John Mayall - Blues From Lauriel Canyon (UK Blues 1968)

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Source: Japan SHM-CD Remaster

Mayall's first post-Bluesbreakers album saw the man returning to his roots after the jazz/blues fusion that was Bare Wires. Blues from Laurel Canyon is a blues album, through and through. Testimony to this is the fact that there's a guitar solo only 50 seconds into the opening track.

Indeed, Mayall dispersed the entire brass section for Blues from Laurel Canyon, and instead chose the solid but relatively limited backing of Mick Taylor (guitar), Colin Allen (drums), and Stephen Thompson (bass). Instantly, it is apparent that John Mayall hasn't lost his touch with the blues. "Vacation," the album's opener, reminds one exactly why this artist is so celebrated for his songwriting ability. The staggering Mick Taylor (here still in his teens) truly proves his worth as a blues guitarist, while Steve Thompson (also in his late teens) works superbly with one of the genre's most interesting drummers, Colin Allen.

Blues from Laurel Canyon is as unerring as Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, and equally as musically interesting. Not only is this one of the finest John Mayall albums, it is also a highlight in the blues genus.

Blues from Laurel Canyon is a 1968 album by John Mayall, featuring British blues music. It was his first album after the breakup of his band the Bluesbreakers on 14 July 1968. It was also his last album with Decca before moving to Polydor.

John Mayall sings and plays harmonica, organ and guitar on the album. Other musicians include a young Mick Taylor (guitar), Colin Allen (drums) and Stephen Thompson (bass). The guitarist Peter Green featured on the track First Time Alone. The engineer was Derek Varnals. All the songs on the album were written by John Mayall. It was recorded at Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London, England between 26 and 28 August 1968, and was released on the Decca label.

The title of the album derives from Laurel Canyon, California, USA (in the Los Angeles area) where John Mayall subsequently lived from 1969 to 1979. It forms a record of his visit there before moving to the US on a more permanent basis. The area was favoured by many musicians at the time.

The album was innovative for its time, especially by the standards of blues recordings. The first track opens with a recording of a jet airliner landing, dissolving into the driving rhythm of the song. There were no visible track divisions on the vinyl album. Some songs fade or segue into the next track, others stop on a chord which is immediately followed by the introduction of the next track. Tabla drums are used, as is the technique of hitting guitar strings with a drumstick. The final track is a short song which moves into an extended lead guitar solo underscored by Mayall's Hammond organ, fading into a simple unaccompanied guitar figure which repeats until it too fades.

The lyrics are autobiographical and refer, if obliquely, to people Mayall met on his first visit, such as Frank Zappa and Moon Unit Zappa (on 2401) and the band Canned Heat (on The Bear). The identity of Miss James, the romantic interest described in loving detail in the second half of the album, is not known.

From a technical point of view, the album demonstrates the limitations of the recording technology of the time. A substantial number of vinyl albums were issued in monophonic format, since many home record players, at least in the United Kingdom, could not reproduce stereophonic sound. On the stereophonic releases, including the CD re-releases, the stereo imaging separates the instruments quite strongly. For instance, in the song Walking on Sunset, the drumkit, situated on the left, is inaudible in the right hand channel. The overall impression is that of being in a hallway with several rooms off it, each one containing a particular instrument. There is no sense of being in a room with several instruments playing and generating an ambient sound-field, as might be expected from a live recording, or one mixed with more available sound inputs.

01. Vacation
02. Walking on Sunset
03. Laurel Canyon Home
04. 2401
05. Ready to Ride
06. Medicine Man
07. Somebody's Acting Like a Child
08. Bear
09. Miss James
10. First Time Alone
11. Long Gone Midnight
12. Fly Tomorrow
13. 2401 {Single Version]
14. Wish You Were Here [Live in Sweden]

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