John Mayall's greatest talent may never have been singing, playing guitar or keyboards, or even writing songs. It was knowing who to put in the room. The list of musicians who passed through the Bluesbreakers is absurd — Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and plenty more — and his ear for musicians remained remarkably sharp well into his eighties. Nobody Told Me, released in 2019 when Mayall was 85, is another demonstration of that instinct. Five high-profile guest guitarists drop by, but the album's most important new presence is Carolyn Wonderland, who had recently joined his touring band.
The formula is straightforward: seven covers, three Mayall originals, a warm production and a succession of guitar players taking their turn without turning the record into a cutting contest. Joe Bonamassa opens proceedings on "What Have I Done Wrong," and for someone whose straight blues playing can sometimes feel a little too polished, he's excellent here. He keeps things restrained, working around the horns and Mayall's unusually strong vocal with a lovely tone and vibrato. He returns later for "Delta Hurricane," again resisting the temptation to overwhelm the song while the rhythm section and horns keep things moving underneath him.
Larry McCray brings something different to "The Moon Is Full." His guitar tumbles through the song with terrific speed and phrasing over a strong bass riff and Mayall's organ, then gets another showcase on Gary Moore's "The Hurt Inside." The guests are clearly enjoying the opportunity to play within Mayall's world rather than impose themselves upon it.
The biggest surprise is Alex Lifeson. Hearing the Rush guitarist playing straight blues on "Evil and Here to Stay" sounds like a recipe for something far more eccentric than what actually happens. Instead, Lifeson plays the song with considerable respect for the form, his nasty, hard-edged guitar tone rubbing nicely against Mayall's harmonica. Todd Rundgren takes a similarly disciplined approach to "That's What Love Will Make You Do." In his case, it's almost frustrating. Rundgren has spent a career bending genres out of shape, and Mayall himself has never exactly been afraid of jazz, psychedelia or fusion, so a little more mischief might have been welcome. Still, the Memphis-style horns and organ make it an enjoyable piece.
"Little" Steven Van Zandt is more immediately recognizable on "It's So Tough." His fuzzy, agitated guitar hovers around a pulsing bass line and Mayall's electric piano, giving the track one of the album's more distinctive textures. The changing guitarists are important because Nobody Told Me can otherwise become a little repetitive. It's a traditional blues record with little interest in disguising itself as anything else, but at ten songs it doesn't hang around long enough for that consistency to become a problem.
And then there's Carolyn Wonderland. On "Distant Lonesome Train," a dark Joe Bonamassa song, her slide guitar slowly works its way from atmospheric punctuation into a beautifully controlled crescendo. It's the best track here. She's equally valuable on the otherwise fairly ordinary blues-rock of "Like It Like You Do," giving the song the jolt it needs when her solo arrives.
Wonderland saves her finest playing for the closing title track. "Nobody Told Me" moves at slow-blues pace, with a smoky late-night atmosphere and a deliberately blunt piano figure, while her guitar answers Mayall's vocal almost like a saxophone. She doesn't simply wait for the allotted solo; she's inside the song throughout, filling spaces and responding to the vocal before finally taking off. With Bonamassa, Lifeson, Rundgren, McCray and Van Zandt all appearing on the same album, it's quite something that the least famous guitarist on the sleeve walks away with its best solo.
That seems entirely appropriate for a John Mayall record. The famous guests may attract the attention, but Nobody Told Me ultimately introduces another guitarist worth following. Carolyn Wonderland was hardly an unknown by 2019, having already built a substantial career of her own, but joining Mayall placed her in a lineage that few musicians could resist being associated with. At 85, Mayall was still doing what he had done throughout his career: finding good songs, surrounding himself with excellent players and knowing when to get out of their way.