JOHN MAYALL’S BLUESBREAKERS: A SENSE OF PLACE
Mayall succeeded artistically and commercially by remaining as true as possible to the music he loved. His voice at its best could sear you with an agonized high-tenor fire that sometimes approached the intensity of Otis Rush. He played harp in a refreshingly low-key manner, always referring respectfully to the masters–the two Sonny Boy Williamsons, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, and occasionally Slim Harpo or Sonny Terry. And he generally managed to avoid histrionics. Yet there was enough rock-and-roll exuberance in the Bluesbreakers’ sound to catch the ear of young, musically untutored listeners. Once hooked, they could begin to appreciate the music’s subtlety.
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Ironically, Mayall makes the blues sound so good to mainstream listeners that he often works himself out of an audience. He inspires his fans to go back and learn about the artists whose songs and styles he covers, and many times the fans find that these original artists give them even more pleasure.
Mayall is also still capable of a more basic approach. He’s resurrected Canned Heat’s old theme “Let’s Work Together” in a way that manages to be true to the original while making its blues roots even more obvious. He sings it in a nasal Slim Harpo drawl, and Landreth’s slide guitar twists and wriggles above Mayall’s piano accompaniment, which sounds heavily influenced by New Orleans’s James Booker. Mayall’s harmonica also warbles in a somewhat oversophisticated approximation of Harpo’s Louisiana backwoods sparseness.
Interestingly, the album’s high point isn’t a blues but a J.J. Cale ballad entitled “Sensitive Kind.” A haunting minor-key masterpiece announced by a watery electric-guitar intro and sung by Mayall in a gentle croon tinged with darkness and aching desire, it’s a rare and astonishing testimony to masculine tenderness. There’s an ethereal slide statement from Landreth, and Montoya weighs in with a soaring guitar solo of fluid grace and slow-burning intensity. Cale’s lyrics, admonishing a man to show gentleness and respect to a lady who’s “having a hard time,” are wise without being preachy and sound utterly heartfelt.
