It’s not often that two Blues-guitar-playing masters like Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ befriend each other and make an album that compellingly combines all of their ample strengths. Longtime friends, the two veterans did just that with TajMo, a 2017 collection of joyful mid-tempo songs and eclectic covers that won the 2018 Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy.
An under-sung but classic artist, Taj Mahal started his career recording in the late ’60s with Ry Cooder and has since zigzagged through almost every African Roots music iteration — from Calypso to Zydeco, with many Folk/Blues arrangements in between. Keb’ Mo’, a multi-Grammy winner and a generation younger than Taj, utilizes an elegant, fingerpicking guitar style and plays a slicker, more contemporary Blues than his partner.
Possibly because Keb’ Mo’ wrote the majority of the songs, TajMo seems more reflective of his sensibility, with its full-band, polished dynamic. The opening “Don’t Leave Me Here” ambles out of the Mississippi Delta, with funky Blues harp played by Billy Branch, a mouthwatering litany of Southern Soul menu essentials and Taj Mahal’s baritone testifying about dreaming of Clarksdale.
For a surprising and inventive cover of The Who’s “Squeeze Box,” both men trade lines back and forth as the song blooms with tinges of Reggae and Tex-Mex accordion. The inimitable Joe Walsh plays guitar on the refreshing Pete Townshend tune, while Bonnie Raitt checks in on a few other album tracks, including TajMo’s version of John Mayer’s “Waiting On the World to Change.”
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This article appears in Aug 1-8, 2018.