After Eric Clapton’s hasty departure in the summer of 1966, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers responded by landing themselves yet another young guitar god in Peter Green. The reverb-soaked A Hard Road totally reflects the newbie’s legendarily moody disposition and existential approach to the blues. Where his predecessor’s playing was muscular and forceful, Green’s is spare and deeply forlorn. On the eccentrically hypnotic cuts “There’s Always Work” and “The Supernatural,” he also pushes Mayall and crew to explore the outer limits of blues tradition.