Taylors Roadhouse

28/07/2024

RIP John Mayall

John Mayall sat quietly in his study, fingers gently caressing the neck of his old guitar. At eighty, his hands were calloused from a lifetime of playing the blues, yet his passion for music burned as fiercely as ever. Born in Macclesfield, England, in 1933, Mayall grew up surrounded by the jazz and blues records his father collected, sounds that ignited a lifelong passion.

As a young man, he taught himself to play piano, guitar, and harmonica, spending countless hours honing his craft. In 1963, he formed the Bluesbreakers, a band that would become legendary for nurturing future rock stars like Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor. Their album "Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton" is considered a seminal work in British blues.

Mayall's music evolved with the times, always reflecting his deep love for the blues. His band lineup constantly changed, bringing fresh talent and new sounds. Despite the shifting landscape of the music industry, Mayall remained a stalwart figure, a beacon of authenticity in a world of fleeting trends.

In his study, Mayall strummed a few chords, the familiar notes filling the room. He had played on countless stages, from smoky clubs to grand concert halls, but his love for the blues had never wavered. The music was his life's work, his way of connecting with the world and sharing his soul's deepest emotions.

John Mayall's journey was far from over. As long as there was a song to play and a story to tell, he would keep the blues alive, one note at a time.

28/07/2024

The tale of Pearly Gates

Early photo of Billy Gibbons playing his beloved Pearly Gates.
“You gotta have the right guns when you enter the town of tone,” says raconteur, bon vivant, and ZZ Top guitar-slinger Billy F. Gibbons. Translation: If you’re heading into a recording studio or onto a stage, it helps to have some really hot guitars with you. And there are few hotter guns in all guitardom than Gibbons’ 1959 Les Paul, known to guitar aficionados worldwide as Mistress Pearly Gates.

Gibbons acquired the instrument in 1968, just as ZZ Top were getting underway. Pearly Gates has played a starring role on every one of the band’s records, from ZZ Top’s First Album in 1971 to the present.

Threads of fortunate karma, both cultural and personal, crisscross the tale of how Billy acquired Pearly. It was the seminal 1966 album, Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, that set him on a quest to own a sunburst Les Paul like the one Clapton is seen holding on the disc’s rear-sleeve photo.

“A dear friend of mine,” Billy recalls, “a fellow musician, Mr. John Wilson, was playing in a band called the Magic Ring out of Houston. He told me, ‘There’s a rancher outside of town who played in a country band but has turned his attention toward wrangling cattle. Rumor has it that the guitar still resides under one of the beds in his ranch house.’”

So Gibbons drove solo about an hour out of Houston and found the elusive rancher. “The guy was big,” Billy recalls. “He was like a John Wayne guy. I had $250 in my pocket. And when he pulled out that ’59 ‘burst, the deal went down.”

Billy had freshly obtained the cash as the return on a favor. He’d loaned an aspiring actress a 1939 Packard automobile that he collectively owned with some friends so that she could drive from Houston to Hollywood for a screen test.

“We didn’t think the car would make it past El Paso,” Billy says. “But it brought her all the way to Hollywood, and she got the part. We figured the car must have divine connections, so we named it Pearly Gates. Meanwhile, she called and said, ‘Should I send the car back or sell it?’ We said, ‘Sell it!’ She did, and my portion of the settlement arrived the very day I drove out to see the rancher.”

And so the name Pearly Gates, with all its attendant magic, was transferred to the guitar, which was in mint condition when Billy obtained it. “It still had the original set of flatwound strings from the Gibson factory on it,” Billy marvels.

“Plus an extra set of Black Diamond flat wounds in the case. I still got ’em. Also in the case was a love note, which we also still have, from a girlfriend of the original owner. She said, ‘I like what you do. Meet me later. You might like what I can do.’”

Over the years, the instrument has acquired a patina of scratches, scrapes, and dings, including ample belt buckle wear on the rear of the body. “I call that ‘thrash rash,’ ” Billy says. But one of the first signs of wear and tear on Pearly was on the pickguard.

Following in the footsteps of Clapton, Segovia, and others, Gibbons grew out the fingernails of his right hand. “What I hadn’t counted on was that the fingernail of the little finger started digging into the pickguard, leaving scratches,” he says.

By Alan di Perna / Guitar Player

Photo: Tom Hill/WireImage

18/07/2024

13/07/2024

February 3, 1975
Jimmy Page and Joe Walsh at the Led Zeppelin/Atlantic Records Party following Led Zeppelin's return to MSG on the night of February 3, at the Penn Plaza Club in NYC.

Jimmy bought his legendary and highly praised No. 1 ‘59 Gibson Les Paul Standard from Joe Walsh, in April of 1969 while he was in San Francisco on the tour of America.
Jimmy recalled the transaction in 2004, "Joe brought it for me when we played the Fillmore. He insisted I buy it (he’s wasn’t too keen because he already had his Black Beauty Les Paul Custom), and he was right."

In the May 2012 issue of Guitar World, the magazine did an interview with Joe Walsh telling the story of the transaction: "Jimmy was still playing the Telecasters that he played in the Yardbirds. He was looking for a Les Paul and asked if I knew of any, 'cause he couldn't find one that he liked. And I have two. So I kept the one I liked the most and I flew with the other one. I laid it on him and said, 'Try this out.' He really liked it. So I gave him a really good deal, about 1,200 bucks. I had to hand-carry it; I flew there and everything. So whatever my expenses were, that's what I charged him. But again, I just thought he should have a Les Paul for godsakes!"

About the party: Two hundred of New York's finest attended a midnite bash following Zep's triumphant return to Madison Square Garden. Besides the healthy contingent of Atlantic Records at the party, led by Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler who presented each of the four Zeps with gold medallions showing their birth signs (with inscriptions too intimate to reveal here).
A sprinkling of spies from other record companies were spotted, green with envy in the swank and sporty club surroundings.
In all, the party must've been a smash: Richard Cole phoned us up the morning after, asking "Tell me, did I have a good time last night?" (The Atlantic Weekly - Feb. 10, 1975, Atlantic/ATCO Bulletin)

13/07/2024

Happy 75th birthday to Mick Taylor! 🥃
Jagger spoke fondly of Taylor in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. “He was a very fluid and melodic musician, something we never had and don’t have now – Keith and Ronnie don’t play like that,” said Jagger, acknowledging that some believe the best version of the band included Taylor. Jagger demurred when asked if he thought so too. “If I said Mick Taylor that, it would somehow spoil where the band is now.” He still doesn’t know why Taylor left and assumes that he wanted to try a solo career. He lets it slip that Taylor didn’t get along with Keith, which Richards has denied.
Taylor’s version of the story was a little more vague. He admitted in 2012 to being upset that he hadn’t received any songwriting credit from the Stones, but said that the main reason for his departure was simply, “I guess I just felt like I had enough... I never felt I was gonna stay with the Stones forever, even right from the beginning.” Others have mentioned his desire to break free from the group’s drug culture, which was starting to catch up with him too. The legendary Stones machine rolled on without Taylor, just as it had after Jones was fired and bassist Bill Wyman retired in 1993. It endures even now, following the death of their supremely talented drummer, Charlie Watts. The Stones did invite Taylor to play in their 50th anniversary tour in 2012 and 2013.
Ricardo de Querol / El Pais
Photo by Ian Dickson

05/06/2024

Happy 73rd birthday to Jimmie Vaughan, SRV's oldest brother! 🎸