CD Preview: John Mayall’s Three For the Road

It’s no secret that the “Godfather of British Blues,” the legendary John Mayall, has made his living on the road. An energetic 84 years old, Mayall continues to tour with the zeal of a man a quarter of his age, the past couple of years fronting a lean, mean blues machine comprised of longtime bassist Greg Rzab and drummer Jay Davenport while Mayall sings and adds keyboards and harmonica to the mix. Since beginning his relationship with producer Eric Corne and his Forty Below Records imprint, Mayall has also delivered a trio of albums – 2014’s A Special Life, 2015’s Find A Way To Care, and 2017’s Talk About That – which stand proudly among the best work that Mayall has done over the course of a storied career spanning six decades (and counting).

On February 23rd, 2018 Forty Below Records will release Three For the Road, a live set featuring Mayall and his current touring trio. Recorded live in March 2017 in Dresden and Stuttgart, Germany, the album features nine red-hot performances of original Mayall tunes like “Streamline” and “Lonely Feelings” as well as covers of contemporary songs by Curtis Salgado (“The Sum of Something”) and Sonny Landreth (“Congo Square”) along with classic gems like Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “I Feel So Bad” and Eddie Taylor’s “Big Time Playboy.”   

“I hope the fans will enjoy the fireworks that the three of us came up with during a subsequent tour of Europe last year,” Mayall says in a press release for the new album. “We opted for recording in East Germany purely as a convenience and availability of a recording company. They specialize in live recordings and I must say they captured the energy that took place onstage. The songs come from my extensive library of material composed by some of my favorite blues players. Naturally, my playing is featured quite a lot more than usual in this format, and I hope listeners will enjoy the performances that capture a new chapter in my live shows.”

Longtime John Mayall fans will notice that, for a bandleader notorious for discovering talented young fretburners, there is no guitarist in his current band. “I’ve been using the trio format for our live shows for a year already,” he states, “and the reason for that came about quite accidentally when my guitarist Rocky Athas wasn’t able to make a festival gig due to airline cancellations. Since then, I found that the interplay and dynamics have created a more personal upfront sound in my live performances. I can’t speak too highly of bass player Greg Rzab and drummer Jay Davenport, who have been my bandmates for the last ten years or more. Their Chicago roots are to the fore every time we get onstage together.”

Mayall hasn’t given up on including a guitarist in his band, just planning on looking over all his available options. “As for recording, I shall still be exploring the talents of guitar players who will be pretty well-known to all lovers of rock ‘n’ roll,” he says. “They will be strongly featured on the next studio album. I have already got songs lined up for our sessions in the studio at the end of this month. So look out for the prominent interplay and surprises that will be coming your way later this year. Thanks for all your support as usual. I couldn’t do it without you!”

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: John Mayall’s Three For the Road

Also on That Devil Music.com:
John Mayall’s Talk About That CD review
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers’ Live In 1967 CD review

CD Review: John Mayall's Talk About That (2017)

Had John Mayall retired, say, twenty years ago, his status and legacy as one of the founding fathers of the British blues scene would still be etched in granite. As a bandleader and the guiding creative force behind such treasured recordings as Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (1966), A Hard Road and Crusade (both 1967), and Blues From Laurel Canyon (1968), Mayall provided the blueprint for, and influenced a generation of British blues-rock bands. Later albums like Bare Wires (1968) and The Turning Point (1969) explored the possibilities of adding jazz and folk-inspired acoustic elements to the blues, expanding the boundaries of the genre and resulting in some great music.

Mayall also has an uncanny knack for bringing livewire guitarists to the roster, beginning with Eric Clapton and Peter Green and running through Mick Taylor, Walter Trout, Harvey Mandel, and Coco Montoya to his most recent fretburner, Rocky Athas. Heck, Mayall could have retired decades ago and his influence and musical innovations would still be recognized today. But Mayall just keeps on truckin’ like the Energizer bunny of the blues world, and his work in just the last ten years alone – albums like 2009’s Tough, 2014’s A Special Life, and 2015’s Find A Way To Care – are acclaimed, career-making efforts that belie the reality that the 83-year-old bluesman is arguably in the waning days of his lengthy career.

