Hear It Here

John Mayall Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton

It’s an obvious choice for anyone with the slightest passing interest in this subject, but consider the horror of whitecoated recording engineers attempting to capture the raw power of Clapton’s tone. Non master volume Marshalls take quite a lot of cranking to get this dirty – and remember this is without the aid of distortion pedals, so when you hear Hideaway, Steppin Out and Parchman Farm, check out the room ambience captured by those very hardworking microphones…

John Mayall (featuring Peter Green) A Hard Road

Yes, another John Mayall album, but a different guitar style – Peter Green had the fire in his playing, like Clapton, but brought a different sense of harmony and dynamic with his playing on Supernatural, The Stumble and Dust My Blues. Again, we are reverse-engineering; back to a time when this was a new style, without borders. Of course, there are many other Peter Green classics like Albatross, Need Your Love So Bad and the original Black Magic Woman…

Joe Bonamassa Blues Of Desperation

Bringing things up to date, it’s interesting to hear Joe’s fusion of classic blues and rock, with a bit of Zeppelin and soul influence here and there. Using vintage amps and guitars in a very simple setup these days, Joe manages to conjure up a variety of super authentic sounds very much like the original 60s trailblazers. Check the title track, Distant Lonesome Train and No Good Place For The Lonely and you’ll get the general idea.