Cover photo © 2023 Jim Hartzell

 In This Issue 

Marty Gunther has our feature interview with Mick Kolassa. We have eight Blues reviews for you this week including a DVD about Blues In The Schools from Fruteland Jackson plus new music from Bert Deivert, Lee Oskar, Christone Kingfish Ingram, Garnetta Cromwell, Li’l Ronnie and the Grand Dukes, David Bennett Cohen and The Duke Robillard Organ Trio. Scroll down and check it out!

Fruteland Jackson – Blues 101

Self Released

www.fruteland.com

DVD/three lessons and supplementary materials

Fruteland Jackson is an iconic blues music educator that has toured he world educating youth around America and the world about the blues. He has created three video lessons for this DVD, each focusing on different school levels of students. Elementary, Middle and High School programs are included and his website allows the teacher or user to access supplemental material. The programs are abut 33 to 41 minutes in length and are superb video lessons for students that teacher can use to help their students begin to learn about the blues.

Fruteland gives age-appropriate lessons on the history of the blues and plays and sings in each lesson. Supplementary materials are included and are varied. One describes his residency program for various age groups of students. A second is an activity book with various interesting activities for students to work on and have fun. Another features blues poetry that Jackson has written. Another is a history of BITS in Chicago and the benefits of those programs to schools and society.

Over thirty years of Fruteland’s Blues In The Schools (BITS) experience is summed up and presented in this DVD series and supplementary materials. I have personally been involved with Fruteland Jackson’s BITS programs over the years and they are fantastic. He has done 22 programs for Crossroads Blues Society where I have worked with him, educating students in 15 different schools in 7 different school systems and in a private school. Over 6,000 students from Elementary to High School have learned about the blues in those programs Crossroads has done with Jackson. These videos take that information that he presented and serves it up in a simple and easy format.

These videos provide a means to give every music professional in schools to begin their own blue education journeys. The video presentations can serve as a great introduction to blues music education for teachers that they can then build upon, or even get artists like Fruteland to come to their schools and work with their students. I most strongly urge that all school music teacher get a copy and use these videos and materials to teach their students about the blues and their impact on American life and music. Fruteland Jackson is a superb educator and entertainer and deserves a lot of credit for developing this series and materials!

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Steve Jones is president of the Crossroads Blues Society and is a long standing blues lover. He is a retired Navy commander who served his entire career in nuclear submarines. In addition to working in his civilian career since 1996, he writes for and publishes the bi-monthly newsletter for Crossroads, chairs their music festival and works with their Blues In The Schools program. He resides in Byron, IL.

Bert Deivert – Pony Blues

Self-produced CD

www.deivert.com

13 songs – 55 minutes

One of the finest mandolin players in the world today, Bert Deivert turns back the clock on his latest CD, channeling his early heroes of the instrument – Yank Rachell, Carl Martin and others – on the 15th album of his career, delivering a masterful, reverent mix of traditional numbers and first-generation blues standards that fit effortlessly with new creations.

Bert’s a Boston native who began his career playing on the streets of San Francisco in the early ‘70s. Based in Denmark for decades, he’s worked with a cross-section of talents, ranging from Charlie Musselwhite, Eric Bibb and Sam Carr to rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson, the New Lost City Ramblers’ Tom Paley and Pong Srabua, an uber talented blues guitarist from Thailand.

A follow-up to his successful 2020 release, I Ain’t Leavin’, this disc comes with the comfortable feel of a back-porch concert in the Delta despite being recorded in two studios in Denmark and others in Venezuela, Sweden and Southeast Asia. Deivert glides across the strings in a hypnotizing manner and provides vocals in a relaxed tenor that welcomes you in from the first notes.

Deivert performs solo on about half the tracks with barebones accompaniment from guitarist Jesper Theis, harp players Mats Qwarfordt and Puree C. Muadmuang, drummer Fredrik Lindholm, bassist Olav Gudnason, cellist Charlot A. Rivero, violinist Eva Deivert and Emmy Deivert on backing vocals – all of whom make limited appearances.

The traditional “Little Sadie” breathes new life into the first-person regret and confession of a man who shoots down his lady in cold blood. Despite the theme, Deivert’s light touch and warm delivery mute much of the heartbreak. It gives way to the originals “I Stand Up,” which pledges love, faith and devotion to a lady, and “Clarksdale Rag,” a revisit to a time in the ‘60s when watching Son House in action permanently changed Bert’s life.

Qwarfordt graces St. Louis Jimmy Oden’s familiar “Goin’ Down Slow” before Muadmuang joins in on Deivert’s “The Best Blues Bar in Town,” another reverie that describes walking “’til I had to sit down” to get there. But once inside, “we don’t get tired, the place is on fire, the walls are drippin’ with the songs that expire…” while the traditional “Louis Collins” recounts “the angels” laying away another lost soul.

Despite referencing the year 1928, “Downtown Blues” finds Bert abstaining from whisky but eager to drink a beer as he pays a backyard visit to his lady love. A sweet take of Rev. Gary Davis’ “I Am the Light of the World” precedes the title cut, “Pony Blues.” It’s a genuine article from the ‘20s — recorded by Charlie Patton — and comes with old-time appeal while Mance Lipscomb’s “Charlie James” is a re-conceived treasure thanks to violin and cello accompaniment.

“Hesitation Blues,” another traditional delight, precedes “World Is Gone Wrong,” a first-generation pleaser penned by Walter Vinson of the Mississippi Sheiks, before the original “Run a Little Slower” brings the disc to a sweet close as Deivert delivers a loving vow to give his lady more than any woman in his past if she’ll only give him the chance.

