Artist: Mayall, John
Label: Eagle Records
Release: 2009
Duration: 54.57
Rating: 4/5
The godfather of British blues, music eminence John Mayall, has just surfaced with a new studio effort. Tough is, believe it or not, already the legend’s 57th album. A staggering achievement, and what makes it even better is that John Mayall doesn’t “stamp out” new records out of sheer boredom. Quite the opposite! At 76, he thumbs his nose at dementia and decks himself out in creative vitality and raw verve, grabbing hold of fresh ways of expressing himself, the kind you’d sooner pin on some wet-behind-the-ears blues rock outfit than on the aged hand of one of the pioneers of British blues. Okay, the years have of course taken their toll, as you can tell from John’s rather thin-sounding voice, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that with his latest textbook lesson in weaving the thrilling poetics of blues and rock, John Mayall has once again won us over on every front. Totally expected, you could say!
When it comes to the songwriting itself, John stays open to new ideas, which means that the shade-under-a-dozen Tough numbers aren’t kept in quarantine from anything but strictly blues-minded maneuvers. In fact, Tough gives no hint of the conservative leanings you might expect given John Mayall’s enviable age. Quite the opposite: the album builds its freshness and organic sound by tapping the sharpness of colorful genre shades that only here and there sprout from the soil of primal blues. Tough thus serves up a varied selection of competently delivered, heavy-rock-clad gems, steeped of course in recognizable blues aromas, with some funky flirting thrown in too, and for a moment John even borrows a hint of Cale-style country flavor.
Tough kicks off with the unmanageably massive body of heavy blues rock crusher Nothing To Do With Love, which slowly lumbers along on a deeply padded bass line, a juicy riff and a typically cushioned harmonica solo. Mayall manages to build out the basic blues rock structures here in a pretty funny manner, and with a modern, restrained heavy rock treatment, the result of genre-unbound creative maneuvering, it hits again in Playing In A Losing Band, and with a bit more of Hendrix’s DNA in Train To My Heart too. That John hit the bullseye with his choice of backing musicians is shown without a hint of vanity by the follow-up, Just What You’re Looking For, which after a rather monotonous intro unwinds at the end into a relaxed funky improvised jam that feels good in every single bar. Shame the quality level first buckles noticeably soon after with An Eye For An Eye, but only until How Far Down, where Mayall’s little band wins you over without compromise by spinning colorful, dynamic patterns. With Slow Train To Nowhere, Mayall sings a serenade to his own soul. A basically structured blues motif, where even guitarist Rocky Athas’s playing fleetingly recalls the finger-twinkling of Mick Taylor, is actually the only example on the album of John Mayall’s old-school expression. Understandably, Rocky doesn’t overdo the evoking of cravings for the magic of his famous predecessor. The old man unfolds all his charms down to the last detail on the album’s favorite, the excellent blues gloom Tough Times Again, which, thanks precisely to the guitarist’s two fiery solo passages, builds a widely spanned, emotion-laden bridge between subtle melancholy on one side and despair and anger on the other. Shame that in the closer, The Sum Of Something, Mayall rather cautiously takes up a move similar to the one on An Eye For An Eye, which after the first few bars is already drooling over relaxed but still not very exciting improvising at the expense of more substantial content.
Tough is irrefutable proof that when John Mayall disbanded the famed collective The Bluesbreakers, laying it to rest in 2008 to the surprise of many, he wasn’t thinking about retirement. The legend simply made a clean break with the past, and Tough is, in its own way, really the only logical continuation of his tireless creative process. On top of that, it offers convincing musical testimony that John Mayall’s creative streak hasn’t lost any of its daring and imagination over the years, and it offers a wide-open view of the world.
Line-up
John Mayall: vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica
Rocky Athas: guitar
Tom Canning: keyboards
Greg Rzab: bass
Jay Davenport: drums
Production
John Mayall
Track list
1. Nothing To Do With Love
2. Just What You’re Looking For
3. Playing With A Losing Hand
4. An Eye For An Eye
5. How Far Down
6. Train To My Heart
7. Slow Train To Nowhere
8. Number’s Down
9. That Good Old Rockin’ Blues
10. Tough Times Ahead
11. The Sum Of Something
