“As a jazz-blues singer/pianist, Mose Allison, who wrote “Your Mind Is on Vacation,” is one of the artists that has influenced me and my approach to music the most. I played the song (but not very well) from about the time I first started playing piano in 1968.

I recorded “Your Mind Is on Vacation” in 2008 for my album American Standard Blue. That album featured standards and blues (of course!), and some great musicians from the Boston area: Paul Marcantonio on drums, Blake Newman on bass, Janusz Kowalski on tenor sax, Don Heald on trumpet and Alex Spiegleman on baritone sax.

Here's some background on Mose Allison: Mose was born in 1927 near Tippo, Miss. He started piano lessons at age 5, and wrote his first song at age 13. He graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree in English in 1952, after spending some time in the military. In '56, Mose moved to New York City, and gigged with Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Phil Woods.

His first album was on Prestige in 1957m titled Black Country Suite. His first all-vocal album came out in 1963, tiltled Mose Allison Sings. It included blues standards by artists like Sonny Boy Williamson and Willie Dixon, ans also “Parchman Farm,” which sounded like a blues standard, but was penned by Mose. It became his most requested song for many years, but he dropped it from his playlist in 1980, because he thought it “politically incorrect.” Mose Allison wrote over 150 songs, and recorded over 30 albums. His songs have been covered by Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, John Mayall, Van Morrison, The Clash, Tom Waits, Leon Russell, Bonnie Raitt, Asleep at the Wheel and Elvis Costello (among many others).