If you’re into loud guitars and more, Pony Blues will have you running for the door. If, however, you have a love for older, more sensitive sounds, this one will leave you craving for more.

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Marty Gunther has lived a blessed life. Now based out of Mason, Ohio, his first experience with live music came at the feet of the first generation of blues legends at the Newport Folk Festivals in the 1960s. A former member of the Chicago blues community, he’s a professional journalist and blues harmonica player who co-founded the Nucklebusters, one of the hardest working bands in South Florida.

Lee Oskar – She Said Mahalo

Dreams We Share

www.leeoskarmusic.com

10 songs – 44 minutes

Lee Oskar may be best known to the casual music fan as the founder of Lee Oskar Harmonicas, one of the world’s leading harmonica companies. He is also however an internationally acclaimed harmonica player in his own right, as well as a composer, producer and visual artist.  While he has been releasing music since the 1960s (originally with Eric Burdon’s WAR), She Said Mahalo is Oskar’s second album on his own Dreams We Share label.

The album features 10 self-composed instrumental tracks (written over several years) with Oskar’s harmonica taking the lead in both the tracks’ melodies and the majority of the solos. He is backed by a crack band comprising Darian Asplund (saxophone), Andrew Cloutier (drums), Denali Williams (percussion), Dean Schmidt (bass), Brian Monroney and Alex Mortland (guitars), Andrew Joslyn (strings) and Mack Grout (keyboards and piano). A number of guest artists also appear, including Takahiro Miyazaki (saxophone and flute), Paul Hanson (bassoon), Randy Oxford (trombone), Harold Brown (drums and percussion), Thin Diop (percussion), Joe Doria (organ), Phil Peterson (strings), “Sancho” Youichrou Suzuki (shakuhachi) and Mayo Higa (shamisen). Suzuki and Higa in particular bring a very exotic edge to the breakdown of “Morning Rush”.

The quality of the music is uniformly excellent throughout, with Oskar’s warm, almost vocal tone on the harp combining beautifully with the other instruments, particularly with Mortland’s guitar on the title track or Monroney’s equally stellar solo on “Most Favoured Nation”. The music is also superbly recorded by Brandon Busch with mastering by Robert Rice.

With its well-written and performed songs, detailed orchestration (witness how “Memories” seamlessly builds from a single strummed acoustic guitar to a full band work effort), fascinating liner notes by Keri Oskar, and gorgeously packaged CD featuring some of Oskar’s own paintings on the gatefold sleeves, She Said Mahalo is pretty much an essential purchase for fans of top drawer harmonica playing. Those who are harp players themselves will also no doubt be fascinated by the liner notes that list not only the key but also the type of harmonica used on each track. There is also a sense of sunny optimism or hope in every song, as if the musicians were playing with huge smiles on their faces when the performances were recorded.

She Said Mahalo is an outstanding release, but it also isn’t really a blues album at all. There is no doubt that Oskar can play the blues and the blues infuses much of his playing on this album, but the songs themselves fall squarely within a “world music” category, with slices of funk (“Funky Rhetoric”), reggae (“Caribbean Love Song”) and even some theatrical jazz rock (the closing track, “One World Fist”).

Definitely worth investigating, all the same. It’s impossible to listen to this album without feeling the warmth of the sun creep into your life.

Reviewer Rhys “Lightnin'” Williams plays guitar in a blues band based in Cambridge, England. He also has a day gig as a lawyer.

Angels come in all forms, and in the world of blues, you don’t have to look any farther than Mick Kolassa to see one in the flesh.

Known as Michissippi Mick to his fans because of his Michigan roots and his three-decade presence in Mississippi or as Uncle Mick to his many friends, Kolassa’s a former member of the board of the Blues Foundation who definitely looks the part of a bluesman.

He’s an easily approachable, heavily bearded and warm man, but Kolassa’s far more than that. A former college professor with a PhD in marketing, he also spent years in the pharmaceutical industry and has been a mover and shaker in several other non-profit organizations, too.

One of the busiest recording artists on the planet since his “retirement” a decade ago, Mick performs in what he calls “free-range blues – a hybrid style that incorporates everything from acoustic to electric, from Delta to Chicago, from country to rock and reggae, too. And he exhibits generosity beyond compare.

“I was born in the town of Three Rivers just south of Kalamazoo,” says Mick, who’s been based out of Memphis for a few years but is planning to relocate back home sometime in the year ahead. “But I grew up in (the neighboring small town) Sturgis, which was recently named the most redneck town in Michigan, and it’s earned it. You see more Confederate flags there than I’ve ever seen in Mississippi.

“Dad listened to big bands, and my mom listened to classical and older sister to popular music. So I grew up around all that. People ask me: ‘What’s your favorite song?’ I don’t have one because it’s so situational.

“But I do have some favorite pieces of music…Beethoven’s ‘Ninth Symphony’ and Gershwin’s ‘Rapsody in Blue’ — played by an American orchestra because I’ve never heard a European orchestra that can get it right. The third is Benny Goodman’s ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ done live with Gene Krupa playing drums. Those three pieces are filled with so-o-o much emotion.”

Mick fell in love with the blues at age 14 – “and I got here through Hank Williams,” he says. “Hank learned to sing and play guitar from an old black bluesman (Rufus ‘Tee-Tot’ Payne) in Georgiana, Ala., which is what a lot of country people did at the time.

