USA Union is a 1970 album by
blues musician
John Mayall,
featuring
Harvey Mandel on guitar,
Larry Taylor on bass and
Don "Sugarcane" Harris on violin. The album was recorded on July 27 & 28th, 1970 at Larrabee Studios in LA and released by
Polydor later in the same year .
Off the road
At the end of the sixties John Mayall was residing in
Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California and had developed connections with local musicians,
befriending Harvey Mandel and Larry Taylor, who had both just departed
Canned Heat. Taylor had appeared on one track of Mayall's previous album,
Empty Rooms,
the only studio recordings of his "Turning Point" band, and stayed on
to replace Stephen Thompson (with whom he duetted on "To a Princess");
Mandel essentially replaced acoustic guitar specialist
Jon Mark, and electric violinist Harris replaced saxophonist
Johnny Almond.
Nature Disapearing
In the
USA Union
liner notes, Mayall noted that, after the Turning Point band broke up,
he'd played a British music festival with an all-star lineup and then
needed to form a new band swiftly when Polydor Records pressed him for a
new album.
Pretty Girl
The
USA Union lineup would appear as some of the core of Mayall's
Back to the Roots set, which featured several notable Mayall alumni including
Eric Clapton,
John McVie,
Mick Taylor, Stephen Thompson and previous drummers
Keef Hartley and
Aynsley Dunbar. Mayall would keep the drumless format for just one more album,
Memories, where Jerry McGee replaced Harvey Mandel as guitarist.
Harvey Mandel (born March 11, 1945),speelde samen met Charlie Musselwhite, Canned Heat, The Rolling Stones, en John Mayall alvorens hij een solocarriere begon .Hij was een van de eerste gitaristen die het z.g two-handed fretboard tapping beoefende.
Don "Sugarcane" Harris (born Don Francis Bowman Harris, June 18, 1938[1] - November 30 (or December 1), 1999) was een Amerikaanse rock & roll violist en gitarist.Vormde jarenlang een duo met zijn jeugvriend Dewey Terry Harris onder de naam Don & Terry .Hoewel ze zelf geen hits hadden waren ze wel verantwoordelijk voor bekende nummers als "Farmer John", "Justine", "Leavin' It All Up to you", en "Big Boy Pete," hoofdzakelijk uitgevoerd door andere artiesten
Larry Taylor (born Samuel Taylor, 26 June 1942, New York) meest bekend als bassist van Canned Heat Hiervoor was hij sessie bassist voor The Monkees en Jerry Lee Lewis.
John Mayall Biografie
http://www.johnmayall.com/bio.html
