Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder finally back together for a release 55+ years after Rising Sons

Thanks

 

Just got tickets for their show together at the Great American Music Hall San Francisco in May. Think I’ve seen Ry there 8 times since 1976

 

Wow, he's touring? That'd be awesome! Are there other dates? I don't see anything online about any shows.

 

Not sure about a tour but they both have a history playing the Great American Music Hall in SF.

Both Ry’s live records were recorded there.

 

Hopefully that GAMH concert is the start of a string of shows! I've been to that venue and it's a great place. Ry rarely tours, especially on the east coast, so I was very happy to finally catch him live after The Prodigal Son came out. Wouldn't mind seeing him again though, that's for sure.

 

New release

 

I saw him at tanglewood with emmylou Harris a few years ago and in albany ny with Ricky Skaggs a while back. The egg in albany would be a great place for this. Fingers crossed!

 

Streaming now for the first time.

 

Couldn't wait! Nothing surprising really but great music and great to hear them together!

 

Well, this is an absolute joy. Just sounds like two friends having a real hoot together.

 

I love what I hear so far. Joachim’s drumming is excellent as well, very creative.

 

Re-Rising Sons, released Easter wknd?

Hot Rising sons with a biscuit flower promo?

All kidding askew, having seen Cooder with Little Village… and more recently with Rosanne Cash,

I DO look forward to hearing it!

 

Get On Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee Review

by Thom Jurek

[-]
Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder played together during the mid-'60s as part of roots rock band Rising Sons and cut an unreleased album for Columbia. In 1968, Cooder, then 17, played guitar behind Jesse Ed Davis on Mahal's eponymously titled Columbia debut. The raucous, woolly, Get On Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee places them in the studio together for the first time in more than 50 years. All 11 songs are drawn from the Terry-McGhee catalog, including three that originally appeared on the guitar-and-harmonica duo's 1952 Folkways recording Get On Board (even the album cover was modeled on the original). Terry and McGhee made records, but as fresh fare for their many live performances -- they toured constantly during the '50s and '60s. Their influence and impact on Mahal and Cooder is incalculable; it completely informed their long careers. Though this pair are grizzled veterans, they perform with the joy of a Saturday-night jam session, rendering the material with rowdy exuberance, killer vibes, and chops galore.


On 1952's Get On Board, Terry and McGhee were accompanied by Coyal McMahan on maracas. Here, Cooder's son Joachim joins on bass and percussion. Mahal takes on the role of harmonicist Terry. He is one of the most innovative and resonant blues singers in history, and like Terry, he offers amazing rhythmic statements with both voice and harp. (His lusty delivery on opener "My Baby Done Changed the Lock on the Door" is alone worth the album's price tag.) Cooder claims guitarist McGhee as his role model here. His strumming and fingerpicking styles were directly inspired by his predecessor's playing technique. On the same opening tune, Cooder's distorted electric strum provides the bountiful grit and groove quotient for his partner. He takes the lead vocal on a jaunty version of the standard "The Midnight Special." Mahal's harmonica and backing vocal offer inventive lyricism and pulsing rhythm accompaniment as Joachim bangs on boxes and snares underneath. "Deep Sea Diver" is rendered with Mahal playing barrelhouse piano. Atop a filthy electric guitar, Cooder delivers one of his most impassioned, soulful vocals. Mahal grunts, growls, and snarls in "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" as Cooder punctuates the lines with a biting acoustic slide and affirmative shouted commentary. "Cornbread, Peas, Black Molasses" is a homesick country blues sung in duet amid wrangling guitars and wailing harp. "Packing Up Getting Ready to Go" has modern sonics, staggered vocal harmonies, and swampy midnight guitar from Cooder; the lyrics reference death and salvation as imminent. Get On Board closes with the gospel nugget "I Shall Not Be Moved," offered loosely as spiritual conviction, truth, and a symbol of earthly resistance to injustice amid joyfully strummed guitars, piping harp, and thudding percussion. Mahal and Cooder stay close to the originals, but whether faithfully evoking the sound and spirit of their mentors or using them as lift-off points for expansion, this glorious album honors their subjects with joy and swagger as well as devotion.

 

Just arrived

 

Listening now. Can’t say enough about how this was recorded. Wish more artists had the guts to be this raw.

 

Got the full digital download today, but not had a chance to listen yet. And it’ll be a while until my vinyl copy arrives from the States; it shipped today.

Anyone able to share a photo of the signed print, please? I can’t find anything online, and I’m curious to see it.

 

I'm still awaiting for my copy to arrive from Nonesuch. They shipped it on the 20th and it has yet to even track.

 

Anyone else pre-order from Nonsuch and have a delay in getting it out to you?

 

Mine arrived yesterday with the autographed card. My OG Terry & McGee is included here.

 

Major foul up by Nonesuch. I ordered back in in January and still have not received the CD.
I requested a full refund and they said they would do so. Ordered from Amazon for roughly $13 less than Nonesuch, which was charging around $9 for shipping!

 

Hopefully mine will arrive soon. Very disappointed in the delay. I preordered the day I created this thread. They created the tracking number over a week before they actually shipped it...which was a week after the release date.

 

Exactly. Ry is usually associated with good recordings like this. This one is unfortunately too traditional blues style performance for my taste.

 

I love it

 

Well they are basically revisiting the original Get on Board 10” from Smithsonian which is a traditional blues album. This ain’t no Eric Clapton revisionist blues