{"id":442798,"date":"2026-09-21T10:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/442798\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T10:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:02:17","slug":"tajmo-invite-houston-to-make-room-on-the-porch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/442798\/","title":{"rendered":"TajMo Invite Houston To Make Room On The Porch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Separately Taj Mahal <\/a>and Keb\u2019 Mo\u2019 <\/a>are pillars of\u00a0the blues, each known for his distinctive sound within the genre using acoustic guitars and powerful storytelling, always honoring the origin of the blues while incorporating a variety of world sounds.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

After decades of knowing each other professionally and developing a friendship, the two artists combined forces to create TajMo<\/a>. They released their first album in 2017 to critical acclaim and a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, they went back to the studio and released Room On The Porch where the two men revisited their connection and positive messaging through the blues.\u00a0 TajMo will perform at The Arena Theatre <\/a>on Saturday, September 26.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very unexpected,\u201d says Mo\u2019 of Room On The Porch. \u201cI thought that the first TajMo album that we did was just fine and I was like we had fun doing it, we did a tour, it was a success, let\u2019s leave it alone,\u201d he says laughing. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really always liked working together and we are good friends now too but we were hesitant about it because we planned on doing one and done and that was it but we went in and did it and it turned out good,\u201d says Mo\u2019 recognizing there was external pressure to make another album but now feels grateful to have worked with Mahal again and have a larger pool of songs to pull from at their shows. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Mo\u2019 describes the vibe in the studio as a party with friends as they invited collaborators and their own sons to play in the band.\u00a0 Mahal credits Mo\u2019 and his wide range of musical contacts and great production style for the album\u2019s overall warmth and beauty.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe basically put it together over a six-week period of him reaching out to different people and I brought some stuff,\u201d says Mahal describing the satisfaction of hearing the title track with contributions from Ruby Amanfu<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI rarely say this about my own music but that\u2019s a classic tune that\u2019s gonna be around for a while,\u201d he says of the title track. \u201cYou can play it any way you want to. It\u2019s got the real values of earlier music in this country but it\u2019s in a modern time, it\u2019s timeless.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

What shines the most on Room On The Porch is not only their respective talents as players and composers but the deep friendship between the two with seeds planted decades ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mahal describes playing Mo\u2019s high school back in the late \u201860s in Compton where at the urging of his shop teacher, Mo\u2019 went and watched both of Mahal\u2019s performances that day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came and he said he was completely blown away because his idea of who the blues guys was were the older sort of slick suited down and here\u2019s this guy with a cowboy hat, dark round glasses and buckskin fringe playing with a Native American guitar player and two guys that look like Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody and they\u2019re playing this music. He says it just blew his mind.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mahal and Mo\u2019 did not meet that day or even that decade.\u00a0 The two did not meet until the \u201890s when Mahal had been hearing the name Keb\u2019 Mo\u2019 over and over with people often making comparisons between the two.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of us were young Black men playing acoustic guitars and not following the normal rhythm and blues direction,\u201d says Mahal. \u201cNot that we didn\u2019t like it or we disliked it but we heard other music that was viable.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Mahal, seeking the roots of the blues and using sounds as language and a way of connecting with centuries of culture and experience has been essential to his development. He has never been one to chase a fad or hit singles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never been a trend,\u201d he agrees. \u201cWith the Rising Son and Ry Cooder in the early years all of us had come out of intense tutelage and mentorship from some of the older musicians and we saw all that there was a possibility to create this music. When we went to do it, there were no categories,\u201d he says. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 25 years there was nobody out there, I\u00a0was out there by myself and this industry didn\u2019t know what to do because most people what they do is they see the genre and the form and they cut off their arms their legs, they\u2019ll even cut off their head to get in there. I wouldn\u2019t do that; this music stands up by itself and what that did was give people a lighthouse to focus on.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Mahal has spent his entire career harvesting sounds and philosophies from all over the map making his blend of blues world-based, not just American. In the late \u201890s, he spent time in West Africa making his album Kulanjan where he incorporated African griot music, a historical storytelling tradition, with the blues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gathered all the remnants of that energy from West Africa through the different players here in the United States; Elizabeth Cotton, Son House, Robert Johnson. All those different people have a tone that comes out of that West African pentatonic mixolydian scale.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He experienced firsthand the circle of the collective subconscious and the flow of musical knowledge. \u201cI heard the music coming back to me from all these other parts of the world and wondered, how did I know this already? Is that communicating through your DNA all these centuries? Yup, it sure is. What\u2019s happening is the soul of humanity is being awakened by the sounds of who they are.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe talks and I listen,\u201d laughs Mo\u2019. \u201cHe\u2019s much more astute at musicology and the history of it and how it goes back than I am but listening to his interviews over the years and when I have the chance to hear him talk about stuff, I always welcome it. He really turned me on to the spiritual aspect of music and that when you make that sound, it wakes up the spirits and it does something that we can\u2019t really describe.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Much like Mahal embodies the centuries of music pushing through his stories in song, Room On The Porch projects he and Mo\u2019s deep camaraderie and shared love of authenticity and the blues. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inviting people to really take stock in themselves,\u201d says Mahal of the songs on Room On The Porch. \u201cThis is the life you live in and if you don\u2019t take stock in yourself, you\u2019re just being led down the road like so many cattle. You don\u2019t really have control anyway but at least you can see the direction you want to go in.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

For both men, there is a strong sense that the blues will continue to carry until the end of time. \u201cThere\u2019s no death to the blues, that doesn\u2019t exist because it\u2019s something that was created out of real lives. It was a crucible of real emotions, and this is real life. There\u2019s no way to get around it,\u201d says Mahal, adding that if the effects of it can hit tea drinking, cricket playing Brits, many of whom he worked with, it can hit anyone. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe roots and the seeds have been planted,\u201d says Mo\u2019. \u201cThis music is essential to American music, and even if it went underground and you never heard about it, it\u2019s already made its mark, it\u2019s already in the history books and the mind and consciousness of the country and the world, so you can\u2019t kill it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

TajMo will perform on Saturday, September 26 at 7 p.m. at The Arena Theatre, 7326 Southwest Freeway. For more information visit arenahouston.com<\/a>. $75-97.<\/p>\n

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