I learned of Mick Kolassa by listening to Gil Anthony’s radio show “Blues Power”. Mick has a real straight forward Blues sound. I would say it’s a mixture of Chicago & Delta Blues… But in the same sense that it is Mick’s own sound. Rather than staying within a single genre of blues, Mick loves and celebrates all styles of blues, so this why Mick calls his style “Free Range Blues”. Mick’s songs have a story to tell in each one.
Mick Kolassa, a lifelong musician and hardcore blues fan who, in addition to being an active blues artist, also head of Endless Blues Records and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Blues Foundation. Lived in Mississippi for nearly 30 years, where he was given the nickname “Michissippi Mick”. Mick also looks for Blues hidden in other genres, he does what he calls “Bluesifying” songs and calls them “Uncovers” Here are some questions I was able to ask Mick. To find out more about Mick Kolassa check this sites out. http://www.mimsmick.com/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001144952106 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKPEeZNzaF2ODtsdHkQTNKA 1.How long have you been playing music? I think I got my first guitar when I was about 12, which would have been 1964. That’s also about the same time I joined the school band and leaned to play drums – I haven’t stopped since then 2.How many bands have you been in? Wow, probably a dozen, not counting the ones that never got past the first rehearsal. That included rock bands in the US and in Germany (where I lived in the early 70s) as well as a couple of acoustic groups that did mostly folk stuff 3.Where were you born? I was born in Three Rivers Michigan, although I spent the first 20 years of my live in a town south of there, Sturgis. It’s midway between Detroit and Chicago, which made it a great place for music. It was common for touring bands to do shows there, so as a teenager I was treated to the James Gang, MC-5, Bob Seger, and a number of great bands playing locally 4.Are you self-taught? I’m self-taught on guitar, but I did take actual lesson for drums and percussion 5.Who are your biggest influences? My influences are quite varied. Although first and foremost I am a fan of blues, and have been since I was about 14, I listen to and am affected by a wide range of music. So, my influences include the Beatles and even George Gershwin, as well as Willie Dixon and Howling Wolf. Vocally I love listening to Sinatra, he seemed to believe every word he sang, and his phrasing was simply stunning – he could deliver a song. So could Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, who inspire me. I’m also a fan of calypso and reggae, so I’m certainly influenced by those genres, which can sneak into my music. And I’d be remiss if I left Hank Williams off the list 6.What style of music do you consider yours? I coined the term “Free Range Blues” to describe my style, because there are so many styles of blues and I love them all. My philosophy is to try to always keep one foot in the blues and let the other foot wander around to find fun and interesting places. It’s important to me to remember that the blues started as a verbal art form – the lyrics of the song tell the story and the music just moves it along. I don’t like the direction some have taken blues in – where the lyrics are pretty much disposable and just the space between guitar solos, to me it stops being blues and simply becomes jam rock – that’s OK but to me it isn’t blues 7.What was your first gig? How old were you? My first gig was at a folk festival at a community college in Michigan, I was still in high school at the time. My first gig with a band was at a private party put on by a guy who owned a bar in Ohio, he hired us because he had heard 2 of us sing at his place. I was playing bass in the 3-piece band (I think we called ourselves Pegasus) and we had what we thought was some great material but ended up doing a couple 30-minute versions of Wipe Out because that’s what they wanted to hear – that was a tough lesson about the music business! 8.What advice do you have for someone starting out in the music business? My first piece of advice is to understand that it is a business, and you have to make things happen. It’s a mistake to think that your musical talent alone will take you where you want to go, there are millions of very talented musicians who aren’t making a living at it. The first rule is that you have to realize that you are an entertainer, and you use music to entertain people, but the audience wants to be entertained, not simply amazed by your talent. Especially in blues, you really have to engage the audience. Second, you have to remember that you are part of the music business, and so are the club owners and festival promoters, who have business considerations. If the venue has a rule about the sound level, follow it! If they say you need to keep it under 100 decibels then be sure you do – if you can’t then don’t take the gig, because you won’t get booked again if you don’t. Another point, when the band takes a break that isn’t the time for you to slip out for a smoke, that’s the time to wander around the venue and meet with the audience and sell merch – I can’t tell you how many musicians complain that nobody buys their CDs but think their job is only on the stage, not everywhere in the venue, and think that when they aren’t playing, they aren’t working. 9.Do you write your own songs? I write songs constantly, although I always do a song or two written by others on my albums, I do write most of my own songs and in a show about 80% of the music will be my originals. When I do songs that aren’t original, they really have to be special to me, and there are some I simply don’t want to do for personal reasons – I won’t do Hootchie Cootchie Man because I consider what Muddy did with that song to be almost perfect and I don’t want to spoil it with my interpretation of it 10.What would people be surprised to hear that you have in your personal song collection? My 3 favorite pieces of music, which I listen to often, are Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Benny Goodman’s live version of Sing Sing Sing, with Gene Krupa on drums. They are each complex and very emotional pieces and any time I listen to any of them I learn something more about music
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AuthorHello, My name is Michael. I am into music, have been for over 48yrs. Big fan of all kinds of music, right now it has been the Blues for the last 10yrs. I do not play any instruments, But I very interested in the recording aspect of the industry. Have messed around with it a little and always learning new things about it. I have met many wonderful people because of Music.. Hope you enjoy my Blogs... In the last two years I have been producing House Concerts. I also in the past 2 years got to produce and engineer an album for a very good friend of mine from Sweden "Magpie". Archives
February 2024
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