A Hard Road

For other uses, see A Hard Road (disambiguation).

A Hard Road
Studio album by
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
Released17 February 1967[1]
Recorded11, 12, 19 & 24 October; 11 November 1966
StudioDecca Studios, London[2]
GenreBlues rock[3]
Length37:13 (original)
79:22 (2006 reissue)
LabelDecca (UK)
London (U.S.)
ProducerMike Vernon
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers chronology
Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton
(1966) 		A Hard Road
(1967) 		Crusade
(1967)
John Mayall chronology
Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton
(1966) 		A Hard Road
(1966) 		The Blues Alone
(1967)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Rolling Stone(Highly Positive)[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[5]
Living Blues(Positive)[6]
About.com[7]
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings[8]

A Hard Road is the third album (and second studio album) recorded by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, released in 1967. It introduced Peter Green on lead guitar following the departure of Eric Clapton, and also featured John McVie on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums and John Almond on saxophone. Tracks 5, 7 and 13 feature the horn section of Alan Skidmore and Ray Warleigh. Green additionally sings lead vocals on "You Don't Love Me" and "The Same Way". The cover art and the original LP sleeve design are by Mayall.

The album reached #8 on the UK album charts which is Mayall's third best showing on the chart next to Bare Wires and Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton which reached #3 and #6, respectively.[9] Two different expanded versions of the album were released in 2003 and 2006.

  1. ^ a b Unterberger, Richie. "A Hard Road – John Mayall, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, The Bluesbreakers : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  2. ^ "John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers* – A Hard Road (Vinyl, LP, Album) at Discogs". Discogs.com. 15 May 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  3. ^ "The Top 30 British Blues Rock Albums of All Time". Classic Rock. Future plc. 23 March 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  4. ^ Saunders, Mike (7 December 1968). "Records". Rolling Stone. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc.
  5. ^ Larkin, Colin (30 September 2013). The Virgin Encyclopedia of The Blues. Random House. ISBN 9781448132744.
  6. ^ Larkin, Colin (25 May 2018). "Living Blues". cduniverse.com. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  7. ^ "Peter Green, Blues Guitarist". thoughtco.com.
  8. ^ Russell, Tony; Smith, Chris (2006). The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings. Penguin. p. 427. ISBN 978-0-140-51384-4.
  9. ^ "Type in "John Mayall" under "Name of Artist"". Everyhit.com. 16 March 2000. Retrieved 31 July 2012.