Back in 1997, many people noted the personnel involved in Flesh & Blood and assumed that the outfit had to be some kind of melodic rock supergroup. It was a forgivable enough error, given that the quintet’s rich pedigree came from such bands as Touch, Tyketto, Saraya and Asia.
In fact, Flesh & Blood came after former American Tears/Touch/Drive, She Said keyboard player Mark Mangold sat down to write blues songs for ex-Free/Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers. When Rodgers' new band The Law (which paired him with The Who's former drummer Kenney Jones) recorded only one of those songs, For A Little Ride, on their eponymous debut album in 1991, Mangold had an embarrassment of riches remaining.
It took him six years to release them, by which time the music scene was still adjusting to the fallout from grunge; few people were disposed towards a band that sounded like the Black Crowes jamming with Creedence Clearwater Revival. Emerging via the independent Now & Then Records label, Blues For Daze created few headlines and failed to trouble the Billboard chart, but it certainly seduced those with a discerning ear.
Joining Mangold in Flesh & Blood were ex-Alice Cooper/Savatage/Asia and future Megadeth guitarist Al Pitrelli, Saraya drummer Chuck Bonfante and unknown bassist Mitch DeStefano, with former Waysted/Tyketto singer Danny Vaughn stepping into the picture at the last minute.
Vaughn sounds more relaxed, soulful and confident on Blues For Daze than he ever did before. Which is a considerable achievement considering that his vocals were added to the already recorded music, replacing those of another singer (to this day, both Mangold and Vaughn refuse to divulge the name of the mystery original vocalist).
For Mangold, Flesh & Blood was an opportunity to revisit his blues-enriched youth, pouring lashings of Hammond organ on Man Enough and Shake Ya Tail Feather. The swaggering power of the title track is the closest the album gets to hard rock, although Feel The Power is a great Cry Of Love-flavoured opening song that Mangold re-recorded in 2004 with his side project The Magic Freak Society. Bed Of Roses and Jenny Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the latter a particularly moving lament to a late girlfriend, are its more introspective moments. Voodoo Moon, on the other hand, revealed some ersatz Cajun promise.
Though Pitrelli is regarded more as a metal-oriented shredder than a thoughtful bluesman, he’s in surprisingly restrained form throughout, his finest moment arguably being the Thunder-meets-Whitesnake of Sweet Sister Rose, some soaring playing bringing the song to a gospel-tinged climax. Unfortunately, because all except DeStefano had other commitments, Flesh & Blood never toured. In fact, it wasn’t until 2002 when Mangold joined Danny Vaughn and his band Vaughn on stage at a Belgian festival that any of the album’s material was played live.
“We got to kick out Feel The Power and Jenny Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which was a fantastic experience,” Danny told Classic Rock. “In fact, Mark and I have talked several times about doing another Flesh & Blood album, but we’ve both been pretty busy. Still, never say never.”
This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 53 (May 2003). Blues For Daze was reissued in 2021 by Bad Reputation Records, when Flesh & Blood reformed to record two new tracks for the release: a brand new song called Ready To Roll, and an acoustic version of the track Riverside, featuring Danny Vaughn on acoustic guitar and blues harp.
