(Columbia)
RECOMMENDED
Admission: I'd no idea who Taj Mahal was until I heard his throttling version of "Stagger Lee" on a compilation of murder ballads. This is embarrassing, but I had to try for years before blues appreciation sprang up in me, and even then (and now) I have a bit of trouble with modern-ish blues such as Mahal's. And some of this music, like the opening slog through "Statesboro Blues" and the ridiculous whistle-jam "Ain't Gwine to Whistle DixieAnymo'" fails to challenge my prejudices about the worst rote excesses of the blues of the last forty years or so.
But to my surprise, Mahal is more warmth than slickness; there is real low-key beauty to most of these songs: the casually lovely "Leaving Trunk," the spiritual "Farther on Down the Road," the wondrous take on Goffin/King's "Take a Giant Step." Some of it is Mahal's impressive guitar work, but the lion's share of his work's appeal is his gruff but sentimental voice, which overcomes even the most simplistic arrangements and overly polished production work. And by "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" and the utterly affirming "Cakewalk into Town" (2.5 minutes of bliss, with horns), it's not just the blooze jockeys he's won over.
As a compilation, I can't speak to this disc's breadth since it's my first exposure to the material, but I can say that its narrative drift makes it extraordinarily easy to get to know. The emotional connection might peak somewhere around "Six Days on the Road," a travel anthem without rawk bullshit, but the biggest surprise is "Fishin' Blues," a musically sneaky, lyrically hilarious fuckaround about fishing with your woman, or something, as great as Hank Locklin's "We're Gonna Go Fishin'" but more intentionally funny. And, as dumb as it sounds, realer in some strange way.
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