Taj

I've heard Taj Mahal since the late 1960s, but had never seen him perform until last night at the 300-seat theater at the Musical Instruments Museum where he and his ban (bass, drums, pedal steel) were playing four shows.

Over the years he's played with everyone from the old blues artists to Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Joe Walsh, Cyndi Lauper, and Bonnie Raitt.  Taj (real name Henry St Clair Fredericks Jr, but known as Taj since 1960) is now almost 82 and moving a lot slower than he used to but his voice and playing is as strong as ever.  He played electric acoustic and steel guitar, ukelele, banjo, and keyboards.  At a Taj concert you'll hear an eclectic mix of country blues, roots music, reggae and Hawaiian music. What a fun, relaxing, and upbeat show! 

You can listen to some of his music in the linked post above; this is Take A Giant Step, the first song I ever heard from Taj and what he closed last night's show with, and below are a couple of more recent sessions:

Going Up The Country

In the late 1960s, Canned Heat became popular playing blues based songs - I saw them at Woodstock.  Their most popular was Going Up The Country.  Other hits were On The Road Again and Let's Work Together.  Like so many bands of that era they could not resist the temptation of drugs and the two founders, Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, both died of overdoses.

Though I knew their songs were based on older blues, until recently I'd not heard the song that inspired Going Up The Country.  It was Bull Doze Blues by Henry Thomas and Canned Heat closely followed the original musically, though Wilson rewrote the lyrics.  Thomas, born in 1874 to parents who were formerly slaves, was a hobo and itinerant singer who recorded 24 songs between 1927 and 1929.  Along with Bull Doze Blues, Thomas also recorded Honey Won't You Allow Me One More Chance (later adapted and recorded by Bob Dylan; this is Declan O'Connell performing the Dylan version) and Fishin' Blues, which THC featured in a post on Taj Mahal last fall, though I didn't know Thomas was the composer at the time.

Thomas is believed to have died in 1930 though no one knows for certain.

 

Taj

As a spin-off from my recent spate of Rolling Stones posts here is Taj Mahal from the Stone's 1968 Rock n Roll Circus.  Taj performed, and still performs, a wide range of music from rock, blues, soul, laid-back country and more.  This is Ain't That A Lot of Love followed by the very different Fishin' Blues.