08/13/2026
GOOOOOOOD MORNING ALLENTOWN!
Let’s get something straight right out of the gate: people talk about blues purism like it’s some fragile, museum-piece artifact that needs to be kept behind glass, handled with white gloves, and never, ever messed with.
That is the exact opposite of what the blues is, and it’s the exact reason why Taj Mahal’s 1968 sophomore record, The Natch’l Blues, is an absolute masterclass that doesn't just sit comfortably in the pantheon, it's one of my personal top 5 favorite blues albums of all time.
Most folks trying to capture Delta or country blues in the late '60s were playing dress-up. They were doing meticulous academic reenactments, treating the genre like a set of rules to be memorized. But Taj? Taj approached the tradition not as a graveyard, but as a living, breathing, swinging playground. He understood the gut-level soul and historical weight of the form, but he attacked it with the fearless, energetic swagger of a guy who knew how to make it groove for the modern ear.
From the first second of "Good Morning Miss Brown," the record sets a standard that almost nobody else could touch. The tone is warm, organic, and relentlessly unpretentious. There’s no slick, over-produced corporate sheen here, just raw, wood-and-steel instrumentation and a voice that sounds like it’s been soaked in Tennessee whiskey and weathered by backroads.
And talk about range! Look at what he does with Sleepy John Estes’s "Leaving Trunk." It’s heavy, brooding, and dripping with attitude, anchored by Jesse Ed Davis’s devastatingly tasteful guitar work. Davis is an absolute revelation across this entire record; his interplay with Taj is telepathic, never overplaying, always serving the song with economic, razor-sharp phrasing.
Then you pivot to something like "Corinna," and the mood shifts into this buoyant, porch-stomping, joyous celebration. It’s got a bounce that makes it physically impossible to sit still. That’s the genius of The Natch’l Blues, it hits you with the deepest, heaviest sorrow and the most infectious, life-affirming joy, sometimes within the span of a single track.
If you’re arguing blues history and leaving The Natch’l Blues out of the upper echelon, you aren't looking at the music's soul, you're just looking at a checklist.
This isn't just a great record from 1968; it's a permanent benchmark for how the blues should be played: with reverence for the roots, but with both feet firmly planted in the present moment, swinging for the fences.
And best of all? It's available on whatnot or you can toss us a message about it below!
