Your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working overtime.

I had heard this song as performed by Mr. Elvis Costello (yesterday's birthday person) on King of America, but until last week I'd never heard the original. 

Mose Allison is a hard-to-categorize singer/songwriter/pianist and that lack of a definite category has probably hurt his career.  Is he Be-bop?  Jazz?  Blues?  YES!  Yes, he is.

Originally from Tippo, Mississippi, Allison found early inspiration in the work of Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, and Nat King Cole.  He took his first professional music gig in 1950 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. By 1956 he had moved to New York, where he got a recording contract with Prestige, played with Stan Getz, and later entered a long stint at Atlantic Records. 

Besides being a charming performer, Allison has written songs.  Lots of songs, some of which you will recognize:

• "Everybody's Crying Mercy" (Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello)
  
• "I'm Not Talking" (The Yardbirds)
  
• "Parchman Farm" (Blue Cheer, John Mayall, Johnnie Rivers, Johnnie Winters, and everybody else)
  
• "Young Man Blues" (The Who)
  
• "Look Here" (The Clash)

"Your Mind Is On Vacation" is from 1976 and was his last record with Atlantic.

Allison is still out there kicking it. He is currently signed to Bluenote/Capitol, but I wholeheartedly suggest that you run out and purchase the compilation Allison Wonderland (1994, Rhino).