John Mayall’s Talk About That

Add Talk About That to the aforementioned list of recent accomplishments by the talented Mr. Mayall, OBE. Working at a breakneck pace (releasing three studio albums in a little over three years, as well as producing two live archival albums), Mayall is still bursting with musical ideas better than a half-century into his storied career. Unlike recent recordings by artists of a close-to-similar vintage (aside from Buddy Guy, Mayall has no contemporaries, really), Talk About That doesn’t offer a glut of cover songs, eight of its eleven tracks written or co-written by the artist and his band.

Witness the title track, a swaggering slab o’ funk-rock with a deep, bluesy groove (courtesy of bassist Greg Rzab and drummer Jay Davenport) that may be semi-autobiographical but it’s also a lot of fun, Mayall’s self-effacing lyrics less a meaningless boast than a positive message powerfully delivered in step with an undeniably foot-shuffling rhythm. “It’s Hard Going Up (But Twice As Hard Coming Down)” is a soul-tinged cover of a great song by obscure 1960s-era Detroit bluesman Little Sonny, the song driven by Mayall’s subtle piano playing and a full horn section that adds a not-inconsiderable amount of brassy shine to the performance.

The Devil Must Be Laughing

Mayall has always worked well with guitarists and – as mentioned above – he’s employed more than his share of talented string-benders through the years. As good as former Black Oak Arkansas guitarist Rocky Athas has been over the past few Mayall albums (Talk About That is his swansong with the band, Athas moving on to continue his solo career), the bandleader’s use of Joe Walsh (The James Gang, The Eagles) on the album’s signature song, “The Devil Must Be Laughing,” is sheer genius. The masterful interplay between Athas’s rhythm guitar and Walsh’s scorching solos is enough to mark the song as a masterwork, but Mayall’s haunting lyrics and appropriately haunted vocals (not to mention keyboards that smother the song like a burial shroud) provide an electrifying dynamic to the performance in the creation of a potent blues-rock dirge. No other performance on Talk About That is as devastating as “The Devil Must Be Laughing,” but that’s not to say that nothing else on the album rises to a high level of musical execution.

A cover of the Jimmy Rogers’ blues gem “Goin’ Away Baby” captures the song’s Chicago blues roots perfectly, Athas’s fluid guitar licks and Rzab’s nimble bass lines providing a strong undercurrent to Mayall’s soulful vocals and lively harp playing. Walsh returns for the more traditional “Cards On The Table,” a walking bass line and steady timekeeping laying the groundwork for some innovative guitarplay while the atmospheric “Blue Midnight” is a bluesy, jazz-flecked late-night tale of love lost that features Mayall’s stellar keyboards and a fine vocal performance as well as a simply stunning Rocky Athas guitar solo. The album-closing “You Never Know” takes the listener further into the early A.M. with a smoky, jazzy performance that’s heavy on piano and ennui with insightful lyrics, a throbbing bass line, and light-handed percussion.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Here’s an interesting question – why hasn’t John Mayall been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Surely his contributions to blues and blues-rock, his history in discovering talented guitarists and launching them into successful solo careers, and the dozens of creative and innovative albums he’s recorded over the past 55 years must count for something?

