Mick Kolassa – Blue to the Bone
Endless Blues Records – 2026
11 tracks; 42 minutes
Mick Kolassa doesn’t pace himself. With Blue to the Bone, his 16th album since 2014, he continues a remarkably prolific run—one built not on reinvention, but on sharpening a sound that blends smoky, piano-driven blues, Memphis-style horns, and a storyteller’s instinct for balancing humor, heartbreak, and hard-earned reflection.
Recorded with a deep bench of Memphis musicians under producer Jeff Jensen, the album has a full-bodied, lived-in feel—rich with organ swells, punchy brass, and steady, consistent grooves that let the songs breathe. Kolassa’s voice sits comfortably in that space: a low, conversational delivery that can drift from wry and tongue-in-cheek to quietly devastating, sometimes recalling the narrative phrasing of songwriters like Randy Newman or Mose Allison.
Across the record, he moves easily between tones and themes. There’s humor in songs like “I’d Like to Be Recycled,” where aging becomes a punchline without losing its sting, and deeper tragedy in “For Better or Worse,” which confronts addiction and loss with a slow-burning intensity. Elsewhere, tracks like “All It Takes Is Blues” double as mission statements—celebrating the grit, energy, and near-spiritual pull of the music itself—while covers like “16 Tons” are reworked with a loose, storytelling cadence that fits seamlessly into Kolassa’s world.
What ties it all together is songcraft. Whether leaning into smoky late-night blues, upbeat horn-driven shuffles, or stripped-down reflections on time and regret, Kolassa writes with clarity and purpose.
Blue to the Bone isn’t trying to overwhelm—it’s trying to connect, drawing on a wide emotional range while staying grounded in a consistent, deeply rooted blues tradition.
Rick Steff provides eerie, haunting keys on “Bourbon and You”, as Kolassa’s voice, bourbon and honey-filled, croons “This bourbon gotta do me right. I’d trade all the bourbon in the world just to spend this evening with you.” It’s slow, smoky blues, with charged electric guitar progressions.
Jensen’s guitar drives “All It Takes is Blues” from the start, a high-paced blues rocker with seediness and grit. Eric Hughes on harmonica huffs and puffs, chugging the song along, as the band begins to really wail. Kolassa sings, “just get me to a juke joint or a bar on the wrong side of town, where the blues is playing, that’s where I want to be around.” Guitar screams and wails, and a full bodied sound emerges. Kolassa belts out “You can call it the devil’s music, but it sounds like paradise.”
Powerful electric guitar kicks off “Mr. Right”, a gritty, good-time blues track predicated on harmonica and guitar. In his tongue-in-cheek lyrics, Kolassa creates an alter ego of sorts – Mr. Right, singing “You call me Mr. Right, I ain’t ever done no wrong.” Hughes delivers an absolutely killer, soulful harmonica performance that propels the recording.
Gnarly, moaning guitars launch “For Better or Worse”, arguably the best track on the LP. This is steamy, hot, simmering blues, with exquisite guitar playing. Kolassa trembles with feeling, conjuring a slow, intentional vocal delivery as he sings “As she pours herself another drink she prepares herself to slip a little further away.” It is a heart-wrenching tale of self-destructive behavior, born from Kolassa’s direct experience with his wife’s alcoholism.
Bob Corritore blasts his harmonica into “16 Tons”, the Merle Travis original. Kolassa’s jaunty, rap-like delivery hearkens the style of Randy Newman and Mose Allison. The track reflects the plight of a working man, and the grip of powerful companies – Kolassa sings “A poor man is made of muscle and blood/ Another day older, deeper in debt./ I sold my soul to the company store.”
Kolassa’s irreverent humor cuts through some of the album’s heavier themes, often using wit to soften the edges of aging, love, and self-reflection. On “I’d Like to Be Recycled,” he leans into a playful, self-aware tone, turning the anxieties of getting older into a string of sly, tongue-in-cheek lines—“I may be tossed out, but I ain’t used up” and “I’m totally organic… and I’m gluten free”—delivered over a steady groove and a memorable instrumental hook. It’s light without being throwaway, grounded in the same lived experience that fuels his more serious writing.
While some tracks land with less force or emotional depth than others, Blue to the Bone as a whole reflects Kolassa’s deep immersion in the roots of the blues. He assembles a carefully curated mix of originals and covers, guided by a steady instinct for storytelling and emotional clarity. Across the record, Kolassa moves through themes of pain, aging, mortality, joy, drinking, love, and longing—in short, the full span of lived experience that underpins the blues tradition. That emotional range ultimately serves as the album’s backbone.
