-solid rhythm section that held it all together. Doug MacLeod also brought his special magic to the two songs that open the album and, of course, Eric Hughes was a critical par of the team. Eric is the only musician (other than Mick) who has played on every one of Mick’s albums – it wouldn’t be a Mick album without Eric!

This album also highlights the skills of two other harp players, and they really delivered! Bob Corritore and Mick had often talked about working together and this album provided the opportunity. You’ll see that Bob really delivered. The other harp player is Vince Johnson, who isn’t widely known outside of Beale Street but sure needs to be – and you’ll agree when you hear what he did.

Tas Cru and Mick have worked together often, and Tas provides a beautiful guitar part to the song Memphis Wood. Tas has the ability to put himself inside the song and work to make it better, and he di just that! Another longtime friend, Libby Rae Watson, was the ONLY person Mick wanted to join him on the vocals for the song “Baby Took A Limo to Memphis” – not just because of her vocal talent (which is wonderful) but her attitude, which fit the song perfectly, as you will see.

The remaining guests have worked with Mick on several projects, and have always made things better. Reba Russell and Susan Marshall are well known and respected in the music world, and if you don’t know who they are you really need to check them out! What they brought to the song “Hurt People Hurt People” is simply stunning

 

 

 

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