Mick Kolassa – All Kinds of Blues
Endless Blues Records
14 Tracks – 49 Minutes
This the fifteenth album release from the prolific Mick Kolassa, nine of which was released starting in 2020 with four alone released in 2022. In 2023, he only released one physical album, but he also released an additional five digital only albums and one EP. He alerted everyone in 2022 to his potential run of albums with the release titled I’m Just getting Started. The quality of his output never faltered and ran the gamut from fun, Essentially Not Serious, to a folk approach in Americana Essentials, and to a themed approach with Troutunes & Other Fishing Madness. As stated with this album’s title, he is now focused on All Kinds of Blues.
Mick now lives in Michigan where he was born but he lived in Mississippi and Memphis for over 30 years where he soaked up the environment that gave birth to the blues. That combination of locales delivered his nickname “Michissippi” Mick. Mick is the owner of his record label, Endless Blues, and was a Board member of the Blues Foundation. He declares that all of his albums are a labor of love. 100% of the profits from the sale of his albums go to the Blues Foundation and is split between two programs – The HART (Handy Artists Relief Trust) Fund and Generation Blues. The former provides financial assistance to musicians and their families that have incurred medical expenses beyond their means. The latter provides financial assistance to aspiring young blues musicians with limited financial resources.
Mick Kolassa provides all of the vocals, wrote or co-wrote all of the original songs for the album, and plays guitar on three tracks. Jeff Jensen produced the album and plays guitar on most tracks. Dexter Allen performs with Mick in concerts that feature a more blues rock sound and plays guitar and bass on three tracks on this album. Other key players are Eric Hughes on harmonica, Rick Steff on piano, B3, accordion, and mini-Moog, Marc Franklin on trumpet, Kirk Smothers on sax, James Cunningham and Tom Lonardo sharing drums, with Joey Robinson also adding drums and keyboards on three tracks, and Bill Ruffino on bass and percussion.
The album opens with “Thank You Memphis”, a love letter to the city he called home for many years and played in the style of Memphis blues with Eric’s harmonica, Marc’s trumpet and Kirk’s sax kicking up the sound with Jeff’s guitar. “Where Love takes Me” is a Mississippi styled electric blues with Dexter on guitar as Mick notes that “wherever I go, it will be because of love”. Doug MacLeod co-wrote, sings and plays guitar on “Did You Ever Wonder” which has a New Orleans rhumba beat as the two question where some names come from.
The blues rocker “Too Old to Die Young” has Mick coming to terms with his age following a birthday noting “It has been fifty years since I turned 21”. The jazzy blues “Happy Endings” features piano of Joey Robinson as Mick asks, “Why cannot my dreams come true?” On “Amy Iodine”, Mick says, “I’ve got a new lady friend, she really loves me because she was programmed that way”, in the first love song to an A.I. creation and featuring some computer beeps in what Mick calls the first of a new sub-genre “Post-contemporary Acid Blues”.
“You Bumped Me Again” gets funky as Mick asks “What do I need to get your attention” as he cites her repeated rejections. Eric Hughes again joins on harmonica on a rocking “Does Your Mama Know” which asks why she wants to keep his love for her from her mama and papa. Mick sinks his voice down into a deep bass on “Eating My Soul” as he asks, “How much more do I have to take?” in a brooding roll with Kirk’s sax wailing.
Mick says, “It is tearing me apart” “I Can’t Sing No Blues Tonight” as Rick’s piano dominates and Mick’s slide guitar winds through the song. “That Don’t Mean” “it just makes it worse when people know you don’t care” with Jeff’s Chicago style guitar. Mick declares “you are making yourself a fool” “Drinking Somebody Else’s Whiskey”.
Eric Hughes co-wrote the county blues “Bad Decision” and rejoins on harmonica and guitar as a lonely man in a bar tries to pick up a solo woman to “have a couple of drinks and make some bad decisions”. Mick offers an explanation of his decision to move back to Michigan after living in Memphis for so many years in “A Yankee Heading Home” which shifts into a little taste of Americana.
Every one of Mick’s albums have their own pleasures and this one is no exception. Touches of humor interspersed with despair are a common factor in his storytelling. It is easy to recommend any of Mick’s albums, including this one. He has indicated that following the barrage of albums mentioned above, Mick has cited with this one he intends to slow down now.