It’s a rhetorical question, really, because to his legion of worldwide fans, Mayall has long been a “hall of fame” talent. That he continues to make inspiring, influential music six decades into his career it is a testament to the man’s love of the blues and his joy in music-making. Talk About That continues Mayall’s creative romp in the new millennium, the album adorned with endless charm and creative spirit proving that John Mayall will not go quietly into that good night... Grade: A- (Forty Below Records, released January 27, 2017)

Previously on That Devil Music:
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In 1967 CD review
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In 1967, Volume 2 CD review

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: John Mayall's Talk About That

CD Preview: John Mayall's Talk About That

British blues legend and Blues Hall of Fame member John Mayall has finished up a new CD titled Talk About That, scheduled for January 27, 2017 release by Forty Below Records, and that’s good news indeed! Working with his longtime band members Rocky Athas (guitar), Greg Rzab (bass), and Jay Davenport (drums), the talented multi-instrumentalist Mayall co-produced Talk About That with Forty Below President Eric Corne at the House of Blues Studio in Encino, California.

Talk About That features eleven tracks, including eight original songs and smokin’ covers of Memphis soul legend Bettye Crutcher’s “It’s Hard Going Up,” bluesman Jimmy Rogers’ “Goin’ Away Baby,” and rocker Jerry Lynn Williams’ “Don’t Deny Me.” Of the original tunes, the New Orleans-flavored “Gimme Some of That Gumbo” features a three-piece horn section to spice up the recording. The album also features former James Gang/Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh performing on the Mayall originals “The Devil Must Be Laughing” and “Cards On The Table.”

 “When I first had the idea for the title track, ‘Talk about That,’ I wanted to write lyrics that were about aspects of life that were running through my head,” says John Mayall in a press release for the new album. “I also wanted to give the song a modern groove that would convey the fun mood driving the piece. Greg and Jay laid down a really infectious rhythm for me to feature my keyboard chops and bring the song to life with a really funky feel driving it.” Mayall’s “The Devil Must Be Laughing,” which deals with the current political climate, was recorded in a single take and features Walsh’s dynamic fretwork.

The sessions for Talk About That also represent the last recordings created by Mayall’s longstanding four-piece band. Shortly after wrapping up the album, guitarist Rocky Athas parted ways with the band and will pursue his solo career. In a statement, Mayall said “due to severe storm conditions recently, guitarist Rocky Athas was unable to get out of Dallas for my recent festival shows that led to my performing as a trio. Having never performed anywhere or at any time without a guitar sidekick, I found that I was able to explore new territories in a trio configuration playing organ, keyboards, harmonica and guitar. Needless to say I was surprised at how different and stimulating the experience was for me as a performer.”

“So now, as Greg Rzab, Jay Davenport and I embark on several weeks of intensive touring all around the States,” says Mayall, “we hope you all will enjoy the fireworks coming your way as my live show calendar brings us to your expectant ears.” Check out the video of the making of Talk About That below and plan on catching Mayall and crew when they hit your hometown.

John Mayall tour dates:

11/09/16 @ Tower Theatre, Bend OR
11/10/16 @ El Rey Theatre, Chico CA
11/11/16 @ Rio Theater, Santa Cruz CA
11/12/16 @ Yoshi's, Oakland CA
11/13/16 @ Yoshi’s, Oakland CA
11/14/16 @ Tower Theatre for Performing Arts, Fresno CA
11/15/16 @ Crest Theater, Sacramento CA
11/16/16 @ Fremont Theater, San Luis Obispo CA
11/17/16 @ Canyon Club, Agoura Hills CA
11/18/16 @ The Rose, Pasadena CA
11/19/16 @ The Coach House, San Juan Capistrano CA
11/20/16 @ Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach CA
11/23/16 @ Castle Theater @ Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Maui HI
11/25/16 @ Palace Theaterilo, Hilo HI
11/26/16 @ Honokaa Peoples Theater, Honokaa HI
11/27/16 @ Blue Note Hawaii, Honolulu HI
01/19/17 to 01/23/17 @ Legends Cruise

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: John Mayall's Talk About That

Previously on That Devil Music:
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In 1967 CD review
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In 1967, Volume 2 CD review

CD Review: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In London 1967 - Volume Two (2016)

As the old counter-culture saying goes, “too much of a good thing is never enough.” It’s particularly true in this instance – the (mostly) unexpected arrival of a second volume of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers' Live In 1967 – which gives foaming-at-the-mouth fans like myself a baker’s dozen of rarer-than-rare, previously released anywhere on the planet, historic albeit lo-fi performances by a short-lived but influential superstar Bluesbreakers line-up.