“I’d seen Your Cheatin’ Heart — the biopic starring George Hamilton as Williams — on TV, probably Saturday Night at the Movies when they had that. I said to myself: ‘I really like some of those songs…they’re cool!’ So I went to the appliance store stereo department to buy Hank Williams’ Greatest Hits. And sitting right next to it in the rack was Robert Johnson’s King of the Delta Blues Singers.

“I had a couple of extra bucks, and said to myself: ‘This is interesting…’ and I bought it.

“I wore that damned record out, but still have my second copy. I literally wore the track off the ‘Travelin’ Riverside Blues.’ That song just grabbed me and wouldn’t let go, and I just needed to dig deeper. I was listening to Robert Johnson before I ever heard of Eric Clapton, and I bought John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers because there was a Robert Johnson song on it and for no other reason.

“But I was also very fortunate because — being there in the Upper Midwest on a humid summer night, I could pick up WLAC in Nashville and listen to John R. spinning all the best blues and rhythm-‘n’-blues…the real deal…Muddy Waters, Etta James, Howlin’ Wolf, a little bit of Sam Cooke and saying to myself: ‘You know, I really like this music.’

“Like everybody else at the time, I got into folk and rock, too,” Kolassa admits. “I started out playing the drums, but I picked up guitar because it was easier to carry around. And it was much easier to pick up chicks as a guitar player. And I was singing, so it just made sense to do it.

“But the first songs I ever did in public were blues. I was playing drums with some guys who played some blues, and that’s just always been the way I went.”

Little did he realize it at the time, but in 1969, Mick was one of the most fortunate blues lovers the world ever. At age 17, he got to attend the first-ever Ann Arbor Blues Festival, which featured a lineup beyond compare, a three-day event that was as significant as Woodstock, which was held two weeks later.

Muddy, Wolf, B.B., Freddie and Albert King were all present. And Junior Wells, Jimmy Dawkins, Luther Allison, Otis Rush, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, J.B. Hutto, Roosevelt Sykes, Big Joe Williams, Clifton Chenier, Sippie Wallace, Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachell, Big Mama Thornton, James Cotton, Big Mojo Elem, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Son House, T-Bone Walker and Magic Sam also performed, too.

“And it was the very first blues festival for Bonnie Raitt and Shaun Murphy,” Mick notes.

“By the time I heard Led Zeppelin sometime later, I was so into Muddy that I thought they were raping his music, and I didn’t like what they were doing. A lot of guys my age got into the blues because of Cream, Zeppelin and the Allmans, and they define blues that way, and that’s fine. But I can’t.

“And I didn’t like the Allman Brothers’ whitewashed version of ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ either ‘cause I’d already heard the real deal.”

The cultural appropriation of the music has always been both contentious and controversial, Kolassa says, and it’s come in different forms within the black community, too.

“I’ll never forget this…I was stationed in Germany in 1972,” he says, “and I was in my barracks. I was listening to Muddy. I had it cranked up loud because I just loved it, and there was this violent beating on my door. I open it and there were about 11 black guys from the unit downstairs, demanding: ‘Turn that fucking slave music off right now!’

“And I understand it because they associated it with the bad times. It’s interesting…you get down to Mississippi and it’s always been the music of home. But in the North, it was something entirely different.

“But I stuck with it. And I saw Muddy three more times when I was in Germany – and Wolf, Johnny Winter and so many other folks.”

Kolassa performed regularly when he was in uniform. He wed another G.I., Molli, who  was thrilled that he was a musician. But when he tried making a living back home by playing solo and acoustic, he quickly realized there was no future in it for him — or his new family – by gigging at the local Holiday Inns and playing a circuit that also included a young rising star, John Hiatt, who’d just signed with a major label.

“But John did okay,” Mick jokes.

The decision led to Kolassa enrolling at Eastern Washington University in Pullman, his wife’s hometown, where he earned both a bachelor’s and an MBA degree. He subsequently relocated back to the Wolverine State in 1980, agreeing to teach a few classes at a local college, and something he continued to do after the Upjohn Company – now a part of Pfizer but then the first mass marketer of cortisone and inventor of Xanax, Halcion, Motrin and Rogaine – offered him a position that led to a long, successful career in the pharmaceutical industry. He took the job on the same day the world lost John Lennon.

“I also started hanging out with a bunch of avid fishermen,” he says, “and joined up with Trout Unlimited. They were all musicians, and we started playing together – everything from jazz to bluegrass – on fishing outings – at the same time I was listening to blues. That brought me back into playing.

“We eventually cut an album of original fishing songs called Trout Tunes and Other Fishing Madness, which still gets some radio airplay today. After Earth Day, I’ll still get a notice that someone played my songs, ‘Save the Water’ – the first reggae song I ever wrote — or ‘You Can Have It If You Want It.’”

Kolassa eventually left Upjohn to teach fulltime at Nazareth College, a small school in Kalamazoo, where he was “the professor of M.” If it started with ‘m,’ he taught it – marketing, management, micro-economics, money, banking and credit, and, of course, a course in the blues. A former all-girls school that was only master’s degree-granting Michigan institution without an athletic program, it eventually bankrupted itself into non-existence after the new president started one.

“I could see that coming,” Mick remembers, “and I just started consulting and teaching part-time at a couple of places. I also started working on a doctorate, and got recruited by Sandoz Pharmaceutics – the Swiss-German conglomerate that invented LSD and Screaming Yellow Zonkers, making the ‘60s possible. They wanted me to start an economy policy department for them at their offices in New Jersey.”

