John Mayall: Along for the Ride : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

John Mayall has always been best known by the company he keeps -- Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Jack Bruce, after all, served stints in his Bluesbreakers. Keeping that in mind, the fact that his latest disc boasts more special guests than a Master P album seems less like Santana-esque career desperation than business as usual for the sixty-seven-year-old bluesman. Clapton's absence this time around -- one assumes he was off riding with B.B. King or something -- may well handicap Along for the Ride's chances for picking up a Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy. But the presence of players like Taylor, Billy Preston, Gary Moore, Billy Gibbons, Jonny Lang, Jeff Healy and Shannon Curfman should keep modern blues enthusiasts -- with a reunion of former Bluesbreakers/original Fleetwood Mac amigos Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie thrown in for old-timers. But it's not the guests that hold the album together; it's Mayall's seasoned direction and spirited "everyone doin' all right?" vocals. In the grand scheme of rock & roll and blues history, Along for the Ride won't go down as a particularly important or groundbreaking album, but it's a fun listen. (RICHARD SKANSE - May 7, 2001)