As so kindly explained in my review of the first Live In 1967 collection, a hardcore Bluesbreakers fan from Holland named Tom Huissen hid a one-channel reel-to-reel tape recorder under his jacket while attending several John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers shows in London back in swinging ’67, using it to record the band’s performance each night. The tapes were stored in a dusty attic somewhere and unheard for better than 40 years until they were acquired by Mayall. These rusty, antique tapes were restored to something resembling acceptable sound quality by Forty Below Records’ Eric Corne, and a compilation of the band’s best performances from the period was released in early 2015 as the aforementioned Live In 1967.

John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers’ Live In 1967 – Volume Two

Fast forward roughly a year and this second collection offers so much bluesy goodness that Mayall fans should be swooning in their buttermilk (or an equivalent alcoholic beverage). Thirteen  new (old) tracks featuring frontman Mayall, the legendary Peter Green on guitar, and a rhythm section comprised of bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood, who also performed similar duties for a little band you may have heard of by the name of Fleetwood Mac – whatever happened to them, anyway?

As I also mentioned in my review of the first volume, the audio quality here is quite different than what many music fans are used to hearing from digitally-recorded albums that have had the stuffing squeezed out of ‘em by Pro Tools. The performances here are deep and hollow and somewhat boomy, like you might hear when you’re standing against the back wall of your favorite club. Recording tech in ’67 was Cro-Magnon level at best, and Huissen’s good intentions were somewhat defeated by his primitive recording rig. Corne has done an admirable job of cleaning up the sound, though, and if what is essentially an audience-sourced bootleg is too raw for your tender ears, grab me a tissue Nancy ‘cause I’ll be laughing until I cry over what you’re missing...

Tears In My Eyes

At its heart, Live In 1967 – Volume Two is another superb collection of firecracker performances that display just how white-hot this particular Bluesbreakers roster could be on even the smallest of stages. Mayall’s original “Tears In My Eyes” is a smoky, slow-burning blues dirge captured live at The Marquee Club in London. Mayall’s vocals are somewhat obscured, but not even the lowest of fidelity can rob his voice of the deep-blue emotion welling up through the microphone. Green’s guitar licks are spot on, complimenting the boss’s vocals and channeling some serious Buddy Guy-styled soulfulness.

An already rowdy Sonny Boy Williamson deep track “Your Funeral and My Trial” is made all the more raucous by Mayall’s raging harmonica riffs, Green’s energetic guitar bashing, and a rhythm section that stays out of the way while still building a firm musical foundation. “So Many Roads,” recorded but not used for the A Hard Road album (it shows up on expanded CD releases), is an eight-minute-plus blues jam that showcases the immense chemistry of the band, with Green’s amazing fretwork meshing perfectly with McVie’s strong bass lines and Fleetwood’s propulsive, high-energy percussion.

Sweet Little Angel

A cover of B.B. King’s “Sweet Little Angel” is played slowly and soulfully, Mayall’s falsetto vocals complimented by Green’s jazzy guitarplay and Mayall’s own subdued but timely keyboard flourishes. Green’s guitar licks pierce the cloudy sound of The Ram Jam Club to establish the song’s blues bona fides while the rest of the guys nicely fill in the edges. T-Bone Walker’s blues standard “Stormy Monday” is cut from similar cloth as “Sweet Little Angel.” A fiery, mid-tempo moan designed to singe the side-stage curtains at the Klook’s Kleek club, the performance further cements Green’s status as one of the finest British blues guitarists of the 1960s, his instrumentation running parallel to Mayall’s mournful vocals and keyboards, the two working in tandem to kick out a phenomenal reading of an old (even in ’67) blues treasure.