Never someone who thought of himself as a “corporate guy,” Kolassa was doing “okay,” he says, but he left Sandoz to work as a consultant and lecturer – partially, he says, because, as a Midwesterner, he found it impossible to adjust to an East Coast lifestyle.

Soon after, he landed in Oxford, Miss., when Mickey Smith, a senior member of the University of Mississippi’s School of Pharmacy and a specialist in pharmaceutical marketing, invited him down to speak and then offered him a teaching post along with the simultaneous opportunity to pursue his PhD at his campus.

“I immediately went home and said to my wife – who made me promise to never live in a state without mountains – ‘honey, this is what I want to do… I want to take an $80,000 cut in pay and move to Mississippi and right on the edge of the Delta,’” he recalls. “And she said: ‘If that’s what you want to do, that’s what we’ll do.’

“We go down there, and all of a sudden, we’re surrounded by the blues. We get invited to a party and the band’s Bill Perry’s Howlin’ Madd and the Relaxations. Bill and I eventually became really good friends, but I was in awe – and it was so-o-o much fun.

“And Dick Waterman (who was one of three young men who ‘rediscovered’ Son House before booking the Newport festivals in the ‘60s and eventually managing Bonnie Raitt, Junior Wells and several of the first-generation blues stars) moved to Oxford the same year I did, and we eventually became friends. The magic of sitting in Dick’s dining room and looking through a couple of hundred thousand photos that he’s taken is just amazing.

“It’s just stunning what he witnessed, but also been a big part of.”

As he immersed himself in the local blues scene, Mick started playing out on occasion while working diligently behind the scenes in his chosen field. He eventually devised the formula that pharmaceutical companies use to determine the pricing of new products – a value-based strategy in which they charge more for drugs that keep folks working, functioning properly and out of the hospital – a lofty, virtuous idea that, he admits, the industry eventually began to abuse.

He found himself so busy consulting and more that he founded a consulting firm, Medical Marketing Economics, with former students and left his fulltime position at Old Miss to teach a few courses. And in his spare time, he also wrote the book The Strategic Pricing of Pharmaceuticals.

He turned his back on the pharmaceutical industry entirely more than a decade ago when he became disgusted by the corporate greed that many of the firms exhibited when using his business model.

Mick has devoted himself almost exclusively to the blues since a chance meeting with guitarist Jeff Jensen at the Bluesberry Café in Clarksdale during the Juke Joint Festival in the early 2010s. “Jeff was playing with Brandon Santini at the time,” he remembers. “And my brother-in-law, Ted Todd, and I were putting a show together in Spokane, where he lived, and thought they’d be a great addition to the show.”

A Keeping the Blues Alive honoree, Ted passed away in Mick’s house in 2015, but not before becoming a blues legend in the Pacific Northwest for his work in radio, as an event producer and more. A regular visitor to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge, he was responsible for getting Kolassa to serve as a judge at the festivities and later as a Blues Foundation board member, too.

Once on the board, Kolassa used his economics know-how to conduct impact studies to show that the foundation deserved more local funding because of all the money the IBCs and Blues Music Awards were bringing to the city. It was something he’d done in the Bahamas and Belize before for the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, another non-profit that promotes stewardship of fisheries.

He was also instrumental along with Teeny Tucker in the restoration of the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Miss. A place that’s housed blues legends since the ‘40s, it previously served as a hospital and is the location where Bessie Smith, the empress of the blues, took her last breath in the ‘30s. Without the tireless efforts of Mick and Teeny, who started a GoFundMe campaign and penned a song about the building, the National Parks Service would have never provided the major grant that it did to finish the project.

Mick sat in with Jeff and Brandon for a couple of tunes that day after also being invited up by an earlier act. From that point onward, Jensen regularly welcomed Kolassa to the stage every time he was in the audience.

“Eventually, I started doing some of my original songs – tunes that told a story, not simply a disjointed rhymes and cliches,” he says, “and Jeff said: ‘Mick, you need to cut an album of this stuff.’ He was the one who got me back into performing.

“And before I knew it, there I was. When I started the company, I told my grad-student partners: ‘Your job is to see that I retire comfortably.’ And I think they’ve done a pretty good job. It eventually got to the point where I said: ‘I don’t want to do that anymore. This is what I want to do.’”

His concept for free-range blues came about, he says, because he grew weary of being asked what flavor of the music he played.

“Most artists have a style,” he notes, “Doug Deming, who plays jump, has a style that’s very distinct, and Victor Wainwright’s style is distinctive, too. They’ve got a sound that really works for them. Other people identify themselves as Chicago, Memphis or Delta bluesmen. Well, I play all of it. I finally said; ‘I’m gonna call it ‘free-range blues’ ‘cause that’s what I do.

“I actually copyrighted it, but it’s really something that isn’t new. If you sit down and listen to Mississippi John Hurt and Son House – two contemporaries that were a planet apart in terms of their stylings — they were doing it. So were Skip James and Josh White. They all did something different, and it’s all blues.

“I’m a child of rock-‘n’-roll and I like a lot of electric blues – as long as you let it be blues. I’ve got a song on my latest album entitled ‘Sugar in My Grits.’ That comes from a conversation I had with my friend Redd Velvet, who said: ‘All these white boys come down here to the South and learn about real blues and what it’s all about, and the first thing they do in the mornin’ is get up and put sugar on their grits.’

