Maybe he wasn’t americana but we wouldn’t have americana without his example.
It is difficult to overstate the influence that John Mayall, who passed away at home surrounded by his family on 22nd July, had on subsequent generations of musicians of all genres. He may be known as the Godfather of British Blues, but his pioneering attitude and willingness to experiment within his chosen genre blazed a trail for future roots musicians, particularly British roots musicians. He was a masterful band leader with the ability to spot future musical stars. His trio of ‘60s guitarists including Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor who subsequently established the blues rock genre is legendary. He was one of the first British musicians to work with American musicians and move his career base to the USA. While he was known for his eccentricities, if he wasn’t why else would he try and build a UK career in the blues in early ‘60s Macclesfield, he was also financially astute which was key in building not only his own career but also helped establish a market for roots music in the UK.
Along with Alexis Korner, John Mayall established the principle that British musicians could play music that belonged to another culture and ultimately enrich that musical culture. At the time that these musicians were starting their careers, the electric blues as a genre was dying and was culturally being replaced in America by the emerging R&B and soul music genres, and the acoustic blues of earlier generations of black performers was forgotten until the American folk revival renewed interest in it. Despite his pioneering efforts, John Mayall was not a blues purist, at the end of the ‘60s he recorded three drumless albums of more pastoral folk-influenced music before moving on to playing with jazz musicians and then Allen Toussaint. While he never achieved the level of commercial success he achieved in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, he maintained a successful career throughout the subsequent decades, releasing his final album in 2022.
It is fitting that his final album, “The Sun Is Shining Down”, included guest slots from the likes of Buddy Miller, ex-Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, Hawaii’s Jake Shimabukuro, Rolling Thunder’s Scarlet Rivera, and Marcus King who cites Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard as some of his favourite guitarists, demonstrating John Mayall’s ongoing influence on roots musicians. He, with Alexis Korner, made it OK for young British kids to play the music of black Americans that their own communities were beginning to forget. Ever since then, it has been OK for British musicians to follow their musical hearts and play the music they wanted to play, irrespective of its cultural history, and also to add to that musical culture and enrich it. I always smile when I think about legendary bluegrass musician Tony Rice covering John Mayall’s ‘Night Flyer’ on his “Native American” album, cross-cultural pollination at work before our very ears. All fans of roots music, and good music generally, should raise a glass and thank John Mayall for helping create the environment that allowed the music americana fans enjoy today to flourish.
