Blues From Laurel Canyon My Life as a Bluesman: Hardback Book

John Mayall, born a decade before Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Alvin Lee and Keith Richards, has lived an extraordinary life in music. Blues From Laurel Canyon is his personal account of an unparalleled career pioneering British blues.

From his early life in Manchester, to his conscription in the Korean War, to Manchester College of Art, John chronicles his varied journey before finding his place in music. An early band, The Powerhouse Four, evolved into John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers in 1963, going on to achieve legendary status. The sheer wealth of names whose early talents were incubated in his bands includes Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, Aynsley Dunbar, Mick Taylor, Harvey Mandel, John McVie, Coco Montoya, Walter Trout and dozens more.

After relocating to Los Angeles, John lived the rock’n’roll lifestyle, rubbing shoulders with Hollywood stars and jamming with the elite of the music world. His Californian adventures, world tours and multiple near-death experiences are all openly explored in Blues From Laurel Canyon. The ever-shifting jigsaw of its members and Mayall’s intermittent retiring of the name has meant that The Bluesbreakers is no longer a label for a particular group of musicians; instead it represents a cultural brand, a movement that changed the course of history of British blues and rock music.