“It’s a wonderful metaphor of trying to put metal into blues. I wrote that song, and the bridge is ‘Muddy never played a 20-minute solo, and Wolf didn’t own a pedal board. Willie Dixon told stories with every one of his songs, but do lyrics even matter anymore?’

“Frankly, I listen to a lot of the new stuff, and I think people are just finding words that rhyme to fill in between the guitar solos. It’s fine if that’s what you enjoy. But all of a sudden, you’re playing rock, you’re not playing blues. I generally associate with musicians who feel the same way. That’s why Bob Corritore didn’t have to think twice about playing on that song.

“Don’t get me wrong, though. I love rock, but it just isn’t blues. And I’ll throw some rock into my shows if that’s what the people want. I can and do love country, too. I love it all.”

Kolassa debuted free-range blues on record in 2014 with the well-received CD Michissippi Mick. All of his 13 subsequent releases have achieved success in both airplay and on the charts, and all but one have been produced by Jensen with a core group of Memphis-based musicians, Grammy winners and other heavyweights included.

And he’s donated all of the gross proceeds of the Blues Foundation and two of its charities, the HART Fund, which benefits artists in need, and Generation Blues, an outreach program that supports young artists and brings new players and fans to the music.

“I think I did two or three albums when I was still with my company,” Kolassa notes. “I was recording, putting bands together, performing and touring. In 2016, I started my own label, Endless Blues Records, which was a spin-off from a company that my brother-in-law and I had started.

“I said: ‘You know what…I’ve made all these albums and made all these mistakes. Now I understand how to do things. Time to help some friends out.’ So I reached out to Eric Hughes, Tullie Brae and In Layman Terms to record. I was working with the Pinetop Perkins Foundation and met these kids and they blew me away. I’m Uncle Mick to them, and they’re now dear friends. From the beginning, the idea of the label was just to help independent artists.”

That roster also includes Tennessee Redemption, Dexter Allen, Chris Gill and the late Kern Pratt, too.

“Unfortunately for me, though, I started the label just in time for COVID and streaming. So things aren’t as easy as they used to be. I do okay with streaming, and I’m working right now to put together a video to help artists know what they need to do.

“Here’s a little thing that most artists – people who write and perform their own songs and not playing just in their local bar — are totally unaware of…both ASCAP and BMI have programs that – if you’re performing your own music – you can get paid for it.

“I don’t know about ASCAP, but BMI will give you about $2.50 every time you sing one of your own songs at one of your gigs. If you’re doing four or five gigs a week and 20 of your own songs each night, that’s $250 a week you could be getting if you just bothered to submit your own playlist.

“It’s called BMI Live, and it’s real easy to do. ASCAP’s, I believe, is called ASCAP on Stage. And make sure you belong to Songtrust and Sound Exchange, too.”

Just recently, Mick says, one his songs, “Running to You” off the For the Feral Heart album, was picked up by SiriusXM and got played two or three times a day for ten weeks straight, earning him between $28 and $30 for each spin, depending on the size of the audience – something that wouldn’t have occurred without his association with Sound Exchange. It’s money that BMI would never have collected because BMI doesn’t monitor those types of plays. A relationship with Songtrust provides coverage for the same type of spins overseas.

“You have to be associated with all four organizations to insure you’re getting the right amount of money,” he insists. “I’m working with folks who are working now to help musicians understand this…you’re making money, but the money can’t find you. I was just lucky enough to pay attention – whereas a lot of folks don’t.

“Even some of the best business-oriented people in blues miss some of these things because they’re not aware of them because the whole music industry was designed for the major labels to make money and take advantage of the artist. All of the labels know this stuff, but most independent artists – and the people that manage them — don’t.

“And I’ve got to thank Michael Freeman, the Grammy-winning producer, who had me fill out an application with Sound Exchange because, all of a sudden, I started making a lot more money because I’d had songs that played on Sirius before but had no way to collect it.

“I want to help folks out, and that’s an important message to impart.”

When we spoke, Mick was already planning out his 15th and 16th albums. “I think I’m going to call 15 Free-Range Blues because they’re going to be four distinct parts to in,” Mick says. “One’s going to be acoustic, another classic blues and Southern soul-blues and some jazz-oriented blues with four different bands in four different sessions.

“And I also want to do another album of duets. I did the album Double Standards a few years ago. It still gets a lot of play, and it was so-o-o much fun doing it with my friends. I think I’ll call it ‘Another Round of Doubles,’ and I’ve already got some folks lined up for it.”

For the better part of 50 years, Kolassa says, he’s been immersed in the blues, and there’s one thing he stresses that everyone should never forget: the true origin of the music.

“It certainly comes from the African-American experience,” he exclaims. “There’s no way around that. You know there’s the button that says ‘No black, no white, no blues’ — I cross out some of it so it says no black, no blues. It’s 95 percent African-American. It’s important for everybody to understand that. And it also has five percent international roots.

“You know the Scotch-Irish who came here and helped create bluegrass? Well their indentured-servant cousins were picking cotton alongside the black slaves and introduced Celtic music – which is based around the 1-4-5 structure that we have in the blues — to them. There’s nothing like that now in Africa.

“We have guitars in the blues because of the migrant workers from Mexico who came to the Delta. Previously, the blues was played on banjos and fiddles. Robert Johnson played tunes in open-G, Spanish tuning because that’s what mariachi’s played in. And slide guitar technique came from the Hawaiian music when bluesmen heard it on the radio in the ‘20s and ‘30s. And so forth and so on.

