Corky Laing Plays Mountain

Corky Laing is a true legend. After playing drums for vocal group The Ink Spots in 1961, he later played in a group called Energy, who was produced by Cream collaborator and Laing's future bandmate Felix Pappalardi. Laing left Energy in 1969 to replace drummer N.D. Smart in a hard rock outfit and heavy metal forerunner Mountain, who, with Laing at the drum kit, released three albums and the classic song "Mississippi Queen". After the band's first breakup the following year, Laing and Mountain bandmate Leslie West went on to form blues-rock power trio West, Bruce and Laing with former Cream bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce. West, Bruce and Laing produced two studio albums and a live release before Mountain reformed without Laing in 1974 and released two more albums, Avalanche (with Laing) and the live Twin Peaks (without Laing), only to break up again shortly after. The band would once again reconvene with Laing in 1985 upon the release of Go For Your Life, and Laing has continued with them to this day, most recently working on the band's 2007 Bob Dylan cover album Masters of War.

In addition to Mountain, he has recorded as the group Cork, with Spin Doctors guitarist/vocalist Eric Schenkman and Noel Redding, formerly bass guitarist of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. In late 1975, he played congas on several tracks on Bo Diddley's all-star album The 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll.

In 1991, he was featured on Men Without Hats's cover version of The Beatles's song "I Am the Walrus" on drums. This is available on the Sideways album.

Since 2015 Corky has been touring the world celebrating the musical legacy of Mountain. Sitting in with K2 (Peter Baron, Ken Sidotti & Joe Venti), a band saluting the music of Mountain, for a couple of gigs in 2014 and 2015 reminded Corky how much he loved playing the Mountain repertoire the way to was originally recorded, and the idea for Corky Laing's Mountain was born. They blew us all away when they played a very special show at The Bullingdon, we are thrilled they are back. Expect great musicianship and hilarious story telling, Corky's had a long life and certainly lived it! Further info here: www.corkylaingworks.com