mal barclay profile picture

mal barclay

About Me

mal barclay:Having been a member of several indie rock bands, and a variety of folk/soul/jazz residencies around the city of Edinburgh for almost 12 years, I moved back to the city of my birth (London!) in 2002. At a loose end, music-wise, I discovered the Monday night Blues Jam at the Ain't Nothin' But bar in Kingly Street, which both reignited a life-long passion for the blues and roots music, and heralded the start of a long hard climb up the ranks of London blues guitarists. Since then, I have played with a whole mess of people, including appearances with Kurt Crandall, Jerimiah Marques & the Blue Aces, West Weston's Bluesonics, Pete G & the MagniTones, Sam Hare (as Hucklebuck and Soul Junction), and Gentleman Tim & the Contenders. Currently I may be seen on stage playing hot West Coast Blues with The Cadillac Kings, Swing with Oo-Bop-Sh'Bam, and dirty, soulful blues with Big Mamma's Door.
Videos of mal with The Cadillac Kings, Kurt Crandall and Big Mamma's Door:
Hear additional tracks at reverbnation:

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 23/03/2007
Band Members: mal barclay
Influences: I'm deeply into original blues and swing artists like T-Bone Walker, Charlie Christian, BB-King - in fact all the Kings! - Johnny Guitar Watson, Magic Sam, Muddy Waters and Hollywood Fats. I also dig rockabilly cats like Scotty Moore and Cliff Gallup. Contemporary influences include Duke Robillard, Ronnie Earl, Jimmie Vaughan, Nick Curran and Junior Watson.
Sounds Like: What people say:
'....his Les Paul Gold Top sounding quite magnificent, in a vintage way – indeed, his playing was superb all set.'
[Grahame Rhodes, Blues in The North West.]
'...always impresses ...his great combination of taste, touch, and tone lift tunes out of the ordinary and imbue a solid rectitude to proceedings'
[David Atkinson, Blues in London.]
'...a fabulous player with lovely retro feel and tone to his soloing and rhythm work'
[Grahame Rhodes, Chester Chronicle.]
'...wait til you hear THIS guy!!!'
[Blues in the North West.]
'He's got a sparkly tele, he's got a snakeskin guitar strap... all that hard work, let down by the brown trainers...'
[Ian Siegal]
Listens to:

Plays about on:
1953 Gibson Es-350, 1959 Harmony H62, Harmony Stratotone H44, Fender Stratocaster, Bacchus guitars, Peterson tuners, Vanamps Reverbamate and Victoria amplifiers.

Type of Label: Unsigned

My Blog

Review of the Royal Albert Hall concert

Not the Royal Academy (which is what my Dad thought it was, although he did make it there to see us!), or the Hall proper, but the lunchtime 'Ignite' concerts in the restaurant. It's nice to get a foo...
Posted by on Sun, 02 Aug 2009 09:07:00 GMT

New review for 'Trouble in Store' hits all the right notes!

Here's a new review of 'Trouble in Store' by Mick Rainsford at 'Blues in Britain' - and he really gets all the references and influences!I particulary like the Kid Ramos comparison - not sure I deserv...
Posted by on Sun, 02 Aug 2009 08:58:00 GMT

And now, the best video you will ever see!

Speaks for itself!
Posted by on Tue, 05 May 2009 06:49:00 GMT

Big Mama Thornton, 'Rock me'

Big Mama Thornton singing 'Rock Me', like she really means it! I like hearing this song just like that; slow, smouldering, mean-sexy...You should never be scared of playing the blues slooowww; it's ha...
Posted by on Tue, 05 May 2009 06:33:00 GMT

And now for something completely different...

Now, I didn't just fall out of the womb playing 50s jump blues, I had to get there somehow - and my way to the righteous old stuff was through bands like this.Yeah, one of the greatest stadium rock ba...
Posted by on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:41:00 GMT

Ronnie Earl, inspiring at any time...

One of my favorite clips of Ronnie with the Broadcasters; not the best quality, but dripping with energy and passion. This has been an inspiring clip for me from the first moment I saw it - one of my ...
Posted by on Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:29:00 GMT

The Cadillac Kings on the Paul Jones show, BBC radio 2!

After a lot of trying (and even he admits we'd been in the queue a long time...), The Cadillac Kings make it onto the Paul Jones show on BBC radio 2, the opening number no less!Hear it here:Paul Jon...
Posted by on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:19:00 GMT

Big Mammas Door rock Tenby!

'The amazing Big Mamma's Door!' (Does that kinda make us sound like magicians?)[Tenby Observer]
Posted by on Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Best Blues band in the world, ever?

Forget all those monstrous 'supergroups' of the 60s - if you were going to put together the coolest, the swingingest, hell, just the BEST blues band ever, who would go in it?Well, it's gotta have T-Bo...
Posted by on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:14:00 GMT

New tracks, The Cadillac Kings live at The Ironworks, Oswestry

How often does it happen that you take a recording straight off the mixing desk at a live gig and it turns out to be an almost perfect mix?Like, once in a lifetime, maybe...?!Well, exactly that rare...
Posted by on Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:47:00 GMT