“It’s a wonderful gumbo that’s been brought together through the African-American experience. They made magic music, something that’s the root of all music popular in the Western world today. It’s stunning, wonderful and underappreciated. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix didn’t invent the blues.

“If I have a final thing to say, if you’re going to sing ‘Crossroads’ and you’re gonna add the verse from ‘Travelin’ Riverside Blues’ that Clapton threw in there – about ‘goin’ to Rosedale, take my rider by my side’ — I want white people to understand that we’re not ‘gonna buy a house by the river side,’ we’re gonna barrelhouse because Robert Johnson never thought once in his life about buying a house.

“Understanding that experience and the culture that gave birth to the music is critical to really understand the blues.”

Check out Mick Kolassa’s music and where he’ll be playing next by visiting his website: www.mimsmick.com.

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Marty Gunther has lived a blessed life. Now based out of Mason, Ohio, his first experience with live music came at the feet of the first generation of blues legends at the Newport Folk Festivals in the 1960s. A former member of the Chicago blues community, he’s a professional journalist and blues harmonica player who co-founded the Nucklebusters, one of the hardest working bands in South Florida.

Christone Kingfish Ingram – Live In London

Alligator Records

www.christonekingfishingram.com

2 CDs/8 and 9 tracks respectively

At this point, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram  needs no introduction. He burst on to the blues scene with his first, self-titled release in 2019. The album opened at #1 on the Billboard Charts and a new legend was upon us. Ibn these past four years his talent and aura have become almost legendary.  He is touted as one of the saviors of the blues and, given his proess on guitar, singing and songwriting, the description is well deserved. Recorded in one evening at the famed UK club The Garage, the 17 songs featured on these two CDs showcase his two albums and new songs that will delight listeners.

The backing players here are Paul Rogers on bass, Christopher Black on drums, and Deshawn Alexander on keys. Alexander does some standout work, using two hands to supply piano and organ and flesh out a huge sound that supplements the guitar and vocals of this young phenomenon.

“She Calls Me Kingfish” from his 662 album kicks off the live set. He opens with a slick 2-1/2 minute plus guitar and instrumental showcasing his and the band’s prowess. Next is “Fresh Out,” from his self-titled 2019 album. It’s a rousing and rocking straight up cut with great guitar and some soulful organ. Also from 662 is “Another Life Goes By,” a ballad about profiling and oppression. Slow blues is up next with stinging guitar and soulful vocals in “Empty Promises.”

“Hard Times” is also from hus first album in 2019, a funked up cut that moves along in a cool manner. “Mississippi Night” is the next song, another deep and soulful slow, instrumental blues. There is some thoughtful and excellent guitar picking here. Also cut from his first album is “Been Here Before.” This one has a front porch, down-home feeling to it as Kingfish goes solo and unaccompanied. It’s another fine piece of work. The first CD concludes with “Something In The Dirt” and it is another 662 cut, a fun bio-song about his roots in Clarksdale. Another solo effort, Kingfish sings and plays with passion.

The second disc opens with “You’re Already Gone” from 662. The band returns to accompany Christone. This one is another pretty ballad with slick keys and acoustic electric guitar.  Then it’s “Listen” from Kingfish; Ingram takes this thoughtful, midtempo cut and gives a rousing rendition. More solid organ support and, of course, super vocals and guitar. The 662 bonus track “Rock & Roll” and “Not Gonna Lie” are next. The former is  prety, cool ballad with thoughtful piano accompaniment, while the latter is a big, funky anthem piece.. Stinging guitar and outstanding keys once again are featured here and even more on the next track, “Midnight Heat.” Heavy, cool stuff.

The opening track from his first CD “Outside of this Town” is next. Big, beefy guitar licks and more passionate vocals are again servedup to the listener’s delight. Following that is “662,” the title track of his second album. This one is uptempo and rollicking fun with some honky-tonk piano, organ and Kingfish’s vibrant guitar. The “Encore Intro” starts thoughtfully and peacefully with a piano intro. The organ come in after about 1:45 to accompany the piano, then some psychedelic guitar is added around 3:45 and then the three of them run to a big and boisterous instrumental finish that leads in to the conclusion of the album  with “Long Distance Woman,” a cut from his second album. His guitar hits the stratosphere as he plays to the mix and then offers a stellar outro.

This is not an album for the faint of heart. Most of the songs are lengthy and big numbers, mostly ranging from over 4 to just over 10 minutes apiece. Lots of heavy guitar; not one bit of shredding here– the notes have air and space between them. The solos do go on to satisfy event he most ardent guitar lover.  This one is a hit and will certainly garner consideration for acclaim and awards in the coming year.

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Steve Jones is president of the Crossroads Blues Society and is a long standing blues lover. He is a retired Navy commander who served his entire career in nuclear submarines. In addition to working in his civilian career since 1996, he writes for and publishes the bi-monthly newsletter for Crossroads, chairs their music festival and works with their Blues In The Schools program. He resides in Byron, IL.

Garnetta Cromwell – Time To Shine

Self-release

www.garnettacromwellmusic.com

10 songs – 40 minutes

Time To Shine is Canadian singer-songwriter Garnetta Cromwell’s debut release and is a very impressive soul/blues/R&B release. Featuring eight self-written tracks and two well-chosen covers, the album was recorded mostly live with a crack band of Toshi Otani (guitar), Mark Howe (bass), Robin Houston (drums), Sabian Crosswell (keys) and Juan Arce (tenor saxophone), together, DaGROOVMASTERS. Time To Shine also features an all-female horn section of Rebecca Hennessy, Colleen Allen, Carrie Chesnutt and Elena Kapeleris, backing vocalists Quisha Wint and Selena Evanageline, and producer Ken Whiteley added extra guitar, organ and backing vocals.

