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Land of the Crossroads – FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD
From the 2014 release, Michissippi Mick – “Land of the Crossroads” is a love song to my adopted State of Mississippi. This song evolved through a series of styles without ever really changing. Beginning as a “hill country” one-chord tune, it soon took on a John Lee feel as we worked it out. Brandon Santini came in and it felt like Chester Burnett was watching over us. I have a lot of friends who have never been here tell me what they think Mississippi is like; this song is my response to them.
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Riverside Hotel Photo Shoot
A few photos from the photo shoot at the Riverside Hotel for my upcoming album Ghosts of the Riverside Hotel. Photography by Donna Criswell Photography.
Cascade Blues Assoc – Michissippi Mick Review
By Cascade Blues AssociationMichissippi Mick is like a personal love letter to the music of Memphis. Mick Kolassa has taken favorites from songs of the past, adding his own touch to them alongside several standout original tracks, making this album one of the best feel good recordings so far this year. And he has brought along a stellar cast of many of the region’s most beloved musicians to help him out. Recorded at Ardent Studios with the keen ear of Jeff Jensen and Adam Hill behind the mix, Kolassa has taken aim at various stylings of the blues and hit them square on the head with every track.
Opening with the old jug band standard “Beale Street Blues” updated as “New Beale Street Blues” Kolassa offers a picture postcard of Beale naming off a number of the clubs while his steady acoustic playing is matched by Eric Hughes’ harmonica. That is followed by the original “Blues Are All Around You,” offering searing guitar work by Jeff Jensen who shines throughout the disc with some of the finest string work he has ever laid to disc. The Box Tops’ rock classic “The Letter” is set to a slower blues pace with exceptional over the top organ playing by Chris Stephenson. Other numbers include a terrific take of Johnny Mercer’s “Blues In The Night” with more organ work joined by Brandon Santini on harmonica and trumpeter Dedrick Davis who has played with the likes of Barbara Blue, The Gales Brothers and Charlie Wood. The slow blues “Baby’s Got Another Lover” again finds Jensen playing guitar at the top of his game. The cover of “Reefer Man” has Victor Wainwright laying out some honky tonk piano and Kolassa closes the disc with a country yodel on Jimmie Rodgers’ “Mississippi River Blues.” There is no low point to the entire album, every song works perfectly and flows into the next as if they were always meant to be. And Kolassa’s vocals fit them all to a tee.
The line-up of great musicians also includes local luminaries as Reba Russell, Redd Velvet, Don McMinn, Bill Ruffino, James Cunningham, Danny Banks, Preston McEwan and even buddy Ted Todd from Spokane’s Inland Empire Blues Society and radio show Blowtorch Blues joins in for some background vocals.
Besides being a terrific collection of music, Michissippi Mick is also a great way to help out with The Blues Foundation’s Hart Fund to provide aid for musicians and their families with health care needs and burial expenses, and also the Generation Blues program offering scholarships to young artists under the age of twenty-one. 100 % of all sales will go to The Blues Foundation for both of these programs.
Michissippi Mick is a superb album that displays the love for the blues and the musical talents of Mick Kolassa. It’s hard not to enjoy this one, fun from beginning to end. Highly recommended.
MORE >>Don & Sheryl Crow – Michissippi Mick Review
By Don & Sheryl Crow
donandsherylbluesblog
Mick Kolassa was born in Michigan, but has lived in Mississippi for the last twenty years or so. He’s also a vital player in the Memphis/Beale Street blues scene, and is a member of the Board Of Directors of the Blues Foundation. An accomplished guitarist and vocalist, he has gathered together several of his Beale Street friends to help him in the release of “Michissippi Mick,” twelve cuts of both original, traditional-sounding and contemporary blues that literally traces the history of that fertile region, going back to the days when W. C. Handy wrote many of the staples of the blues canon.
And if that, in and of itself, wasn’t enough, Mick is donating the entire proceeds garnered from the sale of this album to the Foundation’s HART Fund and Generation Blues. The Handy Artists Relief Fund aids blues musicians with dental and health care issues, while Generation Blues provides scholarships to artists under the age of twenty-one to continue their studies in various workshop programs.
Mick has a rich, expressive voice that fits this material well, and his many friends that join in make this a set that will appeal to a wide range of fans. He opens the set with a traditional re-working of Handy’s “New Beale Street Blues,” where “If Beale Street could talk, married men would have to pack up their bags and walk!” It features some nice harp from Beale Street busker Eric Hughes. The set closes also on a traditional note, with a yodelin’ tribute to the Singing Brakeman, “Mississippi River Blues.”
Electric contemporary blues is well-represented by the scorching guitar of Jeff Jensen on “Blues Are All Around You” and the slow-drag of “Baby’s Got Another Lover,” while the Memphis classic “The Letter” is revamped as a slow blues, and “Blues In The Night” features tremendous trumpet trills from Dedrick Davis and harp from Brandon Santini.
Mick has quite a humorous side, too, and those cuts served as our favorites. He has a fun time explaining why it’s sometimes tough watching “White People Dance!” The traditional jug band tune, “Reefer Man,” has Victor Wainwright on piano, and again on Mick’s original tale of “not being half the man I used to be,’, “Time Ain’t On My Side!”
Mick Kolassa has created a set that has something for everyone, and, along with his version of the “Memphis Mafia,” he and his backing players are giving back to the blues community that has built their careers thru the philanthropic donation of the proceeds from this recording. Two big thumbs up for “Michissippi Mick!” Until next time…Sheryl and Don Crow.
MORE >>Midwest Record – Michissippi Mick Review
This isn’t your ordinary white boy blues set. Kolassa is a native of Michigan that’s been living in Mississippi for over 20 years and is on the board of directors of the Blues Foundation. With a vibe that fuses admiration with authenticity, you can’t deny this cats pedigree when it comes to loving the blues. The proceeds from this record are going to the foundation, and if that isn’t commitment, what is? Easy rolling stuff that you might hear in a folk club by an old white guy who thinks he’s black but never paid the black tax, the spirit and vibe in this set are infectious and non-stop. Just flat out fun stuff that sneaks up on you and never fails to keep it’s mojo working, fueled by conqueroo. Check it out.
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