Empty Rooms

Empty Rooms
Studio album by John Mayall
Released	1969
Genre	Blues
Length	46:29
Label	Polydor
Producer	John Mayall
John Mayall chronology
The Turning Point (1969) Empty Rooms (1969) USA Union (1970)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Piero Scaruffi	(6/10)[2]

Empty Rooms is a studio album by blues musician John Mayall, released in late 1969 on Polydor. It is a follow-up to the live album The Turning Point, released earlier in the year with the same musicians: Jon Mark on acoustic guitar, Johnny Almond on saxophones and flute, and Stephen Thompson on bass. John Mayall sings, plays harmonica, guitars and keyboards (including a moog synthesizer). Former Canned Heat bassist Larry Taylor guests as second bass player on one track, "To a Princess," improvising with Thompson on an unusual bass duet. The absence of a drummer leaves the rhythm rather fluid and the resulting sound is unusual, even for a John Mayall album. The songs, all written by Mayall, mostly addressed his romance with photographer Nancy Throckmorton, a theme he would pursue further on USA Union.

Empty Rooms was the only known set of studio recordings by the Turning Point lineup, which broke up shortly after the album was recorded. Larry Taylor, however, would join Mayall as one of three American musicians (electric guitarist Harvey Mandel, also a former member of Canned Heat; and, electric violinist Sugarcane Harris would complete the new lineup) to join him for USA Union.

Track listing

1. "Don't Waste My Time" - 3:10
2. "Plan Your Revolution" - 2:38
3. "Don't Pick a Flower" - 3:53
4. "Something New" - 4:40
5. "People Cling Together" - 2:53
6. "Waiting for the Right Time" - 5:36
7. "Thinking of My Woman" - 2:29
8. "Counting the Days" - 5:33
9. "When I Go" - 4:46
10. "Many Miles Apart" - 2:56
11. "To a Princess" - 3:34
12. "Lying In My Bed" - 4:21

Personnel

• John Mayall - vocals, harmonica, guitars, keyboards
• Jon Mark - guitar
• John Almond - saxophone, flute
• Larry Taylor - bass
• Steven Thompson - bass

and

• Engineers - Barry Ainsworth, Eddie Kramer, Eddy Offord, John Judnich

Jon Mark and Johnny Almond would leave the group just after the recording of this album, to form the duo Mark-Almond.

References

1. ↑ "allmusic ((( Empty Rooms > Overview )))". www.allmusic.com. Retrieved 2010-06-16. 
2. ↑ Scaruffi, Piero (1999). "John Mayall". pieroscaruffi.com. Retrieved August 15, 2013. 

External links

• "John Mayall - Empty Rooms (LP) at Discogs". www.discogs.com. Retrieved 2010-06-16.