Mad Season’s one and only album, Above, will have its 30th birthday next year. The record was released at the apex of the Seattle scene, in March 1995, and it presents a mesmerising snapshot of the nihilistic grunge age. The beginnings of Mad Season in a rehab clinic correlate directly with the forlorn spirit of Above and, sadly, two out of the four band members are now dead.
Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready met unknown bass player John ‘Baker’ Saunders in Minneapolis while both of them were undergoing treatment for alcohol/substance abuse. “Baker was rooted deep in the blues,” McCready noted. Back in Seattle, “the two of us, along with Barrett Martin [Screaming Trees drummer] and Layne Staley [Alice In Chains vocalist] decided to get together and create Mad Season.”
