john mayall Archive
03 Jul 2024
Coco Montoya Builds on a Lifetime of Lessons
Guitarist Coco Montoya is a respected figure in the blues world. After years working with two towering blues figures, he launched a solo career, winning a W.C. Handy Award for […]
13 Feb 2024
Take Five: Lead Guitarists from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers
Celebrating his 90th birthday this past November 29, John Mayall is the grand old man of British Blues. While Cyril Davies, Alexis Korner and select others deserve credit for launching […]
12 Dec 2023
Album Review: John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers – Live in 1967 Volume 3
Though the movement got its start in the 1950s thanks to pioneers Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner – both of whom were greatly influenced by American blues records – the […]
16 Jan 2022
Album Review: John Mayall — The Sun is Shining Down
John Mayall is widely acknowledged as the godfather of British blues. And that’s not the result of any sort of revisionism; it’s a title he earned long, long ago. As […]
04 Apr 2019
Album Review: John Mayall — Nobody Told Me
In the 1960s when a wider audience of white listeners embarked upon a belated discovery of the blues, it was thanks in no small part to the championing of the […]
29 Dec 2016
Best Music of 2016: Concerts
There’s a bit of overlap where my best albums and best concerts of 2016 are concerned. And there are some old favorites, too. John Mayall Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte NC March […]
26 Dec 2016
Best Music of 2016: Reissue/archival Releases
I love new music, but I’m also attuned to keeping up with the latest in reissues and archival releases. Sometimes those feature some of my favorite artists; other times they […]
07 Oct 2016
John Mayall: “Live in 1967” and Live in 2016
Though he doesn’t actively encourage the label, John Mayall has for many years now been known as “the godfather of the British blues boom.” He’s revered in blues and rock […]
23 Mar 2016
John Mayall: Bluesbreaker and Beyond (Part 2)
Continued from Part One… Considering the string of eleven albums the Bluesbreakers released on Decca between 1965 and 1969 (not to mention John Mayall‘s fifty-plus albums since then), one of […]
22 Mar 2016
John Mayall: Bluesbreaker and Beyond (Part 1)
A renewed interest in American blues gave rise to a musical movement in 1960s Great Britain. The British blues boom would launch the musical careers of countless musicians who would […]