Comments on: Taj Mahal “Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home”

By: Paul McEvoy

Paul McEvoy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:42:31 +0000

I always thought this album was just ok, but the live album The Real Thing, with a lot of the same material, is absolutely friggin brilliant. Just an amazing, amazing album…one of the best albums I’ve ever heard, I’ve been listening to it since I was a kid.

By: Len Liechti

Len Liechti — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:53:17 +0000

The thing about the blues, Brendan old son, is that it’s a bit like cricket – or baseball? – in that the rules are simple but there’s endless opportunity for variety in the nuances the artist applies to that simple framework. And blues today is far from the traditional twelve-bar, I-IV-V changes and “When I woke up this morning” lyrics of old. If it’s interesting chord sequences you want, try some jazz-inflected blues a la Duke Robillard: more than three chords there, I assure you. In this postmodern age when genre boundaries have become increasingly fuzzy the blues has taken aboard many other types of music to produce a fine stew – country, soul, metal, even hip-hop. Try Robert Cray, for example: a fine mix of rhythm’n'blues, Memphis soul and funk.

When a workmate of mine asked me for an introduction to the blues I put together a blues history CD package for him: Robert Johnson; a Chicago blues compilation including Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Little Walter et al; John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton; and Robert Cray’s best-of. He listened to it and said it was OK but he wanted something with more variety, then went back to his collection of Metallica, Slipknot, Linkin Park and Napalm Death. Hmmm.

Have you ever heard “Dead Man’s Blues”? The first line goes “I didn’t wake up this morning” . . .

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:21:48 +0000

I think Taj’s first three album’s (this included) are by far his best – much of his reputation rests on these albums, along with the Rising Sons’ recordings. The Rising Sons’ material is also very good – check out their version of Giant Step – Taj is on vocals and they rock out pretty hard, with a cool early guitar psych solo by Ry Cooder (who was also in the band).

By: W. Stacy

W. Stacy — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:19:49 +0000

This album isn’t really considered a masterpiece by most fans but I cherish this recording—it often shows up on my desert island list. For many years this was only one of two early Taj records available on cd so I wore out a few copies since then and I am still waiting on a proper reissue of both on cd (the other being Mo Roots). It is fair to say that Giant Step wouldn’t have been the album I would have gravitated toward had more of his catalog been available in the 1990s, as it has no immediate hook (I would have probably worn out Natch’l Blues or the debut instead). Upon first listen I can’t say any tracks stood out to me—perhaps Fishin’ Blues made the most impact. But as it turned out, this being about all you could get of early, non-best-of compilation Taj, it got played a lot and as a result became my favorite of all his records.

This album sort of stands on its own, not sounding exactly like his earlier, more bluesy records nor the reggae-world-caribbean albums that followed. But its got a little funk, a good bit of country-blues, and a lot of laid back rock ‘n’ roll typical of the stuff being made in Southern California in the late 60s/early 70s. And if you’re a Jesse Ed fan this recording is a real treat.