Rising Sons featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder

Rising Sons featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder (Columbia/Legacy) CD
with
Taj Mahal (vocals, harmonica, guitar, paino), Ry Cooder (vocals, 6 & 12 string guitar, slide guitar, mandolin, bottleneck guitar, dobro), Jesse Lee Kincaid (vocals, guitar), Gary Marker (bass), Kevin Kelley (drums & percussion)

The original LP was produced by Byrds producer Terry Melcher.

The Rising Sons were together between 1964-1966, but no recordings dates were given for any of the 22 tracks included on this CD edition. Vocals for the last 3 tracks were (re)recorded by Taj Mahal in 1992.

I'm unimpessed with the designed of the sleeve. The info on the back of the sleeve is red and blue print on a black background, making it barely readable.

I can't think of any other group that easily managed to sound, over one LP/CD, like 4 or 5 different bands, but that was mainly due to the material that was recorded. You can certainly hear some Beatles/Byrds influences on certain tracks.

*This Columbia/Legacy disc is also included in Taj Mahal's The Complete Columbia Albums Collection*

 

Re-checking the back sleeve I now see the tracks are actually dated as 1964...



...the legendary lost recordings, all previously unreleased except Candy Man & The Devil's Got My Woman.

 

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder continued recording together. After those Rising Sons sessions they recorded together on this great album which consisted mainly of great reworkings of some classic blues tracks....



Taj Mahal - Taj Mahal (Columbia)
with
Taj Mahal (harp, slide guitar), Ry Cooder (rhythm guitar, mandolin), Jesse Ed Davis (lead guitar, piano), Bill Boatman (rhythm guitar), Gary Gilmore / James Thomas (bass), Charles Blackwell / Sanford Konikoff (drums)

Originally released on LP in 1968

*The Columbia/Legacy CD edition disc is also included in Taj Mahal's The Complete Columbia Albums Collection*

 

Interesting, I have never heard of this group or these recordings before. Perhaps coincidentally I was introduced to both musicians from their albums on Water Lily Acoustics.

 

Doing a Goffin-King song:



Somebody PM me if their appearance in the unaired TV western pilot is ever discovered.

 

I think it says in the booklet that they either on, or supposed to be on, the Tonight Show. If they were on those tapes are long gone. Great record - some really amazing guitar playing.

 

There is actually a book on them.

I haven't read it though.

I am a huge Cooder fan and have that CD. A pressing from the 90s.

Its okay in that it that its interesting to hear what that early band of theirs sounded like. It also gives an interesting insight into what the 60s early LA folk rock music scene sounded like from where those artists emerged from.

 

I was never impressed with the CD sleeve. I think the sleeve Sony Music in Canada issued the 12 track LP in was much better...

 

I was never so disappointed as when I listened to the Rising Sons shows on Wolfgang's Vault. Bar band level.
uninspired playing, blah setlists.
Stick with that cd.
btw, 2 or 3 cuts on the cd had re-done vocals. Someone will no doubt chime in with the exact songs.

 

History (according to wiki)

Rising Sons - Wikipedia

The original lineup was a 17-year-old Ry Cooder (vocals, six- and 12-string guitar, mandolin, slide and bottleneck guitar, dobro), Taj Mahal (vocals, harmonica, guitar, piano), Gary Marker (bass), Jesse Lee Kincaid (born Nick Gerlach,[1] vocals and guitar) and Ed Cassidy (drums). Cassidy left in 1965 after injuring his wrist playing a monumental version of "Statesboro Blues" with the band.[2] He was replaced by Kevin Kelley.

The group often played at the Los Angeles clubs The Troubadour and The Ash Grove (which burned down in 1973 and was not rebuilt). They were signed by Columbia Records. Their only album, produced by Terry Melcher, was not issued at the time. One single, "Candy Man" backed with "The Devil's Got My Woman", was released. The group disbanded in 1966. They were contemporaries of the famous Los Angeles band the Byrds; fans wondered which band would be the bigger success, until the Byrds' album Mr. Tambourine Man became a hit. Recordings by Rising Sons were widely bootlegged and nearly three decades later were released by Columbia Records under the title Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder (1992). "We were the problem," remembered Marker later. "We had difficulties distilling our multiple musical agendas down to a product that would sell. We had no actual leader, no clear musical vision.... I think [Melcher] went out of his way to make us happy – within the scope of his knowledge. He tried just about everything he could, including the live, acoustic session that produced '2:10 Train.'"[3]

After Rising Sons
Mahal went on to become a prominent solo blues and folk performer. Cooder and Marker played with Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. Cooder went on to become a prominent a session musician, recorded numerous albums under his own name, and scored several soundtracks. Kincaid attended California Institute of the Arts on a classical guitar scholarship and left the United States for six years in Europe. His music album, Brief Moments Full Measure, and his book, Ibiza Chronicles, were released in 2014. He currently resides in Mill Valley, California. Cassidy founded the band Spirit. Kelley became a member of his cousin Chris Hillman's band the Byrds in 1968, playing on their seminal album Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

Marker retired from the music industry but maintained an active interest (especially in Beefheart-related matters) until he died of a stroke, on December 8, 2015, at the age of 72.

 

This gets a lot more spins at my house than the Sons does.... love this record

 

I'm a super Ry Cooder fan (as in fanatic) and I imply can't get into the Rising Sons album. And I'll listen to hours of just Cooder's movie soundtracks!

 

I'm confused...

So did this actually get a release at the time? In the mid-60s?
I see there is a Sundazed release with this cover - is this Canadian Sony Music release something different?

 

As far as I know, the album's material was put on a shelf until it was compiled in the nineties I believe.

 

Great pic (especially of Taj) that Columbia put on the back of Rising Sons LP sleeve...

 

$84.56 for an e-book (Amazon.ca)?!?

 

I found out last year that they were the opening act for the 1966 Otis Redding/Whisky Shows.
Then I found out that Rising Sons featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder is still readily available. So, I bought it and enjoy it.
Not reading the track listing while playing it for the first time, I got to Track 16 and I'm thinking, "Where have I heard this song before?"

 

I think the Rising Sons was a band that was a little unfocused. Just because Cooder and TM came out of it doesnt mean they were a great band by 1960s standards.

 

They're certainly in my all-time top ten bands that never "made it". Although, well, Ry and Taj did "make it" in the biz, just not with this cool mid-sixties band.

 

Time for a reunion.

 

my pop managed taj and the rising sons and around the same time had just opened the first "artist development" department for columbia records which became a mainstay department and was later de riguer at every major label.

that was an incredibly proficient band. i used to go to their rehearsals and taj's house a lot as a kid. he played the hell outa that national steel.

he also made some really elaborate model airplanes ha.

 

"wake up mama, turn your lamp down low".

great lp indeed. konikoff was my first drum coach. him and dallas taylor ha

 

The Rising Suns failed to rise to the occasion but certainly this album along with "The Natch'l Blues"
sure did hit the sweet spot for me. Maybe it was the addition of Jesse Ed Davis to the line-up,
but this period was my favorite Taj Mahal time by far. Both albums have held up well over the years.

 

Anyone heard the 2 LP version from Music on Vinyl?