#tajmo

Song Review: Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ - “My Darling My Dear”

Credited to Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’, “My Darling My Dear” is little more than a sticky-sweet Mo’ ballad.

Banjo and mandolin notwithstanding, the third single from the duo’s forthcoming (May 23) Room on the Porch is closer to adult-contemporary territory than blues or Americana music.

My darling/my dear/my angel/my hope/my heart/my time/please don’t be a stranger/my darling/my dear/my life, Mo’ and Lauren Lucas sing on the chorus, while Mahal, sounding like a last-minute afterthought, echoes a few individual words.

The latest Room on the Porch preview follows the title track and “Junkyard Dog;” together the numbers indicate TajMo’s second LP might be as underwhelming as their first.

Grade card: Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ - “My Darling My Dear” - C-

Song Review: TajMo - “Room on the Porch” (Live)

The most-recent version of “Room on the Porch” reveals an upbeat song about inclusivity sung by a majority-black band on the Grand Ole Opry stage. And in that regard, it is perfect.

But TajMo - as in Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’ and their band - are overly loose in this just-released pro-shot video. Mahal, as always, is the king of being loose but tight, so even when he takes a pass at some lyrics, it’s plausibly purposeful.

Mo’, on the other hand, seems out of sorts, his voice failing to lock in with Mahal, co-lead vocalist Ruby Amanfu or the other band members, resulting in some inharmonious harmonies from the stage.

In a world where live music is frequently superior, “Porch” works best in its studio iteration.

Grade card: TajMo - “Room on the Porch” (Live) - C

Diving Duck Blues - Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ Acoustic version

Album Review: Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ - TajMo

Listening to TajMo, the first collaborative record from Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’, you can’t help but feeling the bluesmen thought they could make a successful album on the strength of their names alone - weak material be damned.

If so, they were wrong, because TajMo is a clunky, awkward album that eschews the best each principal has to offer in a misguided attempt to have a mainstream hit. Each of its 11 tracks is a duet and only a few of the songs sound natural delivered in this fashion as Mahal’s growl and Mo’’s smooth croon are not ideal dance partners.

With only a couple of exceptions - the churning, electric “Ain’t Nobody Talkin’,” the rollicking, acoustic “She Knows How to Rock Me” and, if you’re feeling generous, the novelty tune “Diving Duck Blues” - TajMo is loaded with filler. 

It’s a collection of tossed-off, poppy tracks with painfully simplistic lyrics designed for rhyme rather than meaning. The words are obvious enough to correctly guess on the first listen. Silly titles with dumb puns like “Shake Me in Your Arms” and “Om Sweet Om,” which features Lizz Wright on vocals, exemplify the album’s thrown-together nature. Meanwhile, “Soul” finds the singers simply rattling off the names of countries and cities over an ambient streetscape of music as they proclaim we got soul.

Outside of some nifty, acoustic-slide guitar and Dobro playing, there is unfortunately very little soul to be found on TajMo. And lame covers of the Who’s “Squeeze Box,” rendered as a breezy, calypso-flavored number, and John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change,” which sounds like it has top-40 radio in mind and features Bonnie Raitt on background vocals, do nothing to change that.

Grade card: Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ - TajMo - D+