"Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home" by TAJ MAHAL – October 1969 US 2LP Set on Columbia Records GP 18 in Stereo (November 1969 in the UK on Direction S 8-66226) – First LP is With A Band – Second LP Is Taj Mahal Alone on Acoustic Instruments (Guitar, Banjo) – Band Featuring Jesse Edwin Davis on Guitar, Gary Gilmore on Bass and Chuck Blackwell on Drums (1998 UK Columbia/Direction/Rewind CD Reissue – Rewind Series – Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Country Blues..."

 

In truth Taj Mahal's third Blues-Rock album for Columbia Records USA issued October 1969 (Direction Records in the UK in November) is all but forgotten now and languishing on a 22-year old 'Rewind' CD reissue/remaster for just over four squid, brand new. It deserves better than that...so let's get postin' those bonds and linin' those railroad tracks...

 

Issued Stateside as a 2LP set in October 1969 on Columbia Records GP 10 (360 Sound Stereo) – Sides 1 and 2 of the first LP "Giant Step" are Taj with a three-piece band including the hugely complimentary Jesse Edwin Davis on guitars and keyboards with Gary Gilmore on Bass and Chuck Blackwell on Drums. Sides 3 and 4 of the 2LP set called "De Ole Folks At Home" is a sort unplugged journey back into old timey Traditionals by Leadbelly and Gary Davis. Singing and Jiving the words unaccompanied - Taj uses his Mississippi National Steel-Bodied Acoustic Guitar and his Banjo - and alongside his own compositions in that bygone style – goes for a certain bare-bones feel to the music (the evocative photo on the rear sleeve of Negro players looking dapper in Virginia in 1895 showing his appreciation and admiration for the roots of the Blues). So one LP rocks while the other tickles and evokes. Here are the mixed up details...

 

UK released June 1998 - "Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home" by TAJ MAHAL on Columbia/Rewind 491692 2 (Barcode 5099749169227) is a straightforward transfer/remaster of the whole 22-Track Double-Album onto 1CD and plays out as follows (69:28 minutes):

 

"Giant Step"

1. Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie (Anymo') [Side 1]

2. Take A Giant Step

3. Give Your Woman What She Wants

4. Good Morning Little School Girl

5. You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond

6. Six Days On The Road [Side 2]

7. Farther On Down The Road (You Will Accompany Me)

8. Keep Your Hands Off Her

9. Bacon Fat

 

"De Ole Folks At Home"

10. Linin' Track [Side 3]

11. Country Blues No. 1

12. Wild Ox Moan

13. Light Rain Blues

14. A Little Soulful Tune

15. Candy Man

16. Cluck Old Hen

17. Coloured Aristocracy [Side 2]

18. Blind Boy Rag

19. Stagger Lee

20. Cajun Time

21. Fishing Blues

22. Annie's Lover

Tracks 1 to 22 are the double-album "Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home" (his third studio outing) - released October 1969 in the USA on Columbia Records GP 18 and November 1969 in the UK on Direction Records S 86626 (both in Stereo only). Produced by DAVID RUBINSON - it peaked at No. 85 in the US LP charts (didn’t chart UK.

 

These 'Rewind' reissues were all the same, no new liner notes and you were lucky to get the original artwork which is exactly what's offered here. The gatefold slip of paper acting as an inlay gives you the credits of the inner gatefold from the original double-album but nothing else. Columbia always claimed that every 'Rewind' reissue featured a new Remaster and although there are no credits here - it should jumps and rocks - "Six Days On The Road" undeniably kicking. To the music...

