Published on Mar 1, 1999
Taj Mahal is a veteran bluesman who has been recording since the
sixties. In his career he has pretty much covered all types of
blues songs, as well as styles outside the blues genre. His 1993
release,
Dancing The Blues, is a look back to some of the songs that
influenced his own work. He covers everyone from 1930’s Rhythm and
Blues artist Louis Jordan to 1950’s rocker Fats Domino. The result
is a fun, foot-stomping album.
Songs like Hank Ballard’s “The Hoochi Coochi Koo” or Domino’s
“I’m Ready” are fun rockabilly tunes that are such no-brainers that
Mahal would have to deliberately try to butcher, for them not to
sound good (thankfully, he doesn’t). What is especially enjoyable
are some of the quirky covers like Alvin Robinson’s very funny
“Down Home Girl”.
Another standout is his version of Percy Mayfield’s “Stranger In
My Own Hometown”, a deceptively upbeat song about a man who is no
longer accepted by his friends or family. The Texacali Horns give
an understated performance that is not brassy and helps move the
story along. I do wish pianist Bill Payne got a little more soloing
room as he displays some tasty chops in a really short time.
Mahal’s guitar playing is solid, and on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Sitting
On Top Of The World”, he plays a mean steel guitar, an instrument
which is not easy to play. His band also excels on many cuts. I
especially like the shuffling beat provided by the piano, bass, and
percussion on the gritty cover of T-Bone Walker’s “The Hard Way”.
However, I would have liked to hear the band jam a little more
throughout the album. The only time they really cut loose is on
“I’m Ready”.
Mahal includes two originals on
Dancing The Blues. The first, which starts the album off,
“Blues Ain’t Nothing”, is a solid uptempo blues number that seems
like the theme song for this project. And on “Strut”, Mahal shows
his jazzy side. He scat sings over his own guitar chords not unlike
George Benson, although he is not quite guitar player that Benson
is.
Where
Dancing The Blues stumbles is on the Fats Domino ballad
“Going To The River” which is overlong and dull. This is a sore
spot on an otherwise interesting collection. He makes up for it on
another ballad “That’s How Strong My Love Is”. His performance here
is heartfelt even if, as a singer, he won’t make people forget
about Otis Redding. On the other hand, his duet with singer Etta
James on “Mockingbird” blows away the hit version by James Taylor
and Carly Simon.
The most adventurous move on the album is a reggae version of
the Four Tops song “I Can’t Help Myself”. I like the way he
de-Motowns this song making for an interesting cover. What I don’t
like is that this is a bonus cut, which implies that there are
probably versions of this album that does not include this cut, and
that is really a shame.
What Mahal has accomplished with
Dancing The Blues is come up with an appealing, eclectic
collection of his favorite songs. His enthusiasm for this music is
obvious, even if he may be a little too reverent of the material at
times. Nevertheless, there is plenty of fun moments and even people
not into the blues might enjoy this one.