Taj Mahal - 'The Best Of Taj Mahal' [320k MP3]

The Best of Taj Mahal [320k MP3]



01. Statesboro Blues 2:59

02. Leaving Trunk 4:49

03. Corinna 3:02

04. Going Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue 3:37

05. She Caught The Katy And Left Me A Mule To Ride 3:28

06. Take A Giant Step 4:17

07. Six Days On The Road 3:01

08. Farther On Down The Road 4:38

09. Fishin' Blues 3:09

10. Ain't Gwine To Whistle Dixie (Any Mo') (Live) 8:26

11. You're Going To Need Somebody On Your Bond (Live) 6:19

12. Cakewalk Into Town 2:34

13. Oh Susanna 5:28

14. Frankie And Albert 3:59

15. Chevrolet 2:38

16. Johnny Too Bad 3:17

17. Sweet Mama Janisse (previously unissued studio version) 3:32



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Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who goes by the stage name Taj Mahal, is an internationally recognized blues musician who folds various forms of world music into his offerings. A self-taught singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, banjo and harmonica (among many other instruments), Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music during his 40+ year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa and the South Pacific



Musical style:



Taj Mahal performing at the 1997 North Sea Jazz FestivalMahal leads with his thumb and middle finger when fingerpicking, rather than with his index finger as the majority of guitar players do. "I play with a flatpick," he says, "when I do a lot of blues leads." Early in his musical career Mahal studied the various styles of his favorite blues singers, including musicians like Jimmy Reed, Son House, Sleepy John Estes, Big Mama Thornton, Howlin' Wolf, Mississippi John Hurt, and Sonny Terry. He describes his hanging out at clubs like Club 47 in Massachusetts and Ash Grove in Los Angeles as "basic building blocks in the development of his music." Considered to be a scholar of blues music, his studies of ethnomusicology at the University of Massachusetts would come to introduce him further to the folk music of the Caribbean and West Africa. Over time he incorporated more and more African roots music into his musical palette, embracing elements of reggae, calypso, jazz, zydeco, rhythm and blues, gospel music, and the country blues—each of which having "served as the foundation of his unique sound."[4] According to The Rough Guide to Rock, "It has been said that Taj Mahal was one of the first major artists, if not the very first one, to pursue the possibilities of world music. Even the blues he was playing in the early 70s — RECYCLING THE BLUES AND OTHER RELATED STUFF (1972), MO' ROOTS (1974) — showed an aptitude for spicing the mix with flavours that always kept him a yard or so distant from being an out-and-out blues performer."[1] Concerning his voice, author David Evans writes that Mahal has "an extraordinary voice that ranges from gruff and gritty to smooth and sultry."