"Get on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee" : Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder together again!

Although they were prominent figures in the 1960s folk and blues revivals, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee are generally not regarded with the same reverence as Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, or Son House. That may be explained partially because they never really were revived: they migrated to New York in the late 1930s / early 1940s, recording and performing regularly for the rest of their lives. So, they don't have that “once was lost and now I'm found" cachet that makes the stories of other blues revival artists so compelling. Nevertheless, Terry and McGhee were remarkable musicians who brought authentic country blues into the lives of countless generations of listeners. They have prodigious discographies both as a duo and as solo artists, but they don’t seem to receive the attention that they deserve. Hopefully, the reunion of Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, two artists who emerged from the 1960s blues revival, on Get on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee will generate some contemporary interest in these iconic blues artists.

Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder first joined forces back in the mid-1960s in a Los Angeles-based band called the Rising Sons. They recorded a pioneering blues rock album for Columbia in 1965 that remained unreleased until 1992, and Cooder played guitar and mandolin on Mahal's 1968 debut album. Get on Board is their first time recording together since then. The album is not an attempt to recreate Terry and McGhee's signature Piedmont blues style. In fact, the subtitle makes it clear that the focus is on their songs and what these two contemporary masters can shape from that material. Both these artists are rooted in the blues, but the trajectories of their careers have collectively ranged far and wide, exploring music from Jamaica to the Tex-Mex border, from Cuba to Mali, and beyond. Joined by Cooder's son Joachim on drums and bass, they bring that vast array of musical experience to bear on an interesting cross section of the Terry/McGhee repertoire.

The program opens with My Baby Done Changed the Lock on the Door, recast as a funky rocking shuffle with Mahal's gravel road vocal punctuated by Cooder's stinging electric slide guitar fills. Lead Belly’s Midnight Special sticks closer to the Terry/McGhee original with Cooder on lead vocal and acoustic guitar and Mahal playing harp fills and singing backup. The mandolin and harmonica opening for Cooder’s vocal on Hooray Hooray brings to mind the singer's early recordings from albums like Into the Purple Valley. On Deep Sea Diver Mahal's barrelhouse piano work accompanying Cooder inspires the singer to exclaim, "Play a little while. Little Brother Taj Montgomery.” The classic Terry/McGhee approach is most faithfully rendered with the hootenanny jam session takes on Pick a Bale of Cotton and Cornbread, Peas, Black Molasses. 

Mahal's vocal and harmonica are up front on a stripped-down, funky version of Brownie's brother Stick McGhee's 1949 RGB hit Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee. Pawn Shop Blues features two acoustic guitars with Cooder singing lead and playing a beautiful slide guitar solo. Packing Up Getting Ready Go is the most "produced" number in the program with its chugging gospel groove, layered background vocals, and bubbling percussion. Terry and McGhee frequently included spirituals in their repertoire, and Mahal and Cooder trade verses on What a Beautiful City and harmonize on I Shall Not Be Moved. With Get on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder pay homage to a duo that inspired them all those years ago and show that the blues remain central to their creative impulses.

-Robert H. Cataliotti