Blues Great Taj Mahal to Release 47th Album

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Taj Mahal (photo from his Facebook page)

Two-time Grammy winner, Blues Hall of Famer and Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Taj Mahal will release his 47th album, Labor of Love, December 16 on Acoustic Sounds. The music was recorded in 1998 but has remained unreleased until now.

Labor of Love features tracks such as the murder ballad “Stack-O-Lee,” Mississippi John Hurt’s “My Creole Belle,” the Delta standard “Walking Blues” and “Fishing Blues,” a longtime staple of Mahal’s live shows. He also collaborates with one-armed harmonica player Neal Pattman, blind singer Cootie Stark, guitarist Cool John Ferguson and Piedmont blueswoman Algia Mae Hinton. (Pattman, Stark and Baker have since passed on.) All songs are previously unreleased and four of the songs have not been recorded in any other version by Mahal. Pre-order is available here.

According to a press release, “Enraptured by the mission of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, Taj Mahal met MMRF head Tim Duffy in 1993 and introduced him to the Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Dan Aykroyd and others; he is on the Advisory Board and has been a staunch MMRF ally and friend to Tim ever since. On a 42-date tour in 1998, Tim Duffy set up recording equipment in whatever hotels Taj and the Music Makers were staying. Finally, in Houston, Texas, Taj and the Music Makers got to playing after hours; six solo tracks were recorded along with seven tracks of Taj with Music Maker Relief Foundation artists such as National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship winners Etta Baker and John Dee Holeman.”

Labor of Love is Mahal’s first release in four years. In the past half-decade alone, says the press release, Mahal has opened for Bob Dylan, Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton; performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with the Roots; guested on new Clapton recordings; joined the Rolling Stones onstage; performed at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles; joined a Bonnaroo jam with Susan Tedeschi, Anthony Hamilton, Derek Trucks, Chaka Khan; and performed on the Americana Music Awards.

Labor of Love Track List
Stagger Lee
Shortnin’ Bread (with Neal Pattman)
My Creole Belle
I Ain’t The One You Love (with Alga Mae Hinton)
Fishin’ Blues
Mistreated Blues (with John Dee Holeman)
Zanzibar
So Sweet (with Cootie Stark)
Spike Drivers Blues
Hambone (with John Dee Holeman)
Walkin’ Blues
John Henry (with Etta Baker)
Song For Brenda (with Cool John Ferguson)