Harvey Mandel

Harvey "The Snake" Mandel (born March 11, 1945) is an American guitarist best known as a member of Canned Heat. He also played with Charlie Musselwhite and John Mayall as well as maintaining a solo career.

Early life Mandel was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Morton Grove, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

Career His first recording was the album Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's Southside Band in 1966 with Charlie Musselwhite. He relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, performing often at The Matrix, a club where local favorites like Jerry Garcia or Elvin Bishop would sit in and jam. He then met the pioneering San Francisco disc jockey and producer Abe "Voco" Kesh (Abe Keshishian), who signed Mandel to Philips Records and produced his first solo album, Cristo Redentor, in 1968. Mandel recorded with Barry Goldberg on a bootleg from Cherry Records and recorded with Graham Bond. He cut two more solo LPs for Philips, Righteous (1969) and Games Guitars Play (1970), followed by four more solo albums for the independent record label Janus in the early 1970s, which included Baby Batter. During this period, with Canned Heat bandmates Larry Taylor and Fito de la Parra, Mandel contributed to the 'Music from Free Creek' super session project. Mandel stayed with Canned Heat for a year, touring and recording material which appeared on three albums. "Let's Work Together", a song by Wilbert Harrison which was included in the album Future Blues became an international hit. He is also on the Live in Europe album recorded prior to the death of Alan Wilson. entered the recording studios at Fantasy Records, Berkeley, for two days of live studio recording, which resulted in the eight self-composed tracks which made up the album Snake Pit.

In 2017, Harvey released the 10 track album Snake Attack. According to Harvey, "I wrote all the songs, performed all the instruments and mixed and mastered all the songs myself. Working in my own home studio allowed me to do all sorts of great guitar overdubs that I'd never have been able to do in a regular studio.

2022 saw the release of Who's Calling.

Discography

Solo 1968 Cristo Redentor (LP, Philips PHS 600-281) 1969 Righteous (LP, Philips PHS 600-306) 1970 Games Guitars Play (LP, Philips PHS 600-325) 1971 Baby Batter (LP, Janus JLS-3017), also released as Electronic Progress (Bellaphon, Germany) 1972 The Snake (LP, Janus JLS-3037), with Don "Sugarcane" Harris 1972 Get Off in Chicago (LP, Ovation OV/1415) 1973 Shangrenade (LP, Janus JLS-3047), with Don "Sugarcane" Harris 1974 Feel the Sound of Harvey Mandel (LP, Janus JLS-3067) 1975 The Best of Harvey Mandel (LP, Janus 7014) 1993 Twist City (CD, Western Front WFE 10022) 1995 Snakes & Stripes (CD, Clarity Recordings CCD-1013) 1995 Harvey Mandel: The Mercury Years (Includes first 3 solo albums) (CD, PolyGram Records 314 528275-2) 1997 Planetary Warrior (CD, ESP/Lightyear/WEA, 54215-2) 1997 Emerald Triangle (CD, Electric Snake Productions ESP-9701) 1999 Snake Live (CD, MP3.com) 2000 West Coast Killers (Contains two bonus tracks not on the 2003 "West Coast Killaz" CD) (CD, MP3.com) 2000 Lick This (CD, Electric Snake Productions) 2003 West Coast Killaz (10-track CD also issued as 8-track "Radio Version") (CD, Electric Snake Productions) 2003 NightFire featuring Harvey Mandel/Freddie Roulette (CD, Electric Snake Productions NF1470) 2004 Blue Marble (CDr, Unreleased Studio w/ Terry Haggerty in possession of collector) 2006 Harvey Mandel and the Snake Crew (CD, Electric Snake Productions) 2009 Live at Biscuits & Blues (CD, Electric Snake Productions) 2014 Dragons at Play (CD, Electric Snake Productions) 2015 Snake Box (Includes first five solo albums plus "Live at the Matrix", San Francisco, CA, December 24, 1968) (CD, Cleopatra CLP-CD-2100) 2016 Snake Pit (CD, Tompkins Square TSQ 5296) 2017 Snake Attack (CD, RockBeat Records ROC-3357) 2018 Live at Broadway Studios, San Francisco (CD, RockBeat Records ROC-3366) 2019 Smoke This (CD, Out The Box Records) 2022 Who's Calling (CD, Tompkins Square TSQ 5920) 2024 Twist City (2024 Remaster) (Digital Download, Cleopatra CLO6487DA) 2025 Snake Walk (CD, Earwig EWR-4985)

With other artists 1967 Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's Southside Band (Vanguard) – Charlie Musselwhite 1968 There's No Hole in My Soul (Buddah) – Barry Goldberg 1969 Two Jews Blues (Buddah) – Barry Goldberg and Mike Bloomfield 1970 Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More (Cotillion) – various artists (with Canned Heat) 1970 '70 Concert: Recorded Live in Europe (Liberty) – Canned Heat 1970 Future Blues (Liberty) – Canned Heat 1970 USA Union (Polydor) – John Mayall 1971 Back to the Roots (Polydor) – John Mayall 1971 Historical Figures and Ancient Heads (United Artists) – Canned Heat 1972 Choice Cuts (Epic) – Pure Food and Drug Act 1973 Music from Free Creek (Charisma) – various artists 1974 Reel to Real (RSO) – Love 1976 Black and Blue (Rolling Stones) – The Rolling Stones 1994 The Psychedelic Guitar Circus (Rykodisc) – Henry Kaiser, Steve Kimock, Harvey Mandel, Freddie Roulette