Taj Mahal: The Natch'l Blues (1968)
Trivia time: who knows the meaning of Taj Mahal's signature number, “She Caught the Katy and Left Me a Mule to Ride”?
Turns out the song (which I first heard on The Blues Brothers soundtrack; I’m told it was John Belushi’s favorite blues) refers to the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad line, commonly known as “The Katy,” which countless African Americans rode north in search of a better wages, better jobs, and better evidence of the freedoms they were still denied in southern states.
In other words, “She Caught the Katy” also represents the blues’ evolution from country to urban, from acoustic to electric, and ain’t that something Taj Mahal’s music excels at synthesizing, with a pinch of his Caribbean ancestry nestled way down in the the grooves?
That’s certainly what I hear in the spartan, rootsy swing of “Corinna,” the never-ending, hypnotic “Done Changed My Way of Living,” if not the soulful “You Don’t Miss Your Water” -- all of which also evoke Taj’s work with Mr. Roots Music, Ry Cooder, in the musically and racially groundbreaking Rising Sons.
All this really is The Natch’l Blues, whether Taj is showing the decency to re-write “Good Morning Little School” as “Good Morning Miss Brown” and the ability to own the classic Elmore James template (and howl like the Wolf near the end) on “I Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Steal My Jellyroll.”
All the more reason why Taj Mahal bridges all eras of the blues as smoothly as anyone ever has.
More Blues: Big Bill Broonzy, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Son House, Howlin’ Wolf, Bullmoose Jackson, Elmore James, Etta James, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Albert King, B.B. King, Mance Lipscomb, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters, Charley Patton, Nina Simone, Bessie Smith, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fats Waller, Ethel Waters, Peetie Wheatstraw, Johnny Winter.
