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very good blues rock it's got some great harp from ry cooder, too. I heard 'leaving trunk' at Chipotle the other day. That is the surest sign of excellence.I really like ez rider, leaving trunk, everybody's got to change sometime, and walking blues.
Thats the magic of the blues for sure. Is it just me, or is Leaving Trunk one of the grittiest, nastiest, lowest down, funkiest blues songs of all time. Maybe its the rhythm, maybe its the way Taj plays with the phrasing, but I've probably heard it a thousand some times and STILL want to do god knows what when I hear it: move, groove, pillage, who knows, but it MOVES you.
Could someone help me out. And of course there is a overlap in songs. (and to have all the songs you have to buy both). first, I would say I think Taj Mahal is a great performer. what's the story about this.JB, Amsterdam Both this album, "Taj Mahal", and the Roots 'n' Blues series reissue "Taj's Blues" (I love that series). I've seen Taj Mahal perform a few times here in Amsterdam during the last 10 years, and live he's a sensation.But I'm a bit confused, I hope some of the blues experts, here on Amazon can help me out. claim to be a reissue of his first album.
This album changed my musical horizons and remains one of my most treasured albums. But, this album changed that forever, as I now have a personal music library filled with dozens and dozens of great blues albums. Backed by some great musicians, including guitarists, Ry Cooder and Jesse Ed Davis, this album never lets up, from the opening song "Leaving Truck" to the closing number "The Celebrated Walkin' Blues". When I first heard Taj Mahal's debut album in the late 60's, I was simply astounded at the sheer quality of this music. Taj Mahal made a lot of great albums, but he never made one better than this. This album, more than any other album I ever bought, had the biggest influence of my life. There is not one bit of filler on this album, which remains an incredible listen nearly 40 years later. Prior to this album, I had never been into pure blues.
Most extraordinary is the success of Taj Mahal's self titled album had a ripple effect on the careers of many obscure blues players who able to quit their day jobs and start gigging again, because of the reawakened interest in Mississippi blues. Taj Mahal's debut album was a blast of fresh air in the psychedelic jungle that was popular music in 1968. Nobody, not even John Fahey or Paul Butterfield did more than Taj Mahal to expand the audience for authentic blues to a crossover audience of suburban white kids who were living in the psychedelic renaissance of such great bands as the Doors, Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience when Taj's debut was released. The late Walter "Furry" Lewis, a Memphis based blues guitarist once told me that Taj Mahal was responsible for his return to active gigging in the early Seventies.
Taj's album led me to appreciate the significance of blues players like Robert Johnson, who was a forgotten and obscure figure in the world of popular music before Taj Mahal. Part this album's appeal is Taj's magnificent full throated mastery of blues harmonica but equally important is guitarist Jesse Davis' blues drenched slide guitar and lead guitar playing. Davis began his career playing the unlikely gig as country music star Conway Twitty's guitarist. Taj was never quite as electrifying on stage as he was with Jesse Davis at his side. I learned most of my blues chops on guitar from listening to this album over and over.
A year later everyone from Duane Allman, Eric Clapton to Taj's own session player Ry Cooder had albums out playing bottleneck blues in the vintage style of Robert Johnson. For instance, a San Francisco hippie fan of Big Brother and the Holding Company or the Grateful Dead could readily appreciate the elements of both rock and roll and blues in Taj Mahal's music. It was the first time I ever heard anyone play an open tuned guitar in the blues bottleneck style. It's hard to believe that 40 years have elapsed since Taj Mahal recorded his self-titled album.
At the time of this album's release I saw the Taj Mahal Band perform a few times and it was a juggernaut of a band with a sledge-hammer drum and bass sound designed to appeal to rock music fans. As a result, Taj's music helped to open the doors of the both the Fillmore and Avalon to some of his elders B.B. Following Davis' departure from the band Taj moved on to a sparse acoustic sound that had a wide sweep of influences as diverse as blues, ragtime, jazz country music, Brazilian, African music, reggae and other global folk music. Even as Taj experimented with his hybrid rock and blues fusion, he never strayed far from his authentic roots in Mississippi, Georgia and Texas country blues. 40 years later, this well worn relic of an album sounds more inspired and authentic than any the bling-bling jive by any rapper in the current jungle of hip hop music.
I can honestly say that Taj's debut album DID change my life because he opened the world of delta blues to me and transformed me from a suburban garage rocker into a fanatical avid collector of worn out 78 rpm of Mississippi blues recorded in the 1920s and 1930s. Technically this isn't Taj's first album but it's the first album that most music fans heard Taj Mahal on. Davis' versatility and mastery or roots music earned him a reputation as a top gun Fender picking session guitarist. Unfortunately Jesse's demon was alcohol and the firewater finally consumed him in 1988.When all is said and done this early self-titled album by Taj Mahal will be the most significant of his long career. King, Albert King and Muddy Waters.
Taj specifically designed his first album appeal to a broader rock music audience without compromising the integrity of the vintage blues he was playing. Taj didn't accept the conventional wisdom and stood up and demanded his music be listened to on it's own merits. Both Taj and Jesse were college graduates with an academic interest in blues but when they hit the stage together, both Taj and Jesse played with the blackheart soul of the man who met up with the devil at the crossroads and signed on with Satan to play the blues. Taj wasn't the only musician to bring the blues to a younger rock and roll audience but Taj was significant because he was one of the few younger black musicians who still played blues in 1967.The reason why you can still find an old Blind Willie Johnson or Charley Patton album still in issue at Amazon is because players like Fahey, Al Johnson, Paul Butterfield and Taj Mahal stubbornly refused to let the blues tradition wither away and die in the late Sixties and early Seventies.
After Davis' departure, Taj's solo live shows were a showcase of his own stylistic diversity and his virtuosity on a dozen musical instruments. Both "Giant Step" and "De Ole Folks at Home" were released earlier and combined into a second release after the success of this self titled album. Jesse only stayed with the Taj Mahal band for two short years but the exuberance and the sheer joy of their collaboration can be heard on songs like "Leaving Trunk" and "Statesboro Blues." It's hard avoid the impulse to dance to these songs because the slow blues tempo is revved up to a mid-tempo shuffle.Kiowa native American guitar Jesse Davis was the glue that held the funky blues sound of the band together. He took blues out of the hands of the archivists and breathed life back into it with his charismatic performances.
I remember using a screwdriver and a newly purchased book of open tunings for guitar to imitate Jesse Davis' trademark southern fried guitar sound. Furry with some help from fans managed to get put his battered Martin guitar out hock at a local pawn shop and Furry's second career began as he was pushing 80 years of age.
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