John Mayall has been releasing albums for well over 40 years now and shows little sign of slowing down. Throughout his recording history he has helped launch the careers of such greats as Mick Taylor, Eric Clapton and Peter Green. On this, his 57th studio album we find him playing several instruments along with handling the vocals.

TOUGH is possibly his strongest and best album of the last few years. The real standout here is “That Good Old Rockin’ Blues” in which he makes his stance against some of the modern trends in modern music quite clear. The song has some great piano playing, fuzzy guitar sounds and background harmonies. While similar to some of the other songs on the album this one has that little something extra that gains your attention a little more.

While I only briefly touched on one song the rest are worthy as well and ones that you should check out. This is a great blues rock album from one of the pioneers of the genre.