The album opens with a swinging tribute to Cromwell’s mother, “Miss Marva Ann”. The upbeat, dancing groove, glorious stabbing horn parts and optimistic, autobiographical lyrics are an excellent reflection of what is to be found on the rest of the album. Many of the lyrics on Time To Shine celebrate strong, powerful women, but “Open Jam (On Hess Street)” is a warm-hearted celebration of a local jam session. Cromwell is a superb soul-blues singer combining technical virtuosity with deep passion and humanity. Many of the songs have neat earworms of a chorus, for example on the funky “Weekend” or the irresistibly positive tongue-in-cheek “It’s A Woman World”.

Recorded at Casa Wroxton Studio in Toronto, with engineering by Nik Tjelios and mastering by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering, Time To Shine has a warm yet pristine sound and Whiteley has coaxed a series of impressive performances from the musicians. Solos are short and to the point and all the better for that, so even on “I Rise With The Sun”, which has guitar, sax and piano solos, the focus is on Crowell’s voice and in particular her assertion that this is her time to shine.

The two covers on the album fit seamlessly into the overall tone and messaging: Ruthie Foster’s “Singing The Blues” is given an organ-driven makeover with a great sax solo from Arce, while James Brown’s “Think (About It)” is neatly re-purposed to reflect a female perspective.

While the majority of tracks are upbeat, dancing tracks (in particular, check out the toe-tapping shuffle of “I Rise With The Sun” or the funky “Get Up & Get A Job), the album ends with the heart-achingly supportive soul ballad “Hey You Girl”, sung by Cromwell to one of her sisters. In many ways, it’s a perfect ending to a highly enjoyable album. It is clear that Cromwell is a major talent and it will be fascinating to see where this path leads her.

Reviewer Rhys “Lightnin'” Williams plays guitar in a blues band based in Cambridge, England. He also has a day gig as a lawyer.

Li’l Ronnie and the Grand Dukes – Got It ‘Live’ From ‘05

EllerSoul Records

www.ilronnieandthegranddukes.com

11 tracks/54 minutes

Li’l Ronnie is Ronnie Owens, the harp player and front man for The Grand Dukes. This is their 13th release and it’s a live album recorded in 2005 that they put together during the Pandemic from some stuff Jerry Hall had recorded for them at Loafers Beach Club in Raleigh, NC. Hall has since passed and the album is now released on Eller Soul instead of Hall’s old label and it’s a truly fine production of this set of tunes.  On top of that, Owens and company preview three new tracks at the end as a bonus; these songs will be featured on an upcoming new album.

The Grand Dukes are, in addition to Owens, George Sheppard on drums, Bryan Smith on bass, Robert Frahm on guitar and John fralin on piano and organ. These guys are all quite talented and give super performances on each cut.

“Mellow Chick” starts the album off and it’s a swinging and jumping blues that gets the blood flowing. Great guitar and harp licks abound and the vocals are spot on. “Bettin’ On My Baby” follows, another swinging cut with stinging guitar and cool harp. Next is “Crossed Eyed Suzie Lee” with more the jumping and jiving good time. Straight up blues is featured next in “Life Changes,” a traditional AAB song that the band nails.  Harp, guitar and piano are in the forefront and lay out some cool music.

Slow blues is up next with “Early Monday Morning,” some slick and dirty blues done up right. Harp then guitar give impassioned solos here. They are back to swinging with “Hey Little Girl” featuring a nice instrumental intro and some great guitar and harp work. They get a little Rhumba going for “Love Trance.” “Rock This House” follows and it’s a really super little jump blues with another cool intro. Guitar, harp and dums all get some solo time and Ronnie introduces all the band to the crowd.

The final three tracks are bonus tracks from their upcoming studio album.”V’s Boogie” is a swell instrumental with a cool groove and vibe and some fine piano work. Then “I Need Your Love So Bad” is up, some very solid and soulful slow blues played and sung with emotion. The final cut is “Same Thing Could Happen To You” which features lots of great harp and a swinging beat.

A cool mix of half originals and half covers (two Harmonica Smith tunes and one each from Zuzu Bolin and Jimmy Rogers) makes for some exceptional live music. The three bonus cuts are also great covers that left me wanting to hear their next CD. There’s some inspired playing here and fans of blues and jump blues will all find something here to savor. Most highly recommended!

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Steve Jones is president of the Crossroads Blues Society and is a long standing blues lover. He is a retired Navy commander who served his entire career in nuclear submarines. In addition to working in his civilian career since 1996, he writes for and publishes the bi-monthly newsletter for Crossroads, chairs their music festival and works with their Blues In The Schools program. He resides in Byron, IL.

David Bennett Cohen – Seems Like A Good Time For The Blues

Self-Release – 2023

www.davidbennettcohen.net

10 tracks; 42 minutes

Piano player David Bennett Cohen may be remembered as an original member of Country Joe & The Fish whose hippy style rock was so well captured in the movie of Woodstock. Since those heady days of the late sixties David has played with a plethora of artists, including Hubert Sumlin, Bob Weir, Johnny Winter, even Hendrix. He has produced several solo albums and continued to teach piano (and guitar, an instrument he also plays); indeed, well established keyboard player Dave Keyes is one of his former pupils. This set was recorded in New York and it’s an all-original affair, apart from one foray into Country Joe’s old repertoire. David plays piano throughout and acoustic guitar on one track, ably supported by Arthur Neilson on guitar, Tim Tindall on bass and Mike Rodbard on drums; congas are added to four songs by the late Fred Walcott (to whom the album is dedicated) and Eddie Torres.