 

It opens on a pointless one-minute whistle-through called "Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie (Anymo')" followed by the first song proper - a cover version of Goffin/King's "Take A Giant Step" made famous by The Monkees in 1966 (the B-side of "Last Train To Clarksville"). I have to admit that Taj doesn't really improve on the Prefab Four's version. Co-written with noted American songwriter Joel Hirschhorn, "Give You Woman What She Wants" was featured in the May 1969 comedy movie "The April Fools" starring Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve. First issued on the Columbia Masterworks LP to the Soundtrack - it's good but has always seemed like a badly recorded ditty to me. But that doesn't stop it being fun though. Things continue with the saucy Bob Love and Don Level classic from 1961 – "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" – a good mid-tempo shuffler. He finishes Side 1 with a Buffy Saint-Marie song from her first album "It's My Way!" in 1964 on Vanguard Records called "You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond" – a romper about ole man death slipping into the room and what you'll need to deal with that sly old fox.

 

Side 2 opens with the Carl Montgomery romper "Six Days On The Road" from 1964 - a song so upbeat that its been covered by so many - Johnny Rivers, Jimmy Lawton, Dave Dudley, Johnny Cash and Steve Earle to name but a few. Taj offers us the first of what are IMO his best songs on the album - his own harmonica shuffler "Farther On Down The Road (You'll Accompany Me)" - a wicked groove. Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter provides the not so subtle 'big leg mama' tune "Keep Your Hands Off Her" which Taj snarls out at you in a 'uh huh' salacious way. The first LP ends on another winner - his second best cut on LP1 - Taj's cover of The Band's "Bacon Fat" written by Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson. It's near seven-minutes of guitar-and-harmonica shuffle could easily be mistaken as a Taj Mahal original such is his comfort with the 'oh baby' and 'ooh ooh' and 'groovin' for y'all' vocal jabs. The audio on this track is fantastic and you get to hear Jesse Edwin Davis stretch out on the guitar as the song slinks to the run-out groove.

 

The second platter "De Ole Folks At Home" feels like an altogether better beast than "Giant Step" - made stronger by its simplicity and stark crystal clear production. It opens up with Moses smoking on that distant shore as Taj gives us a growling Acapella rendition of "Linin' Track" – Mahal sounding like he's on the chain-gang in "O, Brother Where Art Thou?" There then follows 2:37 minutes of National Steel Guitar bliss – the rattling slide notes of the instrumental "Country Blues No. 1" pumping out of your speakers like a ghost that means you no harm but does aim to please. His playing on this is stunning (Leo Kottke good) and thankfully the Audio is right up there with the best that LP1 had to offer. Won't you come here wild woman and sit down on your daddy's knee, Taj suggests in "Wild Ox Moan" as he strums and sings with sly intent (not sure you should believe what this big daddy is saying good woman). The banjo appears for "Light Rain Blues" - drops hitting the window - while voice and knee slapping provide us with the Acapella "A Little Soulful Tune" - not sure it will make you dance but it is impressive especially as he starts that storytelling. "Candy Man" is a Mississippi John Hurt cover version done on banjo – and again stunning audio on this I’d do anything is this God almighty world tune. The same goes for "Cluck Old Hen" – a happy Rooster and his hens imitated on rolling banjo notes – gorgeous audio for a witty ditty.

 

Side 2 opens with "Colored Aristocracy" – a fantastic banjo instrumental that feels like a soldier coming home from the Confederate War just so glad to be alive and in one piece. Back to guitars for "Blind Boy Rag" – this instrumental on a 12-string while the Lloyd Price classic "Stagger Lee" gets slowed down on the same instrument. A great big fight, but a cool rendition. The short "Cajun Tune" pans his Harmonica from speaker to speaker while the album ends on a twofer - the lazy "Fishin' Blues" and the ain't-too-fussed chap in "Annie's Lover" - a big old African gent who loves his farm animals and doesn't sweat life as long as he's got his gal (I think he may be on to something).

 

I don't hold truck with opinion that calls this Taj Mahal 1969 double-album a masterpiece. But there is much here to love and despite Giant Step's half-century+ age – still sounds the business (this fab-sounding CD Remaster is still available in 2020 for peanuts money). Get Country on those Blues folks and thanks Taj, farther on down the road and we're still listening and admiring...