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Taj Mahal Keb' Mo'—Room on the Porch—
Concord Records ASIN: B0DWT8933M

I've been a fan of Taj Mahal since his debut LP of
1968 and I've liked most of the music that he's
produced since then. However, I'm not really a fan
of Keb' Mo' – I find much of his music a bit too bland

and polite and I felt that the first TajMo album had
him as the dominant force, or "MoKeb, LessTaj" as
I commented at the time. Eight years on this new

album was recorded in Keb's new home of
Nashville with both men co-producing and with
Taj singing and playing guitars, ukulele and
percussion and Keb' on vocals, guitars, banjo, mandolin and harmonica. The opening
title track sees the guys alternating vocals with writer Ruby Amanfu, with lovely

slide guitar and also fiddle from Jennee Fleenor, 'My Darling, My Dear' is based on
Mo's banjo and is a typical melodic Keb' Mo' song but we do also get a relaxed version
of Jimmy Cox's blues classic 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out'. 'She
Keeps Me Movin'' is a John Oates song with John joining the backing singers and

'Make Up Your Mind' is a country song featuring vibraphone and Keb's harmonica
(sadly we don't hear any harmonica from Taj on the album!)

'Thicker than Mud' is a fairly dull co-write but 'Junkyard Dog' is better, an interesting
song by Nashville's singer-songwriter Maia Sharp with both men's voices

intertwining perfectly. 'Blues'll Give You Back Your Soul' is a bluesy song by Taj
with nice double bass (Brian Allen) and a blasting tenor sax solo and Wendy Moten
joins the guys on vocals on 'Better Than Ever', with Billy Branch adding his blues
harmonica. Finally, we check out with the most bluesy track here - Jontavius Willis's
'Rough Time Blues' which features just Taj' and Keb's voices and guitars – nice to

see the guys playing a song by one of the next generation of blues singers.

The previous “TajMo” album was very successful, selling well and winning a Grammy
and therefore this follow up was always going to be similar and again it has Keb'
Mo' as the main man, perhaps now also reflecting Taj's age – he's now 82 as opposed

to Keb' Mo's sprightly 73. The result is very much Keb's musical 'fine dining' rather
than the fried chicken and collard greens that we expect from Taj. I missed the
rawness and grit from Taj and even 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down and
Out' which in Bessie Smith's and others' hands is a song of bitterness and outrage

here is reduced to a warm and cosy croon. I did like 'Blues'll Give You Back Your
Soul' and 'Rough Time Blues' and would have liked to have heard more like that but
I can see that probably wouldn't go down as well with Keb's new Nashville
constituency.

Graham Harrison