Page 22 - BiTS_10_OCTOBER_2023

BiTS: [Laughing] Ain’t that the truth. Now tell me about this absolutely fabulous new record. I
gather that this is the second try, really.

MW: It is the second try. Yeah, it's interesting. Well, some years back, I did an album called
“Keeper Of The Flame”, where I recorded with the great American blues masters, which was
John Lee Hooker, James Cotton, Johnnie Johnson, Earl King and Lee Allen, and that was great.
And then I thought, well, let me do one with my contemporaries. So it led to “Friends Along The
Way”, and I was very fortunate that Van Morrison gave his okay to sing on it and Taj Mahal, all
the folks are friends of mine. And what happened was the label, when they put it out, they
decided they were going to become a film company and dropped all their promotion on it. I
think this is one of my best albums ever, and I lost any kind of forward motion with it. So I own
the masters, I got it back and I had five other cuts I hadn't released yet, so I decided I'll make a
deluxe edition and a double CD and put it out again.

BiTS: I got a copy of the earlier one, I must say, and was impressed with that, but I was really
surprised to find that there were additional tracks. Were these just lying there, ready for you
to use? I mean, had you planned to do anything with them?

MW: No, they were just, you know, extra tunes. I had plenty of songs already on it. It would be
too much for one CD, so I just kept them in the vault and there's some really great cuts with
Cyril Neville and Maria Muldaur, and I just wanted to get them back out.

BiTS: Now, how was
this made
Taj Mahal
physically? I mean,
did you do it in a
studio?

MW: Yes, all the cuts
were done in the
studio. Different
studios all around
the US, depending
on where the artists
were. So the cuts

with Van and Taj,
were actually done
in New Orleans,
great studios. An old
church, the
Esplanade Studios.
And at that time, I
was living in New Orleans, and I saw Van was coming to play New Orleans Jazz Fest and I asked
him if he'd like to be on it, and he said yes. And then I said you know Taj is coming, he said, well,
let's get Taj in [chuckles]. So that worked out great, that was a really magical session, but they
were all done in different studios.

BiTS: Now tell me something about what is my favourite track on the album, ‘Saturday Night
Boogie Woogie Man’ and what I want to know is, were you expecting that rather bizarre solo
from Elvin?

MW: [Laughs] No, but I love it.