Bare Wires [VINYL]

Preceding arguably the best Mayall Album, Blues from Laurel Canyon -where the excellent playing of Mick Taylor is at its peak before his move to the Rolling stones, Bare Wires is a far more varied and personal album for Mayall than its predecessors.

The lyrics could be regarded as fairly introspective but the musical composition and excellent musicianship in terms of skill, range and interplay of Mayall, Chris Mercer, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Henry Lowther, Jon Hiseman, Tony Reeves and Mick Taylor make Bare Wires a great and interesting listen.

Some really lovely tracks; and how can you go wrong at this price anyway?


Interesting blues/rock/jazz mixture   October 17, 2000
 10 out of 17 found this review helpful

The only way to categorise the music on this album is to say that it is a mixture of blues, rock and jazz. Things start with the "Bare Wires Suite" which takes up about half of the CD and then follows a further selection of six shorter songs. Personally, I don't see the point of this. The suite is itself made up of seven songs and they seem to make more sense seen as songs than seen as some greater whole. The songs in the suite are less traditional blues style than the rest of the album but while that marks them out from the second half, it does not make them relate to each other. It must also be said that they are not as good as the others.

Seen then as a collection of thirteen blues/rock songs with a few moments of jazz, this is a very interesting album indeed. Listening to it today, I am struck by the number of riffs that have made it into other rock songs since. Clearly, Mayall is essential listening for a lot of other musicians.

In general, the mood is pretty mellow and laid back exemplified by "I'm a Stranger" which is the strongest song here. It is also the most blues oriented piece on the CD.

This is not Mayall's best album but it is certainly well worth a listen.

If you like this CD, it's well worth checking out music from the likes of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead and of course, Eric Clapton.