"Blue and Green in Black and White" Album Cover

Blue and Green in Black and White

(2016)

One of the rare socially conscious blue-collar songwriters working today Mike Stout continues to be a passionate troubadour for worker safety, economic justice, and a clean environment.

Outstanding tracks on the album include the rousing foot-stomping Irish chorus workers unity anthem “One Big Union”, and the up-tempo banjo and fiddle bluegrass picket line rallying cry “One Day Longer”. In a cool down-home blues tune Mike laments about his woeful painful ordeal with kidney stones on Kidney Stone Blues. The gentle Johnny Cash style country-flavored “You’re Never Gonna Fall As Long As You Hold On to Me” is illustrated with outstanding classic crying slide guitar. Over the past decade, an average of 129 workers per year have died in road construction accidents. Operating Engineers Local 66 commissioned Stout to write the rocker “Keep ‘Em Safe and Alive” to urge the public to slow down and pay attention to highway construction workers.

Tracks List

  1. One Day Longer
  2. Stand Up
  3. One Big Union
  4. Kidney Stone Blues
  5. Keep ‘Em Safe and Alive
  6. You’re Never Going to Fall As Long As You Hold Onto Me
  7. First Responders
  8. Under the Table
  9. Terry Greenwood
  10. Rosie (the New) Riveter
  11. Heaven’s Mist
  12. There Will Always Be You and Me
  13. I’m Just So Happy To See You Alive

Musicians

Mike Stout – All lead vocals, acoustic guitar

Kevin McDonald – Electric & Acoustic & Slide Guitars, mandolin, harmony vocals

Laura Daniels – Keyboards, harmony vocals

Kelly Burgos – Harmony vocals

Doug Wilkin – Harmony vocals, acoustic, electric & bass guitars, mandolin

Tom Valentine – Bass guitar, stand-up bass, harmony vocals

Brian Cole – Acoustic guitar (There Will Always Be), harmony vocals (Terry Greenwood)

Joe Munroe – Keyboards (Kidney Stone Blues)

Vince Taglieri – Drums

Sean McDonald – Drums

Bob Banerjee – Violin & fiddle

Fred Nelson – Harmony vocals

Corey Congilio – Banjo (One Day Longer)

Jim Dougherty – Dobro slide solo (Kidney Stone Blues)

Jason Kendall – Alto sax (Stand Up)

Choir on One Big Union, Stand Up: Ken & Loretta Weir, Paula Lim, Marc Mancini, Casandra Armour, Steve Capri, Molly Ritter, Rose Trump

Biographical Notes

Mike Stout – Executive Producer

Sean & Kevin McDonald – Co-Producers

Doug Kasper – Engineer, Soundscape Studio, McKeesport, PA

Doug Wilkin – Engineer, Wilkin Audio, Wilkinsburg, PA

Sean McDonald – Engineer, Red Medicine Recording Studio, Swissvale, PA

Molly Ritter – CD Cover Design

Mastered at Treelady Studios, by Garrett Haines, Turtle Creek, PA