Mike Miz

Sometimes By Surprise

 Blackbird

The formerly Northeast Pennsylvania-based singer/songwriter/guitarist Mike Mizwinski, better known as Mike Miz, took a major step by moving to Nashville seven years ago. Miz has a strong affinity for jam bands such as the Grateful Dead and Phish, has played in jazz-fusion groups, but at heart, is a rocker.  As he did on his 2023 Only Human, Miz works with producer/bassist Ted Pecchio from Doyle Bramhall II’s band on this latest effort, Sometimes by Surprise.  Brook Sutton again engineered. Others include Jano Rix of The Wood Brothers, keyboardist Peter Levin, and Laur Joamets (guitars) and  Robbie Crowell (keyboards) from Sturgill Simpson’s band. Miz writes with an array of co-writers, most frequently with Boo Ray. This album, unlike the previous, features a band rather than session musicians delivering the music live in the studio. They take the old school route by recording to two-inch tape.

This baker’s dozen of tunes has Miz contributing as a writer to all but one. Miz mostly built his reputation in Pennsylvania as a skilled guitarist. His songwriting has grown over the years, yet he has a rather indistinctive voice (not atypical for the singer-songwriter type). The opener “Out at the Lake” is a meditation on being only 12 years old, replete with descriptive lyrics and Joamets’ slide guitar solo. The up-tempo rocker “End of the Rope” is a song about surviving the road, a subject Miz knows all too well. He sums it up this way, ‘When you get to a place where you can’t go on,/Tie a knot in the end of your rope.” Miz keeps it revved up for “Birds Don’t Sing,” an environmental anthem that showcases his skillful guitar playing as well as exceptional drumming by either Rix or Nick Buda.

“Blame It on a Broken Heart” and “Adios” are the requisite lost love songs, played with equal dashes of swagger and crisp instrumentation. “Trading Seats on a Sinking Ship” is also tightly rendered, featuring bright guitar, teeming organ, a dose of background vocals, and an irresistible groove. On the other hand, Miz weighs in with the ballad, “Emerald, Green, and Blue,” as one of his strongest vocals before turning purely instrumental in the vein of John Fahey or modern-day great Tommy Emmanuel in “The Rope Swing” with dulcet, resonating guitar tones.  “ No Good Explanation” remains largely acoustic, evoking early Lyle Lovett from his Pontiac period.

Miz and the band fire up for “Tornado Mind,” a strong rocker imbued again with superb drumming. “I Sleep Better” takes a similar rocking groove, while “I Ain’t a Kid” is a twin to “Emerald, Green, and Blue,’ soulful and emotive. To close, Miz covers Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name,” a 1973 single recorded by Jim Croce with lyrics by Norman Gimbel and music by Charles Fox. It was the first single from his album of the same title and also Croce’s first posthumous single, released the day after Croce died in a plane crash on September 20, 1973.

Sometimes by Surpise is a more completely realized effort than the previous Only Human and it succeeds on the merits of seven well-crafted songs: “Out at the Lake,” “End of Your Rope,” “Birds Don’t Sing,” “Trading Seats (On a Sinking Ship),” “The Rope Swing,” “No Good Explanation,” and “Tornado Mind.” That’s seven of his twelve originals. Not many albums match that ratio.

• Jim Hynes

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