Style: Country blues

Personnel: Mo’ Kauffey (guitar and vocals); Mel Brown (Hammond organ and guitar); Ken Brown (bass, guitar and vocals); Dave Colter (drums); Max Bent (guitar); Ken Moores (harmonica); Derrick Chapman (seven-string guitar); John Havlicek (piano).

What this guy is all about: Kauffey is a Pueblo native who has played his music on the Front Range for many years. Here lately, though, he went and married a Canadian woman and moved to Ontario. He visits Colorado several times a year, but this visit has been extended by visa problems. Kauffey will be playing in town until June.

Sources of inspiration: Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jorma Kaukonen, Roger Miller.

What “making it” would look like: “Just make my music, and pay my bills and live comfortably,” Kauffey says. “I don’t have any false dreams about being Metallica. There’s a lot of room in the middle to live a comfortable life playing music.”

His most rock star moment: “Sharing the stage with Mel Brown at a songwriters workshop,” Kauffey says. “(Shoot), I love it all. I just dig performing.”

CD vitals: 14 songs, 45 minutes, produced by Ken Brown and Mo’ Kauffey.

Test drive: Song samples at www.mokauffey.com

Available at: Independent Records, www.cdbaby.com, www.mokauffey.com and gigs.

Review: Like sitting in a rocker on the front porch. Like an afternoon at your favourite fishin’ hole. Like a float trip down a lazy river.

            Mo’ Kauffey’s country blues is about as easy going as music can get. Don’t go thinking that means his music is boring, because it’s not. But his album “Whatcha Gonna Do” offers up quiet pleasures rather than lightning and thunder.

            His voice is effortless and soulful. His guitar work intricately weaves its way through the music. His guests offer delicious textures without overpowering the songs. This tasteful collection of tunes will have you hankering for mo’ Mo’.

Catch ‘em live: Until he leaves town, Kauffey will be playing every Wednesday at Union Station (2419 N. Union Blvd.), every Thursday at Tavern on the Green (3356 Templeton Gap Road) and every Friday in Pueblo (call the clubs to confirm details before you go).

            His biggest gig is an April 23 show at the Thunderhead Inn (1100 Rampart Range Road in Woodland Park), with guests Kim Stone on bass and Randy Bowen on drums (call 687-9984)

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                 Arts                

Mo's better blues
Well-travelled Kauffey starts to feel at home in blues community with release of new CD
JASON SCHNEIDER

Mo' Kauffey will likely play from his new CD, Whatcha Gonna Do, tomorrow at Boomers.

(Jan 15, 2004)
With his tall, skinny frame and weatherbeaten face covered by an ample beard, it's easy to imagine that Mo' Kauffey and his guitar just blew into town on a freight train. While that may be stretching things, the truth is that Kauffey (a.k.a. Gary Wickizer) has played his music all around the world, but since meeting the woman who has since become his wife, he seems ready to settle down in the region.
About a year ago he introduced himself to the local blues community, which immediately embraced his laid back, folk-inflected style. The ensuing time found him recording with respected Guelph folkie Ken Brown, and the results can now be heard on Whatcha Gonna Do, Mo' Kauffey's fifth album.
"We worked on it for about five months and we got some great musicians to help out on it. I really feel lucky that I've gotten to know so many great players since I've been here," Wickizer says.
"Ken came up with the term Mo Magic to describe the sound, which to me is just what happens when I get together with all the friends I've made in the past year to play music.
"One of the better moments was recording with Mel Brown. When we arrived for the session, he was already playing the Hammond organ and it was one of the most amazing sounds I've ever heard."
Wickizer says that this recording is also the first one he's overdubbed multiple instrumental parts, having previously preferred to record in a traditional live setting. However, it's hard to make that distinction as the homespun approach to his music still harkens back to simpler times.
"That's just the way I write songs, I guess," Wickizer says. "I remember hearing records by Brownie McGee and Blind Lemon Jefferson when I was young and that sound just hit me. After that I went through all kinds of phases with music, but that simple stuff always stayed with me. It's just what naturally comes out when I pick up the guitar."
Aside from a few covers (including one by Lightning Hopkins and the country classic Sixteen Tons), Whatcha Gonna Do is all original. Wickizer says that he mostly writes lyrics from personal experience, and since he's been living in the area, that experience has been thoroughly positive.
"I can't say enough about how nice people have been since I've been living here. I suppose that's reflected in the new songs I've written. I keep thinking that I'd like to write a song that tells someone else's story, but that's something that I just haven't gotten around to doing yet."
Mo' Kauffey's Whatcha Gonna Do is available at all Beat Goes On locations, and Encore Records in Kitchener, or through his website, www.mokauffey.com. You can catch him live every Friday afternoon starting at 4:30 at Boomers, 15 Scott St., Kitchener.