The instrumental “Greeny” is really a guitar-driven excuse to allow the master instrumentalist to vamp onstage for six-plus minutes, the McVie-Fleetwood tag-team delivering a steady boogie beat while Mayall pounds the keys in the background. It’s a fine example of Green’s six-string prowess, the guitarist throwing blues, rock, and jazz licks into the blender and coming up with a heady brew, indeed. Mayall’s “Chicago Line” features his locomotive harpwork, Fleetwood’s tribal drumbeats, and even an engaging, hypnotic McVie bass solo while a cover of the Otis Rush gem “Double Trouble” – another cutting-room outtake from A Hard Road – further highlights the band’s ability to wrest the essence of a vintage blues classic and make it their own.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

I’m not really sure why John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers original Live In 1967 album received no love from The Blues Foundation earlier this year – not a single damn Blues Music Award nomination – but then again, I can’t find a BMA nomination for anything Mayall has released over the past couple of decades, an egregious oversight that should be remedied immediately by his induction to the Blues Hall of Fame (yeah, I don’t know why Mr. Mayall, O.B.E. hasn’t been provided that honor, either...).

But I digress with my well-meaning (and accusatory) rant…Live In 1967 – Volume Two is a welcome bookend to its predecessor. This additional volume offers more of a good thing by documenting the explosive performance ability and musical chemistry of a Bluesbreakers line-up that blinded like a supernova, if only for a meager three months, before burning out and splitting into two separate celestial bodies. Mayall fans, and those who genuflect before the altar of British blues, will find Live In 1967 – Volume Two an enchanting trip back to swinging London for some of the best blues you’ve never heard. Grade: B+ (Forty Below Records, released May 6, 2016)

Related content: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In 1967 CD review

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In 1967 - Volume Two

CD Preview: John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers’ Live in 1967 - Volume Two

Fans of British blues legend John Mayall found a lot to like with the release of the critically-acclaimed Live In 1967 album last year. Rescued from obscurity by a hardcore Bluesbreakers fan from Holland by the name of Tom Huissen, who taped the London shows that would become Live In 1967, the album showcased rarer-than-rare, previously-unreleased recordings by the short-lived Bluesbreakers line-up of Mayall, guitarist Peter Green, bassist John McVie, and drummer Mick Fleetwood – three of whom would soon leave the band and go on to form Fleetwood Mac.

On May 6th, 2016 Forty Below Records will release Live In 1967 - Volume Two by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, a second highly-anticipated collection of vintage live recordings that feature never-before-heard performances by the aforementioned legendary Bluesbreakers line-up. Live In 1967 - Volume Two was produced by Forty Below’s Eric Corne and John Mayall, who also did the cover photography, artwork, and design. The pair worked from the original one-channel reel-to-reel tapes recorded by Huissen, cleaning up and restoring the sound of each performance to as close to modern sonic standards as possible from nearly fifty-year-old recordings…they ain’t hi-fidelity, but they sound good enough for rock ‘n’ roll, if you know what I mean...

Live In 1967 - Volume Two features performances recorded during the spring of ’67 at such London venues as Bromley, The Marquee Club, The Ram Jam Club, and Klook’s Kleek. Among the album’s thirteen tracks are Mayall originals like “Chicago Line” and “Tears In My Eyes” and Peter Green’s instrumental guitar showcase “Greeny,” as well as raucous covers of classic blues tunes like Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Your Funeral and My Trial” and Otis Rush’s “Double Trouble. Of the new album’s thirteen tracks, only three songs appeared on the first volume, but these new performances were recorded on different nights. A cover of the T-Bone Walker gem “Stormy Monday” features guest vocalist Ronnie Jones, a former American serviceman and original member of Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated band.  

