Mike Mizwinski: Sometimes By Surprise

The 53-plus minutes of deep introspection rendered tangible in a baker's dozen tracks by Mike Mizwinski and company transcends its most overt influences. In fact, the clear-cut echoes of Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up In Blue" on this opener, "Out at the Lake" pique the curiosity to hear more, if only to take note of the esteemed company in which 'Miz' made this record.

Recorded live to two-inch tape at The Studio Nashville in May and June of 2024, this album is the result of work by a collaborative team whose members have also participated in the recording and production of more than a few distinctive records in recent years (the The Wood Brothers' Puff Of Smoke (Honey Jar Records/Thirty Tigers, 2025) plus the pair issued by the eldest of those siblings Oliver Always Smilin' (Honey Jar Records/Thirty Tigers, 2023) and Fat Cat Silhouette (Honey Jar Records/Thirty Tigers, 2024)).

On that collaborative front, the man who plays bass as well as produces here, Ted Pecchio, has worked with Susan Tedeschi, while guitarist Laur Joamets and keyboardist Robbie Crowell are members of Sturgill Simpson's band. Engineer/mixer Brook Sutton has also fulfilled similar responsibilities for the aforementioned Woods band, of which one of these drummers, Jano Rix, is a member.

It is not to criticize Mike Mizwinski too harshly to observe the musicianship sometimes transcends the material here. Nevertheless, the impression arises a bit too often. For instance, Joamet's slide guitar sharpens the latent attitude within "End of Your Rope," while the distorted chording from that man's fretboard builds from the mere traces of the disorienting atmosphere of "Birds Don't Sing."

Likewise, lively piano and organ from Peter Levin and the aforementioned Crowell spice up a slightly lackadaisical" Blame It On a Broken Heart," as does the vocal of Jaime Paul. All those songs are pleasant enough, just not genuinely compelling, except in the way they are played and produced. Nevertheless, Mizwinski was wise in presenting himself as an active party in so many arrangements.

On "Adios," for instance, the frontman's vocal delivery radiates such a credible fragility, it becomes touching, rather than lachrymose. Likewise, his stoic singing on "Trading Seats (On A Sinking Ship)" maximizes that song's conceit rather than overemphasizing the cleverness at its core.

In contrast, Mizwinski sounds like he is wrenching out the emotions underlying the words of "Emerald, Green and Blue." Here in particular, the economy of the accompaniment is wholly and completely complementary to the frontman's own performance: all contributors are on par with each other. Still, it was worthwhile to emphasize the virtues of the accompanying musicians with the multi-part instrumental called "The Rose Swing."

By this point in the well-paced track sequence, it becomes clear that, while Sometimes By Surprise is not a wholly original entry in the still-burgeoning field of Americana music, it is nonetheless replete with an easygoing professionalism that accurately mirrors the charming personality of the man to whom it is billed.

And, ironically enough, that is what makes the product of a TV and film composing team of Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox such an ideal closing cut. In its sing-song predictability, "I Got A Name" is humdrum in ways the preceding twelve selections are not.