Taj Mahal is a veteran bluesman who has been recording since the
\nsixties. In his career he has pretty much covered all types of
\nblues songs, as well as styles outside the blues genre. His 1993
\nrelease,
\nDancing The Blues<\/i>, is a look back to some of the songs that
\ninfluenced his own work. He covers everyone from 1930’s Rhythm and
\nBlues artist Louis Jordan to 1950’s rocker Fats Domino. The result
\nis a fun, foot-stomping album.<\/p>\n
Songs like Hank Ballard’s “The Hoochi Coochi Koo” or Domino’s
\n“I’m Ready” are fun rockabilly tunes that are such no-brainers that
\nMahal would have to deliberately try to butcher, for them not to
\nsound good (thankfully, he doesn’t). What is especially enjoyable
\nare some of the quirky covers like Alvin Robinson’s very funny
\n“Down Home Girl”.<\/p>\n
Another standout is his version of Percy Mayfield’s “Stranger In
\nMy Own Hometown”, a deceptively upbeat song about a man who is no
\nlonger accepted by his friends or family. The Texacali Horns give
\nan understated performance that is not brassy and helps move the
\nstory along. I do wish pianist Bill Payne got a little more soloing
\nroom as he displays some tasty chops in a really short time.<\/p>\n
Mahal’s guitar playing is solid, and on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Sitting
\nOn Top Of The World”, he plays a mean steel guitar, an instrument
\nwhich is not easy to play. His band also excels on many cuts. I
\nespecially like the shuffling beat provided by the piano, bass, and
\npercussion on the gritty cover of T-Bone Walker’s “The Hard Way”.
\nHowever, I would have liked to hear the band jam a little more
\nthroughout the album. The only time they really cut loose is on
\n“I’m Ready”.<\/p>\n
Mahal includes two originals on
\nDancing The Blues<\/i>. The first, which starts the album off,
\n“Blues Ain’t Nothing”, is a solid uptempo blues number that seems
\nlike the theme song for this project. And on “Strut”, Mahal shows
\nhis jazzy side. He scat sings over his own guitar chords not unlike
\nGeorge Benson, although he is not quite guitar player that Benson
\nis.<\/p>\n
Where
\nDancing The Blues<\/i> stumbles is on the Fats Domino ballad
\n“Going To The River” which is overlong and dull. This is a sore
\nspot on an otherwise interesting collection. He makes up for it on
\nanother ballad “That’s How Strong My Love Is”. His performance here
\nis heartfelt even if, as a singer, he won’t make people forget
\nabout Otis Redding. On the other hand, his duet with singer Etta
\nJames on “Mockingbird” blows away the hit version by James Taylor
\nand Carly Simon.<\/p>\n
The most adventurous move on the album is a reggae version of
\nthe Four Tops song “I Can’t Help Myself”. I like the way he
\nde-Motowns this song making for an interesting cover. What I don’t
\nlike is that this is a bonus cut, which implies that there are
\nprobably versions of this album that does not include this cut, and
\nthat is really a shame.<\/p>\n
What Mahal has accomplished with
\nDancing The Blues<\/i> is come up with an appealing, eclectic
\ncollection of his favorite songs. His enthusiasm for this music is
\nobvious, even if he may be a little too reverent of the material at
\ntimes. Nevertheless, there is plenty of fun moments and even people
\nnot into the blues might enjoy this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":27390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7292],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38755","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-taj-mahal","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38755"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}