Rocky Athas: solos with John Mayall Band

ROCKY ATHAS, GUITAR SOLO, JOHN MAYALL & BAND, MEZZ BREDA, DEC. 12TH, 2012

by Vincent Lyons

Super cool blues guitar solo by Rocky Athas, when British blues legend John Mayall and band performed a spectacular set at the MEZZ venue, in Breda, the Netherlands, on Wednesday, December 12th, 2012. It was a real 'blast' to see John Mayall 'knod the head' to Rocky, to go for a solo, as he has done so many times before with other great guitarists in the past, including Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Walter Trout, Coco Montoya, and Buddy Whittington.

Extract from John Mayall's website: ROCKY ATHAS -- Guitar. Texan Rocky Athas started playing guitar at school and performing at neighborhood gigs with good friend Stevie Ray Vaughan. They were schoolmates and friends growing up in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff, Texas. By age 23, Rocky was honored as one of the ten best guitarists in Texas, as an inductee to Buddy Magazine's Texas Tornadoes. Stevie Ray Vaughan would receive his induction two years later. Rocky holds this honor with such noted guitarists as Eric Johnson, Bugs Henderson, Johnny Winter, Jimmy Vaughan and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons who is also a long-time admirer of Rocky's playing. Rocky wasn't only recognized by Texas musicians, the Irish rock band 'Thin Lizzy' wrote the song 'Cocky Rocky' after hearing Rocky play one night at 'Mother Blues', a local Dallas club. 'Queen' guitarist Brian May was also on hand for those performances and was so floored by Rocky's finger tapping style that he incorporated it on the next Queen album. May later revealed that it was the guitarist from Mother Blues who first introduced him to the style, well before Eddie Van Halen became known for this.

From Wikipedia:

In November 2008, Mayall announced on his website he was disbanding the Bluesbreakers, to cut back on his heavy workload and give himself freedom to work with other musicians. Three months later a solo world tour was announced, with: Rocky Athas on guitar, Greg Rzab on bass, and Jay Davenport on drums. Tom Canning, on organ, joined the band for the tour which started in March 2009. An album was released in September 2009. Since then, Mayall has continued to tour with the same backing band, minus Canning, who left due to other priorities.


Featuring:

Rocky Athas- guitar
John Mayall -vocals, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
Greg Rzab - bass
Jay Davenport -- drums

Links:
http://www.johnmayall.com/
http://www.rockyathas.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mayall
http://www.mezz.nl/

ROCKY ATHAS, GUITAR SOLO, JOHN MAYALL & BAND, MEZZ BREDA, DEC. 12TH, 2012