“I am so happy that the remaining usable tracks from these London club dates have been released as a follow-up to the well-received Volume One,” says John Mayall in a press release for the new album. “Peter Green as before is on fire throughout and this set includes a great instrumental based on his composition, ‘Greeny.’ There are a couple of Otis Rush tracks that were included on the first volume, but they are from different venues and totally different. I couldn’t possibly let these slide. With these new tracks added to the collection, it pretty much features all the material we had in our repertoire at that time and I’m very glad that you can now enjoy this great piece of rock/blues history.”

John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers’ Live In 1967 - Volume Two track list:

1. Tears In My Eyes
2. Your Funeral And My Trial 
3. So Many Roads 
4. Bye Bye Bird  
5. Please Don’t Tell
6. Sweet Little Angel
7. Talk To Your Daughter  
8. Bad Boy    
9. Stormy Monday 
10. Greeny   
11. Ridin’ On The L&N  
12. Chicago Line  
13. Double Trouble

Related Content: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In 1967 CD review

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In 1967 - Volume Two

John Mayall’s Live In 1967 on Vinyl!

Good news, everybody! Released earlier this year, the critically acclaimed, long lost live album by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Live In 1967, will see release on glorious ebony-black vinyl on October 2nd, 2015 courtesy of our good friends at Forty Below Records. Mayall’s Live In 1967 will be a double-album pressed on 140-gram vinyl with a gatefold cover that includes large photos inside of Mayall and his Bluesbreakers line-up at the time – guitarist Peter Green, bassist John McVie, and drummer Mick Fleetwood.

Mayall’s Live in 1967 is a rare live recording by one of the best of the many Bluesbreakers line-ups. Although the band of Mayall, Green, McVie, and Fleetwood were together a mere three months, they made some mighty fine music together before the three guys that weren’t Mayall flew the coop to form Fleetwood Mac. This special live recording was made available by a hardcore Mayall fan from Holland by the name of Tom Huissen, who concealed a one-channel reel-to-reel tape recorder on his person as he attended shows at a handful of London clubs (including the legendary Marquee) in early 1967, recording the band’s performance each night.

The tapes Huissen made of these shows remained unheard and unreleased until they were acquired by Mayall who, working with Forty Below’s Eric Corne, restored them to releasable condition. “While the source recording was very rough and the final result is certainly not hi-fidelity, it does succeed in allowing us to hear how spectacular these performances are,” Corne said in a press release for the album. The resulting historical document is a diamond in the rough, soliciting rave reviews from just about every critic, including the Reverend, my review of the album stating that “Live In 1967 proves that his legacy and the long shadow Mayall casts across the British blues tradition is based on more than just that one single album” (referring to Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton).

Live in 1967 walked away with honors as both the best “Live Blues Album” and best “Historical/Vintage Album” at the recent Blues Blast Music Awards, held in Chicago by Blues Blast Magazine. Now fans can get this gem of an album on vinyl, just like it would have been released almost 50 years ago!

Related Content: John Mayall's Live In 1967 CD review

Buy the vinyl from Amazon.com: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Live in '67

CD Preview: John Mayall’s Find a Way To Care

For anybody that’s been following the British blues ‘Godfather’ John Mayall’s lengthy career – spanning six decade and still going strong – knows that he’s been making some of the best music of his life here in the new millennium. Mayall’s 2009 album Tough was pretty bad-ass, while last year’s A Special Life can be counted among his greatest efforts (just behind Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, A Hard Road, Crusade, and Blues From Laurel Canyon in my humble opinion…).

Well, blues fans, hold onto your hats ‘cause fresh off the triumph that was Mayall’s look backwards at his early days (the amazing Live In 1967 with Peter Green) comes the bluesman’s much-anticipated follow-up to A Special Life (yeah, it was that good!). On September 4th, 2015 Forty Below Records will release Mayall’s Find A Way To Care in both compact disc and glorious black vinyl versions.

