John Mayall: Stories Time.

John Mayall plays Twin Towns Services Club on Thursday.

It is impossible to estimate the enormous influence John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers have had on modern music. Time and again, when talking to prominent American and Australian musicians, they’ve recounted how they discovered the blues through English acts, particularly John Mayall, at a time when blues was largely ignored by the white American audience. Through his band he’s had such formidable names as Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, John McVie, Larry Taylor and Mick Taylor. Clapton and Bruce went on to form Cream; Green and McVie formed Fleetwood Mac; Larry Taylor became a member of Canned Heat; and Mick Taylor became guitarist for the Rolling Stones. More recently American musicians Walter Trout and Coco Montoya secured the coveted spot of Bluesbreaker guitarist, that chair now filled by another prodigiously talented player Buddy Whittington.

Mayall, along with Alexis Korner, Cyril Davies and Graham Bond, pioneered the British R&B scene of the sixties. But unlike the others, Mayall has survived a roller-coaster career of ups and commercial downs to be still playing the blues some forty years later. A keyboard player, guitarist, harmonica player and vocalist, he has remained true to his roots and influences that include Little Walter, Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson.

Mayall reflects on the influence of the British boom of the 60s: “It’s so embedded in history that it’s impossible to say what influence it had. It obviously did have an influence, rock ‘n’ roll and the way we know it now. People like the Stones are a living testament to the longevity of the music. I think it was necessary. It was one of those things that had to take place. It certainly wasn’t coming out of America which is where it should have come out of. I think the Beatles had a lot to do with the success of putting England on the map, as far as letting people all over the world take notice of what England had to offer. It grew from there.”

Known as the Father of British Blues, Mayall remains committed to the genre. His latest album, Stories, is an insightful collection of hard-edged blues rock tracks, loaded with all the living, loving and hard times of Mayall’s seventy years. Released on Eagle Records, the album follows Padlock On The Blues, and Along For The Ride on the same label. Mayall will be touring Australia with the line-up featured on the album: Buddy Whittington (guitar), Tom Canning (keyboards), Joe Yuele (drums) and Hank van Sickle (bass).

Mayall explains the process of recording: “It’s kind of similar in approach to Padlock On The Blues because it’s with the Bluesbreakers rather than having guests. The theme of the album before that, Along For The Ride, was to celebrate forty years in the business by having a big round up of friends and past band mates and so forth. We wanted to make Stories a more intimate affair and feature the Bluesbreakers line-up and also the songwriting credits, the ones I didn’t write, were to be written by people who were known to us and who had worked with us before either on stage or in writing credits.”

“David Z produced that one and the previous album. He’s a marvelous producer. I first heard of him when he produced Jonny Lang’s first two albums and he’s till doing stuff with Jonny right now. It only took two or three weeks to record, they all don’t take very long. We use the same studio which is near home. It’s a big room. We treat it very much like doing a live show. We do very few overdubs. We count it off, tape rolls and off we go.”

Mayall wrote six of the fourteen tracks featured on Stories. The balance were written by artists such as Buddy and Julie Miller (Dirty Water), Eric Bibb (Kokomo), Walter Trout (I Thought I Heard the Devil), with Buddy Whittington also contributing two tracks (Pieces and Parts, Romance Classified).

Mayall explains the songwriting process: “Anytime I get the opportunity to record an album, since I don’t read or write music, I leave it till the time I have the opportunity to put it down permanently. As it nears the time, I round up a variety of subjects and subject matter and work on it from that point.”

Though Mayall celebrates his seventieth birthday in November of this year, he’s still confident he can put on an unforgettable show for the Australian audiences.

“It’s quite exciting. I’m confident we can blow most people off the stage. On my shows, we’ll be featuring mostly songs from the new album, Stories, so there’s a lot of variety there and a lot of excitement. Buddy Whittington is the best guitarist I’ve ever come across. He’s a great lead guitar player, a great rhythm player, a great everything. He’s so complete.”