{"id":26272,"date":"2023-12-13T05:30:47","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T10:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=26272"},"modified":"2023-11-03T09:46:33","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T13:46:33","slug":"album-review-mick-kolassa-wooden-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/13\/album-review-mick-kolassa-wooden-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Mick Kolassa \u2013 Wooden Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Memphis-based guitarist \u201cMichissippi Mick\u201d Kolassa calls his brand of music \u201cfree range blues.\u201d It\u2019s his way of getting across the idea that he doesn\u2019t 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 \u2013 plus six digital-only releases \u2013 all released in the last decade.<\/p>\n

Kolassa\u2019s latest offering is Wooden Music<\/i>. By design it\u2019s 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\u2019s joined by a skilled and sympathetic core group of musicians \u2013 lead guitarist and session producer Jeff Jensen, upright bassist Carl Casperson, 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 \u201cMemphis Wood\u201d) and Bob Corritore (harmonica on \u201cSugar in Your Grits\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u201cEducated by the Blues\u201d is a story song set against a loping, jaunty backing. Kolassa name-checks some of the artists whose work has inspired him. Eric Hughes \u2013 one of three harmonica players on the album \u2013 turns in a bright if too-brief solo. Guest player Doug MacLeod\u2019s slide guitar shines mid-song. Kolassa adopts a huskier vocal timbre for \u201cYou Gotta Pay the Price\u201d; that tone fits the tune\u2019s theme and highlights Kolassa\u2019s vocal range. Steff\u2019s subtle accordion work adds a contemplative feel to the arrangement.<\/p>\n

Kolassa packs a lot of lyrics into \u201cSugar on Your Grits\u201d; the song\u2019s title is a metaphor for adding unnecessary ingredients to music. \u201cYou might think that you like the blues,\u201d Kolassa sings. \u201cBut tell me: is that what you\u2019re playing?\u201d Corritore\u2019s harp work is a highlight.<\/p>\n

The sole cover tune on Wooden Music<\/i> is a reading of Guy Clark\u2019s \u201cBaby Took a Limo to Memphis.\u201d Libby Rae Watson helps out on vocals as Kolassa bends Clark\u2019s song into a shuffling, country-blues shape. Thanks in large part to Lonardo\u2019s approach to drumming on the track, \u201cIf I Told You\u201d presents a kind of acoustic rock feel; in that regard it\u2019s quite successful. The emotion-laden \u201cHurt People\u201d takes things in a more serious direction.<\/p>\n

Wooden Music<\/em>\u2019s title track features sweet accordion backing and lovely acoustic picking from Cru, all in support of Kolassa\u2019s narrative, storytelling lyric. Steff\u2019s agile piano forms the musical core of the bouncy \u201cIf Life Was Fair.\u201d Country blues come to the fore on \u201cOver My Shoulder.\u201d The autobiographical \u201cOne Hit Wonder\u201d finds Kolassa comparing present-day life with his rowdier early days; though the tune is infused with nostalgia, he makes it clear that he\u2019s happy with life in its current form.<\/p>\n

And that wry, uptempo character follows through for the album\u2019s closer, \u201cGas Station Sushi.\u201d 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<\/i> blows along at quick pace; working within a specific category of the blues, Kolassa demonstrates the variety that can be found within it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memphis-based guitarist \u201cMichissippi Mick\u201d Kolassa calls his brand of music \u201cfree range blues.\u201d It\u2019s his way of getting across the idea that he doesn\u2019t confine his style to any one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[5263],"class_list":["post-26272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-mick-kolassa","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26274,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26272\/revisions\/26274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}