Find A Way To Care was recorded at the House of Blues Studio in Encino, California and produced by Mayall and Forty Below’s Eric Corne (Mayall also did the graphic design and artwork for the album). As usual, Mayall handles vocals on the album as well as playing piano, Hammond organ, guitar, harmonica, and other various instruments, and he was joined in the studio by his talented band of seven years – guitarist Rocky Athas (shouldn’t we be talking more about this guy?), bassist Greg Rzab (ditto), and drummer Jay Davenport. A full horn section was brought in to compliment several tracks on the album.

The album features an even dozen songs, including inspired covers of Don Robey’s “Mother In Law Blues,” Muddy Waters’ “Long Distance Call,” Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “I Feel So Bad,” and Percy Mayfield’s “The River’s Invitation,” among others. In a press release for the album, Corne says, “I really wanted to feature John's keyboard playing on this record. He’s truly one of the most lyrical, economical and underrated keyboardists around. We also wanted to change things up a bit after the success of A Special Life and the addition of a horn section on several tracks was a really fun way to do that. As good as the last album was, I think this one is even better.”

In talking about his choice of cover songs on Find A Way To Care, Mayall says, “every time I make an album, I always feel I owe it to my fans to come up with fresh and varied interpretations of the blues. With this in mind, I chose an assemblage of songs that includes perhaps some slightly lesser-known bluesmen, and that all had either different beats or special instrumental treatments. I also found three songs that would be further enhanced by the addition of horns.” The album also features a number of original songs written by Mayall and inspired by real life. “As always, I draw from my own experiences and thoughts about things in my life so that from album to album I create on ongoing musical diary of my life,” he explains. “The blues never lets me down!”

Check out the video trailer of the making of the new album below and then hie thee onward to Amazon.com and pre-order the album: John Mayall's Find A Way To Care

Related content: John Mayall's Live In 1967 CD review

CD Review: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In 1967

Chances are that you’ve never heard John Mayall’s first album. I know I haven’t, and although a few folks through the years have told me that John Mayall Plays John Mayall (released in 1965) is quite fetching, it’s also quite obscure, and few outside of the U.K. have had the experience. Recorded live at a London club called Klook’s Kleek, the LP featured the first draft of the classic Bluesbreakers band which included guitarist Roger Dean (who would go on to do session work), bass player John McVie (if you don’t know Mr. McVie, why are you reading this?), and drummer Hughie Flint (who would pull duty later with both Savoy Brown and the Blues Band).

What a difference a year makes, though, and when former Yardbirds’ guitarist Eric Clapton replaced Dean for the seminal Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton album, Mayall and crew created one of the most commercially successful, critically acclaimed, and undeniably influential works in British blues music. In many ways, the album would overshadow everything Mayall would later record, so much so that few remember that the bandleader released a second, nearly as successful album a few months later. When Clapton flew the coop to barnstorm Greece for a few months, he was replaced by the capable and underrated guitarist Peter Green for the equally classic A Hard Road album.   

John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers Live In 1967

My point is that the difference between legend and obscurity is often a combination of luck, timing, and cosmic alignment (which probably falls under the ‘luck’ category, but for the sake of argument, we’ll consider it the great ephemeral unknown). Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton is recognized and rightfully lauded by even the most casual of British blues fans, A Hard Road not nearly as much. In the wake of A Hard Road, Mayall led various Bluesbreakers bands on tour, near-mythical shows that were seemingly fated to faded memories and eventual obscurity as none of the performances were thought to have been caught on tape.

One remarkable Bluesbreakers line-up during this period featured Mayall up front, Green on guitar, bassist McVie, and a young drummer named Mick Fleetwood. Although the four of them only played together for a few months before the three guys that weren’t Mayall bolted to form Fleetwood Mac, they performed some memorable shows together during that short time. It’s lucky for us, then, that a hardcore Bluesbreakers fan from Holland by the name of Tom Huissen tucked a one-channel reel-to-reel recorder under his jacket while attending several of Mayall’s London shows in early 1967 and recorded the band’s performance each night. These tapes remained unheard and unreleased for over 40 years until they were recently acquired by Mayall who, working with Forty Below Records’ Eric Corne, restored them to a good enough quality to release as Live In 1967.

