Taj Mahal & Keb' Mo': Room On The Porch

In 2017 blues legend Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo' recorded TajMo, (Concord Records), which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Eight years later, the two follow up with Room On The Porch, released May 23, 2025, also on Concord Records. Its ten tracks feel like a cool dive into a swimming hole, long forgotten by the crowds posing by the hotel pool.

The album begins with the title song's shuffling welcome. Taj Mahal said, "That started out as a little guitar piece I used to play by myself after shows. I shared it with everybody in the studio, and then Keb' and Ruby Amanfu built this whole beautiful song around it."

Keb' Mo's sweet, nasal tenor and Mahal's joyful, baritone growl trade phrases supported by a gospel choir on Jimmy Cox's 1923 classic "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," (made famous by Bessie Smith in 1929); Wendy Moten joins the guys in "Better Than Ever," featuring Taj's harmonica.

Themes of community and joy permeate the album. Mahal said, "We didn't plan anything out in advance. We're naturally just all about family and love and positivity, so the songs came out that way organically."

"Thicker Than Mud's" chiming guitars celebrate family bonds. Mahal and 'Mo rhapsodize about marriage with banjo arpeggios in "My Darling My Dear" and a driving R&B groove in "She Keeps Me Movin."

In "Blues'll Give You Back Your Soul," Mahal sings: "They say jazz will give you back your mind, and reggae will give you back your body, but the blues will give you back your soul."

Room On The Porch sounds of gospel, delta blues, R&B, and calypso, exalting the African diaspora's transformation of Western music. Mahal said, "If you take the African imprint out of Western music for the last 500 years, there's almost nothing left . . . we're just connecting with the music of our ancestors."

Comments