Happy With the Blues : After 30 years performing and recording, John Mayall is finally getting some industry recognition. But during his career, his fans have given him all the support he needs.

British blues man John Mayall has rarely depended on recognition to fuel his music. He’s yet to earn a gold record and has never appeared on the cover of Roll ing Stone. Mayall says the passion of his chosen musical genre has been enough to keep him going all these decades.

So how is it that in March the 60-year-old singer-musician will find himself in appropriate attire at the New York ceremonies of the Grammy Awards? Mayall’s recent “Wake Up Call” album is nominated for best contemporary blues album.

He laughs. “That’s a first, isn’t it? It only took 30 years.”

None of Mayall’s nearly 30 other albums have received any acknowledgment from the Grammys, American Music Awards, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, etc., etc. Mayall says he’s never felt much frustration over any of this, or over the lesser priority some of today’s major labels give the blues.

“Throughout my career I have always gone my own way anyway,” says Mayall, who now lives in Los Angeles. “I haven’t really had to be influenced or that much involved with what they thought. My career has always been totally secure and supported by the fans, who have been legion over the years and continue to grow.”

Besides, the man’s significant contribution to the development of rock and blues music was established almost from the beginning of his career.

In part, that contribution has been simply to create a fertile environment for other musicians to develop their own careers. Years before their own music took them to various degrees of pop stardom, such players as Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor (later of the Rolling Stones), Peter Green (co-founder of Fleetwood Mac) and Jack Bruce (Cream) performed some of their earliest gigs in Mayall’s Bluesbreakers band. Mayall launched the band in 1963, helping spark the blues scene in London.

The “Rolling Stone Album Guide” said Mayall’s albums “provide fascinating glimpses of talents not yet fully developed, and they certainly testify to Mayall’s industry and influence.”

These days, the Bluesbreakers quartet includes Mayall on keyboards, harmonica and guitar, Rick Cortes on bass, drummer Joe Yuele and lead guitarist Buddy Whittington (who replaces Coco Montoya, now a solo artist). And it is that lineup that will perform Saturday night at the Palomino in North Hollywood.

On “Wake Up Call,” released in 1993, the Bluesbreakers were joined by a number of noted players, including Taylor, Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples and the late Albert Collins, in one of his last recorded performances.

“These are friendships that go on and on forever,” Mayall says of the musicians he’s played with over the years. “It just depends on the geographical location. But in the course of our work around the world, we do 120 shows every year in 15 countries, so we’re bound to run into people on the festivals and things. The blues community is usually a pretty tight-knit family.”

Mayall says he hopes that for his next album he will work again with the production team of R.S. Field and Dave McNair that helped create “Wake Up Call” and 1990’s “A Sense of Place.”

It’s the latest stage of a musical career Mayall didn’t begin until he was 30, inspired by the old records of such blues pioneers as Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Boy Williamson. “That was my creative outlet,” Mayall says. “I played guitar and piano, and it was something I never thought would be fit for public consumption.”

And like the older players that inspired him, Mayall sees his own years behind the microphone as a preliminary stage for a talent that continues to develop. “The maturity in the singing and playing is something that a blues man is always developing. That’s really what it’s all about. The longer you play the more you learn.”

Where and When What: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, with Blackberry Jam. Location: The Palomino, 6907 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Hours: 9 p.m. Saturday. Price: $15. Call: (818) 764-4010.