“John Mayall’s ability to nurture blues guitar prodigies is comparable to Yoda’s knack for training hot Jedi prospects”: From Eric Clapton to Peter Green, Mick Taylor and more – a guide to blues legend John Mayall’s ’60s guitarists
The late John Mayall’s ability to nurture blues guitar prodigies is comparable to Yoda’s knack for training hot Jedi prospects. Chiefly known for giving Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor the opportunity to shine in the 1960s, Mayall’s eye for talent proved powerfully sharp both before and after the star trio’s respective stints in his legendary outfit the Bluesbreakers.
The band’s first decade remains of central importance, thanks to the seismic influence of albums like Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, A Hard Road and Crusade. Moreover, Mayall’s artistic development from the band’s formation in 1963 to the end of the ‘60s uncovers a trailblazing trajectory of pioneering, popularizing, then progressing the blues with more experimental records.
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Rich Davenport is guitarist and vocalist with punk/ska punk/punky reggae merchants Vicious Bishop, and is a former member of Radio Stars, Atomkraft, and Martin Gordon’s Mammals. He swears by Orange amps and pedals, which is entirely appropriate for a ginger. In addition to making loud noises, he’s also written about loud noises for Classic Rock, Record Collector, Vive Le Rock, and Rock Candy. He’s interviewed such six-stringers as Ritchie Blackmore, Joe Bonamassa, Michael Schenker, Ty Tabor (Kings X), Peter Tork (The Monkees), Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy), Pat McManus, Steve Hunter (Alice Cooper, Lou Reed), Ed King (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Vivian Campbell (Dio, Def Leppard), George Lynch (Dokken), Steve Lukather (Toto) and Lita Ford.
