..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page     The Desert Island     Copyright Notice
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


Taj Mahal: The Natch'l Blues

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Sony Music Entertainement
Released: 1968
Time:
 49:03
Category: Blues
Producer(s): David Rubinson
Rating: ********.. (8/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.tajblues.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2008.10.23
Price in €: 16,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s

[1] Good Morning Miss Brown (T.Mahal) - 3:17
[2] Corrina (J.Davis/T.Mahal) - 3:03
[3] I Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Steal My Jellyroll (T.Mahal) - 3:14
[4] Going Up to the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue (T.Mahal) - 3:38
[5] Done Changed My Way of Living (T.Mahal) - 7:04
[6] She Caught the Katy [And Left Me a Mule to Ride] (T.Mahal/J.Rachell) - 3:30
[7] The Cuckoo (Traditional) - 4:16
[8] You Don't Miss Your Water ['Til You Well Runs Dry] (W.Bell) - 4:26
[9] Ain't That a Lot of Love (H.Banks/W.Parker) - 4:11

Bonus Tracks:
[10] The Cuckoo (Traditional) - 3:21
[11] New Strangers Blues (T.Mahal) - 5:41
[12] Things Are Gonna Work Out Fine (Traditional) - 3:17

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Taj Mahal - Banjo, Guitar, Harmonica, Arranger, Steel Guitar, Harp, Vocals

Jesse Edwin Davis - Guitar, Piano, Brass Arrangements
Gary Gilmore - Bass
Chuck Blackwell - Drums
Al Kooper - Piano, Keyboards
Earl Palmer - Drums

David Rubinson - Producer
Bob Irwin - Reissue Producer
Sy Mitchell - Engineer
Roger Thomas - Mastering
Anna Hornisher - Cover Artwork
Bob Cato - Photography, Booklet
Elliot Landy - Booklet
Harry Shapiro - Liner Notes
Stanley Crouch - Liner Notes
 

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s

1969 LP Columbia CS-9698
1969 CS CBS PCT-9698
1994 CD Edsel 231
1996 CD Sony Mid-Price 4836792
2000 CD Columbia/Legacy 65857
2000 CS Columbia/Legacy 65857
2000 CD Columbia 4981722
2008 CD Blue 42942

Although Taj Mahal's second album was recorded and releasedwithin months of his self-titled debut, THE NATCH'L BLUES moves away from that album's largely acoustic Delta blues leanings into a more electric and rock-influenced sound. "Move away from" hardly means "forsake", however. Among the songs beefed up by organist Al Kooper and drummer Earl Palmer is the traditional folk standard "The Cuckoo", which takes to rock-influenced instrumentation much better than one might think. Similarly, a moving rendition of William Bell's "You Don't Miss Your Water" reaffirms the Stax/Volt pop song's bluesroots. The best songs on THE NATCH'L BLUES, however, are the Taj Mahal originals that sound like old country blues standards, like the fearsome full-band rocker "She Caught the Katy" and the powerful solo opener "Good Morning Miss Brown". This CD reissue adds three bonus tracks, highlighted by an earlier, faster take on "The Cuckoo", and the stomping Chicago-style instrumental "Things Are Gonna Work Out Fine".



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 - Amazon.com



Taj Mahal's second album, recorded in the spring and fall of 1968, opens with more stripped-down Delta-style blues in the manner of his debut, but adds a little more amplification (partly courtesy of Al Kooper on organ) before moving into wholly bigger sound on numbers like "She Caught the Katy and Left Me a Mule to Ride" and "The Cuckoo" -- the latter, in particular, features crunchy electric and acoustic guitars and Gary Gilmore playing his bass almost like a lead instrument, like a bluesman's answer to John Entwistle. Most notable, however, may be the two original closing numbers, "You Don't Miss Your Water ('Til Your Well Runs Dry)" and "Ain't That a Lot of Love," which offer Taj Mahal working in the realm of soul and treading onto Otis Redding territory. This is particularly notable on "You Don't Miss Your Water," which achieves the intensity of a gospel performance and comes complete with a Stax/Volt-style horn arrangement by Jesse Ed Davis that sounds more like the real thing than the real thing. "Ain't That a Lot of Love," by contrast, is driven by a hard electric guitar sound and a relentless bass part that sounds like a more urgent version of the bassline from the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'." The fall 2000 CD reissue includes a trio of bonus tracks: a faster-paced rendition of "The Cuckoo" with a more prominent lead guitar, the slow electric lament "New Stranger Blues" featuring some good mandolin-style playing on the guitar, and the rocking instrumental "Things Are Gonna Work Out Fine," which is a killer showcase for Davis' lead electric guitar and Taj Mahal's virtuosity on the harmonica.

Bruce Eder - All Music Guide



Taj Mahal may not be the most authentic, the most technically proficient, or the most emotionally cathartic practitioner of the blues today, but he certainly is one of the most enjoyable and entertaining performers around. He's a quiet, soft-spoken man who enjoys fishing and building model airplanes and being a vegetarian. And his records are a solid joy to listen to.

The songs he plays are mostly blues standards—"Statesboro Blues," "E Z Rider," "Dust My Broom"—and it is a measure of his amazing musicianship that he is able to make them come off absolutely fresh and vital. His band is superb. Jesse Edwin Davis, the lead guitar player, is easily one of the best blues guitarists around. (Incidentally, he's an American Indian; you blues purists out there toy with that for awhile!) His sound is pure and fluid and the lines he plays are wonderfully natural and unlabored, Gary Gillmore and Chuck Blackwell, base and drums, are both ex-country musicians and are also excellent.

It's no surprise that Taj's second album is called The Natch'l Blues, because the music seems to be an extension of the band's life-style. I have seen Gary Gillmore peel an orange with the same infinite care that the band puts into their music. When someone asked him a question he seemed to put an imaginary bookmark in the orange, answer the question slowly and carefully, and then go back into the orange.

The key to the music is given in the liner notes to the first album: "You gotta get it right there in the first few bars." The first few bars really do have a way of hooking you, and before you realize it, you're involved with the song, jumping around and grooving with the music. What makes it all so easy is that Taj Mahal is an extremely engaging vocalist whose appeal is direct and immediate; he's one of the few people you can actually hear smiling.

Of the two albums he's put out, the first is probably the better by a nose. The band personnel changes a bit from cut to cut, with Davis the only consistent member of each group, but it hardly shows. The second album is slightly marred by an attempt at "You Don't Miss Your Water," a song that isn't too well suited to Taj's voice. The use of brass on this cut and the next is tastefully handled, but for no other reasons than personal taste I prefer the cuts with the band, all of which are excellent. Do yourself a favor and pick up on Taj Mahal, if you haven't already. (RS 33)

EDMUND O. WARD - May 17, 1969
Rolling Stone
 

 L y r i c s


Currently no Lyrics available!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!