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Reflections In Blue – CD Review
Mick Kolassa
Ghosts Of The Riverside Hotel
Swing Suit Records MMK022015
Mick Kolassa could work up an arrangement and sing the phone book (from a small Mississippi town), and make it i hit. This cat has a certain charisma. His reworking of Hank Williams’ “Ramblin’ Man” is a classic example. Backed by a solid band consisting of Jeff Jensen on lead guitar, Bill Ruffino on bass, Robinson Bridgeforth on drums and Chris Stephenson on organ, he blows through a dozen tunes, eight of which are his own originals, like a category five hurricane. The exception here is that instead of devastation, he leaves joy, healing and a lot of happy fans in his wake. A long-term blues fan, who also happens to be on the Board of Directors of the Blues Foundation, Mick not only writes blues and plays blues, he sees blues where many might not, as shown in this, his second album. Add to his kick-ass band a virtual “who’s who” of the blues as “very special guests” who add those special touches that only they can, and you have what might be considered a modern masterpiece. A “package deal” of sorts, Mick has the look and a voice that sounds as if he was raised in a smoke-filled room with his vocal chords soaked in bourbon. Any question as to his love for the music is dispelled from the opening notes of the first track. There is another one of those albums that makes me feel better about the state of the Blues as a whole. Another tune that caught my ear was cut number 3, “One Meatball”, a tune I first heard done by Josh White, then, more recently by Ann Rabson. Randy Newman’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come”, not normally considered a Blues tune, is another of my favorites on the album. Between Mick and Jeff Jensen, who shared responsibility for the arrangements, they did wondrous things. Then, there are the Kolassa originals. Each could easily, with the exception of the contemporary references, have been written by one of the long past masters. All I say is that this band is tight, hot and right on the money and Mick Kolassa is in a field of his own. This one is entertaining, educational, exceptionally funny and one of those things you could put in the player and let run for the day. I recommend buying several copies. This is something you are going to want to share with friends and family. It honestly doesn’t get any better than this.
Bill Wilson
As published in Reflections In Blue – August 2015
MidWest Record – CD Review
Wow, whatever this guy’s back story is, it matters less and less with each new release. It’s so deeply from the heart it’s almost like he’s playing with open heart surgery. Whether original, cover, or cover that shouldn’t work but does, we’re starting to get the sense that this cat is a self-compiled encyclopedia of the blues with the chops to back up putting himself out there front and center. READ THE WHOLE REVIEW >
MidWest Record, Chris Spector
MORE >>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.
MORE >>
