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JOHNNY MARS MIGHTY MARS
Audio CD May 2, 2000
Original Release Date: 1980
Format:[email protected]
Songwriter, harmonica player and singer Johnny Mars was raised in a sharecropping family. He was given his first harmonica at age nine. His family lived in various places around the South, including North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
When Mars’ mother died in 1958, the older family members settled in Florida, while Johnny and his younger brother went to live in New Paltz, N.Y. After he graduated from high school, he played club shows around New York and recorded with his band Burning Bush for Mercury Records.
In the mid-1960s, Mars moved to San Francisco, where he met Dan Kennedy and formed the Johnny Mars Band, playing clubs and festivals in northern California, as well as shows for rock promoter/impresario/producer Bill Graham.
However, Mars could not seem to expand his audience much in San Francisco. After hearing about the greener pastures across the pond from his friend Rick Estrin of Little Charlie and the Nightcats, he toured England in 1972. There, he recorded a couple of albums, eventually moving to West London in 1978. Working with producer Ray Fenwick, who also worked with Spencer Davis and Ian Gillan, Mars met with success on the much praised album, Life On Mars.
In 1991, Mars became a featured soloist with the British New Wave pop group Bananarama. The group used him on their singles “Preacher Man,” “Megalomaniac,” and “Long Train Running,” and he appeared in the group’s video of “Preacher Man.
Mars, who resides in England, certainly shows that he ranks among one of the best harp players on either side of the pond. His songs are a mixture of soulful R&B, blues and a little old time rock & roll. Standout harp tracks are "Johnny's Groove", "If I had a Woman" and "Mighty Mars".
1. Horses & Places 3:22
2. Imagination 3:19
3. Desert Island 8:34
4. Johnny's Groove 6:34
5. Cash Ain't Nothing 3:03
6. I'll Go Crazy 2:31
7. If I Had A Woman 8:45
8. Watch Yourself 2:47
9. Mighty Mars 2:22
10. Rocket 88 2:26
11. Mellow Down 2:15
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