Taj Mahal - Stagger Lee

File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Time: 30:58
Size: 72,2 MB
Released: 2006
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Folk Blues
Art: Front

1. Stagger Lee (2:59)
2. Taj's Blues (5:20)
3. Hesitation Blues (2:58)
4. Tom And Sally Drake (2:47)
5. Rolling Wheel Blues (3:06)
6. Ulysses S. Gregory (2:48)
7. Sweet Mama Red (5:39)
8. The Penny Whistle (1:40)
9. Instrumental (3:37)

One of the most prominent figures in late 20th century blues, singer/multi-instrumentalist Taj Mahal played an enormous role in revitalizing and preserving traditional acoustic blues. Not content to stay within that realm, Mahal soon broadened his approach, taking a musicologist's interest in a multitude of folk and roots music from around the world -- reggae and other Caribbean folk, jazz, gospel, R&B, zydeco, various West African styles, Latin, even Hawaiian. The African-derived heritage of most of those forms allowed Mahal to explore his own ethnicity from a global perspective and to present the blues as part of a wider musical context. Yet while he dabbled in many different genres, he never strayed too far from his laid-back country blues foundation. Blues purists naturally didn't have much use for Mahal's music, and according to some of his other detractors, his multi-ethnic fusions sometimes came off as indulgent, or overly self-conscious and academic. Still, Mahal's concept was vindicated in the '90s, when a cadre of young bluesmen began to follow his lead -- both acoustic revivalists (Keb' Mo', Guy Davis) and eclectic bohemians (Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart). ~Bio Steve Huey

Stagger Lee

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