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)
Blues Blast Magazine
Mick Kolassa has released another album whose proceeds are split between the HART Fund and Generation Blues, two very important programs run respectively to help musicians with medical costs and to fund projects to get youths involved with music. While this is an acoustic album, it does not lack energy, vitality and a big sound. Produced by Jeff Jensen, who also principally plays guitar and adds his slide and some percussion, Kolassa has brought in some great musicians as his band and guests.
Kolassa plays the guitar, fronts the band, does percussion and plays kazoo, Carl Casperson is on upright bass and Tom Lonardo is on drums. On piano and accordion is Rick Steff. There are also eight guests who are noted below in the review. One song is a Guy Clark tune and the rest were penned by Kolassa.
In “Educated By The Blues” Kolassa tells us a story of how he traded off college for the blues to get an education. A steady diet of blues replaced college classes to make Mick what he is today. Muddy, Wolf and all the rest of the blues stars gave him the education he needed. Eric Hughes adds harp on this cut to good effect and Doug MacLeod plays some nice slide here and on the next cut. Next is “You Gotta Pay The Price,” a blues about the strife of working men and women compared to the rich. “Sugar In Your Grits” is a story about how tradition matters. You don’t need all the modern tricks of the trade to be a good bluesman, you need to play it like the masters did and not make believe what you are playing is the blues; keep the sugar out of your grits. Bob Corritore delights the listener with his harmonica prowess.
Guy Clark’s “Baby Took A Limo To Memphis” features Libby Rae Watson sharing the vocals with Kolassa as they sing about how his woman travelled to Memphis in style. Hughes again gives us some good harp to enjoy; to note, he is the only musician other than Mick to have appeared on all his albums. “If I Told You” follows, a cut about how Kolassa can’t tell his woman that he loves her because he can’t find the right words. Beale Street’s Vince Johnson adds some tasty harp here. “Hurt People” features Reba Russell and Susan Marshall backing Mick. Emotive piano and the vocals help make this one special.
We get some cool accordion here on ‘Memphis Wood,” a song about lost love and the consolation one can get in the music made with Memphis Wood. Tas Cru adds his guitar to the mix and does a great job in support. “If Life Was Fair” is a bouncy tune with some well-done piano and guitar to drive the cut along smoothly and tastefully. The story here is that while life might not be fair one has to stay on the path and good things will come to those who work hard.
“Over My Shoulder” gives us the recommendation not to look back and live for the future in this upbeat tune. Even the finger picking is happy sounding. Up next is “One Hit Wonder,” a story about how he partied back in the day but can’t handle the stuff he did smoking all day. Now he’s an old, light weight in his quest for a buzz and partying. As the title says, he’s just a “One Hit Wonder.” The sqwueeze box makes another slick appearance here. Kolassa concludes with “Gas Station Sushi” and compares his girl to sushi from a gas station. It sounds like a good idea but isn’t close to being as good as it first appears. The kazoo gets a solo in this short, light and fun cut.
Kolassa is prolific in his song writing and recording. I love the stuff he writes, especially those songs where he adds humor or a little tongue in cheekiness. He’s assembled a great cast of characters, has a nice selection of music he presents and the musicianship abounds throughout. Jensen’s guitar work is solid as a rock and the guests on harp add great depth to the cuts. The piano and accordion are well done and the songs are filled with emotion. If you hanker for some nicely done acoustic blues, then look no further. ~ Steve Jones, Blues Blast Magazine
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 >>
