RIP: John Mayall

John Mayall recently passed away at aged 90. 

Through his group the Bluesbreakers, he fostered some of the best musicians of the rock era- Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jack Bruce, John McVie, Aynsley Dunbar, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor and many others. 

 I saw Mayall in the early 00s after longtime Bluesbreaker guitarist Coco Montoya had gone solo and Buddy Whittington had taken his spot in the band. I saw them play at a now defunct Labor Day Blues Festival in St Louis that I adored. I know I went twice and I think three years in a row in the late 00s. It meant that I got to see legends like Mayall and Booker T Jones of the MGs. 

What’s particularly ironic is that in a post-Jack White/Dan Auerbach musical world, Blues became another strain of Americana and you could probably say these musicians, who often weren’t young, are now more famous than when I saw them because of that new audience. So, no I won’t forget seeing Bettye LaVette, Shemekia Copeland and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. 

Also, sadly Death has taken a couple of musicians who would surely have gone to bigger things given new styles- Michael Burks who played a great rock guitar has been covered by Kingtone “Catfish” Ingram and Nick Curran who played a rockabilly influenced blues kind of similar to what Jesse Dayton does now. This free festival was replaced after a few years but it leaves some of my strongest musical memories.