American music at her deepest roots were cultivated at the Canyon Club a week before Thanksgiving.
Mark MacKay opened the evening with a rich quilt of acoustic guitars and bass supporting his homespun voice through a collection of covers and thoughtful originals. With his team of Jeff Marshall/g, Brad Raubuchin/mand-g, Chad Watson/b, the strings chimed on a rich read of “Melissa” while “The Most Beautiful Girl” had the extra attraction of including the bass line from Watson, who was on the original Charlie Rich session! MacKay’s own pieces “Better in Love” and “11 Inches Out of Nashville” were delivered with a tone and attitude that comes from a life of experience. Guest vocals by Alexa Melo added extra colors from the Cumberland Gap on a couple of tunes as well. This guy casts a shadow over the plethora of posers.
Almost as old as the reference in the Gettysburg Address, John Mayall continues to embody the taproot of the modern blues with his current trio of Greg Rzab/b and Jay Davenport/dr. With the bone-marrow’d band, Mayall mostly played the Roland keyboard, intermittently switching to a Hammond and his ’56 Gibson for a bit of diversity. On the former, Mayall sung and dug deep into the keys with Davenports Crescent City beat for a neck flexing “Congo Square” while wailing on the harp as the bass and drums boogied to “That’s All Right.”
He got into a jazzy vibe as Rzab supplied a lithe bass line on “Not At Home,” while on guitar he picked and sang as the trio boogaloo’d to “Gie Me One More Day” as Davenport drove the two stallions like a wagon train as he whipped the drums to a frenzy. On the Hammond, Mayall brewed up some smoking tones on the shuffling “Dancing Shoes,” and upon return to the regular keyboard , he simultaneously cried through his harmonica on “Tears Came Rolling Down” while Rzab delivered a relentless bass line and Mayall’s foreboding vocals tore a tail of woe. “There was no way a song with this title was going to end well,” he joked.
The trio unit was much more flexible than other incarnations, and Mayall used it to maximum advantage, as the closing “California” had a swinging 6/8 groove which was punctuated by Davenport’s irresistible ride cymbal and the iconic encore “Room to Move” included a toe tapping bop lilt to the famous and ultimate blues line. Through it all, Mayall’s voice was rich and earthy, his harmonica playing was still the standard by which all are measured, and his selection of tunes…
Well, I’ve seen him every time the past 3 years, and he hasn’t repeated a single song yet. Well into his 8th decade, he still creates the perfect marriage of sounds, using all things old, new, borrowed and above all, blue.
Upcoming shows at the Canyon Club/Saban include Johnny Lang Dec 2/8, Dave Mason Dec 3 Eric Johnson Jan 20