Along For The Ride ()

The best Classic Rock records have always been steeped in the Blues (think Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Foghat, ect.), so I'm not surprised that I've been buying a lot of discs lately from so-called "Blues Artists." Whether you consider John Mayall a gifted talent scout (having discovered scores of British Rock stars), an iconoclast (becoming a professional musician in his thirties), or the Father of the British Blues movement (few could argue with that), he has been perennially labeled a Blues cat. On his latest, Along for the Ride (Eagle Records), Mayall calls in many of his famous friends to lend a hand, and opposed to other star studded discs where the artist's own vision is compromised (think Santana's Supernatural) it is the guests who are along for the ride here. While Jeff Healey, Mick Taylor, Billy Preston, and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons turn in fabulous performances, it is Mayall himself who flexes his muscles and comes up a winner. Not surprisingly, Mayall seeks out young talent, as well, to boost his latest effort, and if you haven't yet heard Shannon Curfman be forewarned. Curfman, a teenage ball of fire who duets with Mayall on "Testify," demands attention and breaks out with a guitar solo that would make Bonnie Raitt blush. If this disc were released 20 years ago it would have been labeled File Under Rock, but since it is 2001 go to the Blues section and buy John Mayall & Friends. It is one of the highlights of his career.