The first thing to say is that David does not have a great voice. Having said that, the lyrics are always clear and that is probably just as important, as David has quite a lot to say in these songs, whether it’s amusing lyrics about needing to learn from previous experiences (like taking an umbrella with you when it rains, or dressing appropriately for the occasion), as in “The Next Time”, or emphasising that “Life Ain’t Fair”. The band plays impressively, Arthur taking a fine solo on the latter tune and David’s steady piano is at the heart of the music. More cautionary words on what may be an autobiographical song: “It’s a nice place to live and pretty safe after dark, but I’ve got Neighbours…”. The music on this one is also terrific, David’s piano sitting nicely above the rocking rhythm and Arthur’s slide work. Congas add rhythm to New Orleans style piano on a tale of opposing lifestyles in “The Night Owl And The Early Bird” and David reveals that he has a healthy appetite for whatever food may be available in the bouncing “Cookin’ In The Kitchen”.

The title track is a slower tune with sad lyrics about how broken our society is, a serious song before David demonstrates a comic attitude to “Growing Old”: “bathroom breaks and afternoon naps it’s not just a passing phase; growing old ain’t so easy, growing old ain’t much fun”. All of us of a certain age will nod sympathetically! David describes the best way to see NYC in “Walkin’ Around The City”, a colourful description played over jaunty piano rhythms, then pays warm tribute to “Little Mo”, “the apple of my eye, the cherry in my pie”. The final track is Country Joe MacDonald’s “Flyin’ High” which was the opening track on the first CJ&TF album, Electric Music For The Mind And Body. David’s piano features strongly, as does Arthur’s guitar in a solo that really takes wing.

This is a good sounding album with interesting songs.

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer John Mitchell is a blues enthusiast based in the UK who enjoys a wide variety of blues and roots music, especially anything in the ‘soul/blues’ category. Favorites include contemporary artists such as Curtis Salgado, Tad Robinson, Albert Castiglia and Doug Deming and classic artists including Bobby Bland, Howling Wolf and the three ‘Kings’. He gets over to the States as often as he can to see live blues.

The Duke Robillard Organ Trio – A Smooth One

MIG Music

www.dukerobillard.com

10 tracks/60 minutes

A new album from Duke Robillard is always a welcome sight and this one is another great one to enjoy. An instrumental jazz trio of cuts recorded in the studio in Bruino, Italy in June 2022, Duke and his cohorts blends and wind their way through some fine songs that include a pair of pieces penned by Duke and the rest are tasteful covers.

Duke of course handles the guitar. Alberto Marsico is on the Hammond organ and is a delight to listen to. He had arranged some sessions for Duke when he was touring with Sugar Ray Norcia and he and Alberto decided to get in the studio together and put something together. Robillard brought his drummer Mark Texiera and the three of them put together a 10 cut set list that they nailed.

The classic tune “’Deed I Do” starts things off, a slick instrumental with Duke picking out some cool stuff on guitar. A subtle snare and groove and cool organ accompaniment and solo set a nice tone for this studio recording. It may not replace Blossum Dearie as my favorite version of this song, but it’s a slick instrumental that is memorable. “Rhythm Willie” is another fine instrumental featuring more of Robillard and Marsico giving the listener their money’s worth.

Duke’s “Body And Fender Man” is next. Duke cruises through the first half of the song and then it’s time for Alberto to take over, which he does expertly; Duke takes us home as only he can do. Next is the title track, slowed a bit down from the Charlie Christian original. Organ replaced piano and sax but it works so well.

“Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You” is another old classic that os slow, savory and sublime. The organ sets a great mood as does guitar and drums. Lionel Hamptpn’s “Red Top” follows, stripped down from the big band version is a slick, understated and cool new package.

Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz” follows, a delightful stroll with Marsico laying out some fine organ to savor and then Duke reprising the fun with his guitar. The original “Jumpin’ At The Woodside” is a great jump blues cut that just makes the listener want to get on their feet.

“Exactly Like You” is a Jimmy Midnight cut with the trio replacing the typical big band sound in a delightful manner. The album concludes with “Sweet Georgia Brown,” a great standard that Duke makes his own with some outstanding guitar. Mid-cut it’s Alberto’s turn and Mark gives us a little nice drum solo to enjoy, too. Duke takes us home with the other two in support as the album rises to a nice conclusion.

Duke’s guitar tone is beautiful with these great jazz songs.  His phrasing is excellent and, coupled with Alberto’s prowess on keys makes for a superb session. Texiera keeps the beat and groove going with his exceptional percussive skills. I thoroughly enjoyed this set of jazz tunes delivered by a blues, rock and jazz master and his trio that got put together in 2002 and wound up recording a memorable set of tunes for jazz and blues fans to really have fun with!

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Steve Jones is president of the Crossroads Blues Society and is a long standing blues lover. He is a retired Navy commander who served his entire career in nuclear submarines. In addition to working in his civilian career since 1996, he writes for and publishes the bi-monthly newsletter for Crossroads, chairs their music festival and works with their Blues In The Schools program. He resides in Byron, IL.