Capturing Blues History

An important note – the audio quality of Live In 1967 is less than crystal clear; it’s hollow and kind of boomy, and many performances sound like you’re standing in the back of a large, deep cave, hearing the amps echo off the paintings on the wall. Remember, however, that recording technology was in the stone age at the time and, while Huissen’s heart was in the right place, his equipment was low-fi even by the primitive standards of the time. No matter how much it’s been shined up and polished, Live In 1967 sounds like the audience-sourced bootleg that it is, and if that’s a deal breaker for your tender ears, then you probably should stop reading right now…

If you possess the intestinal fortitude to sojourn onward, however, you’ll be richly rewarded with a mighty fine performance by one of the best and brightest, albeit short-lived blues bands in old Britannia. Live In 1967 kicks off with a smokin’ read of Otis Rush’s “All Your Love.” The McVie/Fleetwood rhythm section lays down a sly groove that is embroidered by Green’s fluid guitarwork, Mayall’s soulful vocals accompanied by sparse keyboard notes to really pay tribute to the Chicago blues gem. The Bluesbreakers swing for the fences with the original “Brand New Start,” the rhythm monsters building a strong foundation atop which Mayall blows a mean harp like Little Walter and bangs the keys like Booker T. while Green unreels some greasy, soulful fretwork that sounds unlike anybody else at that time.  

So Many Roads

Returning to the Otis Rush songbook, they take on “Double Trouble,” a song so damn good that Stevie Ray Vaughan would name a band after it. With a little better fidelity (apparent across the five tracks recorded at Manor House in May), “Double Trouble” benefits from a swaying rhythm, dashes of Mayall’s mournful keyboards, and some nicely-textured and blues-drenched guitar courtesy of St. Peter. Another Manor House performance, “So Many Roads,” has become a de facto Mayall signature song. Recorded by Otis Rush in 1960 and since then by Joe Bonamassa and Foghat, among others, here Mayall and crew amp up the emotion and make the performance bolder and bluesier than anybody else, Green’s incredible guitarplay channeling more tears and heartache than his predecessor in the band ever could.

Willie Dixon’s “I Can’t Quit You Baby” is played straight, that is as an old-school Chicago blues torch song with Mayall’s saddened vocals paired with Green’s elegantly tortured guitar while the rhythm section shuffles along slowly and respectably behind the two frontmen. Mayall leads his crew through a trio of vintage Freddie King numbers – most notable among them a raucous instrumental romp through “San-Ho-Zay,” although “Someday After Awhile” is quite a tearjerker with some lovely fretwork – before finishing up Live In 1967 with a spot-on reading of T-Bone Walker’s blues standard “Stormy Monday” that features some of Green’s most nuanced string-bending.    

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Once you get past its limited sound quality (turn it up!), you’ll agree that Live In 1967 is a momentous musical find, a literal time capsule of classic British blues-rock. The album offers thirteen lively, inspired, and long-lost Bluesbreakers performances from a handful of now-legendary London-area clubs, including The Marquee and Klook’s Kleek, a high-energy mix of classic blues covers and Mayall originals that should thrill any British blues fan. 

Live In 1967 is also an invaluable document that shines a well-deserved spotlight on the immense talents of, and all-too-brief collaboration between Messrs. Mayall, Green, McVie, and Fleetwood. While Mayall would go on to make a lot of great music during the ensuing years (including 2014’s A Special Life album), Live In 1967 proves that his legacy and the long shadow Mayall casts across the British blues tradition is based on more than just that one single album. Grade: B+ (Forty Below Records, released April 21, 2015)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' Live In '67