Harvey Mandel - ...and on guitar (2014)

Harvey Mandel was born on 11 March 1945 in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Morton Grove, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He began playing guitar while in his early teens and found his inspiration in the sound of the Ventures, but once he had the chance to hear musicians like Buddy Guy in the small blues clubs of Chicago's West and South sides a whole new world of music opened up to him. He learned from and performed with such greats as Guy, Albert King, Muddy Waters, and Otis Rush, and he got his nickname "The Snake" from master blues harp player Charlie Musselwhite, who admired the way Mandel's left hand would effortlessly snake up and down the guitar neck. His solo career began in the late '60s, after he was signed to Philips Records, a label distributed by Mercury Records, and his first album was 1968's 'Cristo Redentor', which was well-received on the then-growing underground radio scene in California. He followed this with 'Righteous' in 1969 and 'Games Guitars Play' in 1970, before moving to the Janus Records label. On the night that Henry Vestine quit Canned Heat in July 1969, Mandel was in the band's dressing room at the Fillmore West, and both he and Mike Bloomfield joined them to help out on their two sets. Following this, both Bloomfield and Mandel were offered Vestine's spot in the band, and Mandel accepted, with his third performance with the band being the Woodstock Festival in 1969. He stayed with Canned Heat for a year, touring and recording material which appeared on three albums, and during this period, with Canned Heat bandmates Larry Taylor and Fito de la Parra, he also contributed to the 'Music From Free Creek' super session project. With Canned Heat bassist Larry Taylor, Mandel joined John Mayall's band for a couple of years, and after a brief tour with Mayall in Europe in 1972, he recorded 'The Snake', and then 'Shangrenade' in 1973 and 'Feel The Sound Of Harvey Mandel' in 1974, all of which were released on Janus Records. When Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor left the band in December 1974, Mandel was given an audition as his replacement, and although he didn't get the gig, he did record two tracks with the Stones for their 1976 album 'Black And Blue', providing the lead guitar solo on 'Hot Stuff'. Mandel's session work is a short who's-who of blues and roots-rock greats, including playing with The Rolling Stones, John Mayall, Charlie Musselwhite, Barry Goldberg, Jimmy Witherspoon, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Dewey Terry, Freddy Roulette, Bobby Keys, and eventually, even his heroes the Ventures. In the early '90s, Mandel moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he recorded a series of excellent albums for the Chicago-based Western Front Entertainment label, as well as permanently rejoining Canned Heat in 2010. He continues to write and record to this day, sometimes in collaboration with his son Eric Mandel as lead vocalist, and if you need proof that he's lost none of his skill in recent years then just listen to his work on 'Wasabi' from 1996.

Track listing

Disc One
01 Cha Cha The Blues (from 'Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's  

                                                                                                         South Side Band' 1967) 
02 Spirit Of Trane (from '2 Jews Blues' by Barry Goldberg 1969)
03 Sisters And Brothers (from 'Mighty Grahame Bond' by Grahame Bond 1969)
04 Going Down Slow (from 'The Blues Singer' by Jimmy Witherspoon 1969)
05 I Feel A Lot (from 'Raymond Louis Kennedy' by Raymond Louis Kennedy 1970) 
06 Television Eye (from 'Back To The Roots' by John Mayall 1971)
07 Do It Yourself (from 'Choice Cuts' by Pure Food & Drug Act 1972)
08 The Buzzard's Cousin (from 'Fiddler On The Rock' by Don "Sugarcane" Harris 1972)

Disc Two
01 Suit For The Cat (from 'Chief' by Dewey Terry 1973)
02 Earl's Shuffle (from 'Music From Free Creek' by Various Artists 1973)
03 Which Witch Is Which (from 'Reel To Real' by Love 1974)
04 Memory Motel (from 'Black And Blue' by The Rolling Stones 1976)
05 You Make It Hard (from 'Let's All Get Naked' by Acme Thunder 1978)
06 Zeke And The Rat (from 'Pryvet Blewz' by Denis Farley 1988)
07 Snake Bite (from 'Guitar Speak II' by Various Artists 1990)
08 Wasabi (from 'Standing In Stereo' by Geno White 1996)
09 Shake The Devil Down (from 'Primitive Son' by Eli Cook 2014)