Bman's Blues Report

John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers – Live in 1967 Special Double LP Vinyl Coming October 2 from Forty Below Records Previously Unreleased Live Recordings Feature John Mayall, Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood CD Version of Album Wins Two Blues Blast Awards in Chicago! LOS ANGELES – CA – On October 2, Forty Below Records will release a special double-LP vinyl version of the John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers – Live in 1967 (Never Before Heard Live Performances) album that was originally released earlier this year on CD. The LP version was pressed on 140-gram vinyl and will be released in gatefold form containing large pictures of John and the band members at the time – Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood - on the inside. The vinyl LP release comes with breaking news that the original CD version of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers – Live in 1967 just won two awards at the 2015 Blues Blast Awards in Chicago on Friday night, September 25, winning for both “Live ...

Walter Trout and John Mayall have a long history of collaboration that dates back to the 1960s.  From Walter playing in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, through collaborations as recently as WT’s most recent album.  To celebrate their relationship, the duo present this double A-side split 7-inch.  This special edition Black Friday exclusive is limited to 1000 copies and features “Willie” by Walter Trout and “World Gone Crazy” from John Mayall. 

A six-piece lineup—consisting of Mayall, Mick Taylor as lead guitarist, John McVie still on bass, Hughie Flint or Hartley on drums, and Rip Kant and Chris Mercer on saxophones—recorded the album Crusade on 11 and 12 July 1967. These Bluesbreakers spent most of the year touring abroad, and Mayall taped the shows on a portable recorder. At the end of the tour, he had over sixty hours of tapes, which he edited into an album in two volumes: Diary of a Band, Vols. 1 & 2, released in February 1968. Meanwhile, a few lineup changes had occurred: McVie had departed and was replaced by Paul Williams, who himself soon quit to join Alan Price and was replaced by Keith Tillman; Dick Heckstall-Smith had taken the sax spot. Following a U.S. tour, there were more lineup changes, starting with the troublesome bass position. First Mayall replaced bassist Tillman with 15-year-old Andy Fraser. Within six weeks, though, Fraser left to join Free and was replaced by Tony Reeves, previously a member of...

Sippie Wallace (born as Beulah Thomas, November 1, 1898 – November 1, 1986) was an American singer-songwriter. Her early career in local tent shows gained her the billing "The Texas Nightingale". Between 1923 and 1927, she recorded over 40 songs for Okeh Records, many written by herself or her brothers, George and Hersal Thomas. Her accompanists included Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, and Clarence Williams. Among the top female blues vocalists of her era, Wallace ranked with Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, and Bessie Smith. In the 1930s, she left show business to become a church organist, singer, and choir director in Detroit, and performed secular music only sporadically until the 1960s, when she resumed her career. Wallace was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1982, and was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. Wallace was born in Houston, Texas, one of 13 children. In her youth Wallace sang and played the piano in Sh...