- Audio CD (Sep 12 2000)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Original recording remastered
- Label: Sony Music Canada Inc.
- ASIN: B00004XSUW
- Other Editions: Audio CD | Audio Cassette
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #30,613 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Details |
Track Listings
| 1. Leaving Truck |
| 2. Statesboro Blues |
| 3. Checkin' Up On My Baby |
| 4. Everybody's Got To Change Sometime |
| 5. E Z Rider |
| 6. Dust My Broom |
| 7. Diving Duck Blues |
| 8. The Celebrated Walkin' Blues |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Taj Mahal's been chasing the blues around the world for years, but rarely with the passion, energy, and clarity he brought to his first three albums. Taj Mahal, The Natch'l Blues and The Real Thing are the sound of the artist, who was born in 1942, defining himself and his music. On his self-titled 1967 debut, he not only honors the sound of the Delta masters with his driving National steel guitar and hard vocal shout, but ladles in elements of rock and country with the help of guitarists Ry Cooder and the late Jessie Ed Davis. This approach is reinforced and broadened by The Natch'l Blues. What's most striking is Mahal's way of making even the oldest themes sound as if they're part of a new era. Not just through the vigor of his playing--relentlessly propulsive, yet stripped down compared with the six-string ornamentations of the original masters of country blues--but through his singing, which possesses a knowing insouciance distinct to post-Woodstock counterculture hipsters. It's the voice of an informed young man who knows he's offering something deep to an equally hip and receptive audience.
Soon, Mahal turned his multicultural vision of the blues even further outward. The live 1971 set, The Real Thing, finds him still carrying the Mississippi torch, while adding overt elements of jazz and Afro-Caribbean music to its flame. But it's overreaching. His band sounds under-rehearsed, and the arrangements seem more like rough outlines. Nonetheless, these albums set the stage for Mahal's career. (For a condensed version, try the fine The Best of Taj Mahal.) Today, he continues to make fine fusion albums, like 1999's Kulanjan, with Malian kora master Toumani Diabate, and less exciting but still eclectic recordings with his Phantom Blues Band. --Ted Drozdowski
Chronique amazon.fr
Avec ce premier témoignage discographique, sorti en 1968, Taj Mahal réussissait une double gageure. Tout d'abord rendre hommage aux pères fondateurs du blues, à commencer par Blind Willie McTell ("Statesboro Blues") et Robert Johnson ("Dust My Broom"). Ensuite et surtout faire connaître et apprécier l'idiome afro-américain à la génération de la contre-culture. Produit par David Rubinson (Moby Grape) et enregistré avec les guitaristes Ry Cooder et Jesse Ed Davis, Taj Mahal apportait la preuve que le country-blues avait plus que jamais sa place entre la soul de Stax et Motown et le rock des Stones et des Doors. --Philippe Margotin
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best debut albums ever by a contemporary bluesman,
By
This review is from: Taj Mahal (Audio CD)
One of the most prominent figures in late 20th century blues, singer/multi-instrumentalist Henry St. Clair Fredericks played an enormous role in revitalizing and preserving traditional blues.His self-titled debut album was recorded in August 1967, and came out just as several established blues stars ventured into psychedelia and rock n' roll at the insistence of their record companies. But not Taj Mahal. These arrangements may be updated when compared to what Robert Johnson or Willie McTell did thirty-five years earlier, but it's still the blues, genuine, mostly acoustic blues, dominated by harp and howling slide guitar. Taj Mahal's hard-hitting renditions of "Dust My Broom", "Leaving Trunk" and "Statesboro Blues" are nothing short of magnificent; powerful, strongly rhythmic songs, perfectly arranged. And the nine-minute version of Son House's "Walkin' Blues", which sees Taj Mahal playing both harp and rough, gruff slide guitar, is simply awesome.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comes out with a bang,
By
This review is from: Taj Mahal (Audio CD)
This reissue is a good one. The music displayed here is a "roosty" sound that Clapton was seeking after he left the big ol' Marshall sound. Taj, the Band, Dave Mason, Delany & Bonnie..... & the closest he got to it was with the Dominos. Ry Cooder seems to get most of the PR for the guitar work on this album, but the real star is Jesse Ed Davis. He answers Taj's vocals & harps on these tracks from the opening track. While the trend of the day was to play LOUD, the playing of players such as Davis & Robertson was a welcome addition to the music scene. And yes, the Statesboro Blues later influenced a young Duane Allman to pick up a Coricidin bottle....if you are into Taj's "blues" work, this is the place to start.
5.0 out of 5 stars
finally, Taj's first on CD!,
By R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Taj Mahal (Audio CD)
Taj's first was one of his best. This is just basic electric blues, powered by the fresh enthusiasm of Taj, Ry Cooder, the now departed Jessie Ed Davis on lead guitar, and other young bucks. The Allman Brothers used Taj's arrangement of "Statesboro Blues" for their live version -- I wonder how many Allmans fans realize that? This album has the energy, punch and optimism that filled the air in '67. It fits perfectly with the first, self-titled album by Chicago's Butterfield Blues Band, and with the self-titled album by Chicago's Siegel-Schwall Band released by Wooden Nickel in 71 (check out my review). These albums still sound fresh today! The only Taj Mahal album I love more than this one is "Happy Just to Be Like I Am," from 71, which has more of a country-blues emphasis, along with an awesome horn section and Taj's first foray into world-music with "West Indian Revelation." Let's get that reissued right away, Columbia Legacy!!!
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