Created as a way to preserve and respect the great music of
the British Blues Boom era of the Sixties, Mark Doyle & The Maniacs
is the brainchild of guitarist/producer Mark Doyle. Signed to RCA in the
early ‘70s with his first band, Jukin’ Bone (who played their own brand of
fiery, Anglophilic blues rock), Mark has gone on to record and tour with
artists as varied as Meat Loaf, Bryan Adams, Judy Collins, Leo Sayer, and
Hall & Oates. A visit to the Discography page at http://markdoyle.com
details the 65 albums that Mark has been involved in.
In describing the impetus for making their first record, “Shake ‘Em On
Down”, Mark explains: “Old heroes die hard, and these were mine back when I
was a teenager and first started playing the electric guitar. I’m sure
Jeff Beck, Eric
Clapton, Peter Green and Kim Simmonds
had their own heroes – “authentic” blues men like
B. B., Albert, and
Freddie King, Otis
Rush, Hubert Sumlin and
Buddy Guy, but I did not yet know of them, and
only discovered them translated and morphed through the brilliant playing of
those four English kids.”
None of this would mean anything without a killer, hand-picked band to lay
the music down “just as those guys had to do it: live in the studio.” In
describing his “posse of energetic, passionate and similarly reverent
bandmates”, Doyle says: “I couldn’t have surrounded myself with a better
band. Jack “Penetrator” Lipton handles the punk snarl of those “garage
blues” days better than anybody I know; Terry Quill rose to the occasion
when I called him and asked him to dust off his old harps, that I was
looking for Brian Jones and Keith Relf rather than Paul Butterfield. Less of
a surprise is Terry’s always great guitar playing. Michael P. Ryan shares
the lead vocals with Jack, and plays excellent bass throughout. I really
enjoyed watching him discover the British Blues from our era. And then
there’s the incomparable Frank DeFonda, who really is the engine that
propels all of this along. And kudos to Jocko, the “6th Maniac”, for
immersing himself in The Whole ethos of the original versions and bringing
his engineering and mixing chops to the table.”
“Shake ‘Em On Down” took you on a wild ride through Them’s “Mystic Eyes” and
then went on to cover The Yardbirds, Fleetwood
Mac, Savoy Brown, and
John Mayall, ending with
Robin Trower and one original song, “New
Set of Blues.” The brand new disc, “Comin’ Home”, features nine original
songs written by Mark and various other combinations of the Maniacs. “We
were intent on making the music of the British Blues Boom era a living
thing, rather than a museum piece,” Doyle says. “The new songs we’ve written
manage to evoke the spirit of the era while remaining contemporary. And we
still went for capturing lightning in a bottle by recording the album as
live as possible. The difference is that we’re now an actual working band
that played the songs in front of audiences over the year between the two
albums.”
So here are Mark Doyle & The Maniacs, who on their second release are
“Comin’ Home” to the British Blues, with a whole new twist.
