John Mayall's Bluesbreakers "Crusade" 1967

This is one of the great blues albums of the sixties and is a musical treat for people who love the blues with soaring and inspiring guitar solos.
The final album of an (unintentional) trilogy, Crusade is most notable for the appearance of a very young, pre-Rolling Stones Mick Taylor on lead guitar. Taylor's performance is indeed the highlight, just as Eric Clapton and Peter Green's playing was on the previous album. The centerpiece of the album is a beautiful instrumental by Taylor titled "Snowy Wood," which, while wholly original, seems to combine both Green and Clapton's influence with great style and sensibility. The rest of the record, while very enjoyable, is standard blues-rock fare of the day, but somewhat behind the then-progressive flavor of 1967. Mayall, while being one of the great bandleaders of London, simply wasn't really the frontman that the group needed so desperately, especially then. Nevertheless, Crusade is important listening for Mick Taylor aficionados. - Review by Matthew Greenwald
Personnel:
John Mayall – vocals, organ, piano, harmonica, bottleneck guitar / Mick Taylor – lead guitar / John McVie – bass guitar / Keef Hartley – drums / Chris Mercer – tenor saxophon / Rip Kant – baritone saxophone

trax:
01 Oh, Pretty Woman 02 Stand Back Baby 03 My Time After Awhile 04 Snowy Wood 05 Man Of Stone 06 Tears In My Eyes 07 Driving Sideways 08 The Death Of J.B. Lenoir 09 I Can't Quit You Baby 10 Streamline 11 Me And My Woman 12 Checkin' Up On My Baby