Taj Mahal, photo by Mike Coeyman

Taj Mahal has announced Time, a new studio album set to release on May 1 via his own Resonatin’ Records imprint with Thirty Tigers. The legendary singer-songwriter and blues firebrand’s next offering runs the range of the diverse styles he’s experimented with through his six-decade career, swirling soul, roots, reggae, loosely-defined Americana and more into another potent distillation of his life and legacy. To preview the set, he’s shared the title track, an unheard song written by the late Bill Withers.

“My former wife went to school with Bill Withers’ wife, so they knew each other, and I got a chance to spend some time around him. I had a lot of respect for the brother because of what he brought to music.” Taj reflected. “Bill could walk out with an acoustic guitar and sing something like ‘Grandma’s Hands,’ and it would resonate so deeply with people. He wasn’t jumping up and down or trying to be flashy – he just had his own time and his own way of doing things. That honesty in his music meant a lot. So when this song came along, I listened to it a couple of times and felt that movement and that message in it. And we were grateful to receive his blessing to record it.” 

“Time” is a stripped-down, enchantingly earthy soul ode to faith in time’s power to wash clean. Backed by a sensitive and lightly inspiring arrangement from his tried and true Phantom Blues Band, Taj urges listeners, “Just remember to forget about your life/ And get on with the new,” before a chorus responds with reassurance, “Time will see you through.” The heartwarming tribute to the late, beloved R&B innovator traces its roots back to around 2010, when record executive Steve Berkowitz reached out to Taj with the newly uncovered song just as the latter first began work on this album. Elsewhere on the project, Taj taps David “Ziggy” Marley for a cover of Bob Marley’s “Talkin’ Blues,” which lands somewhere between the Western swing of “Wild About My Lovin’” and the Afro-Cuban-inspired “You Put The Whammy On Me.”

Time is available to pre-order and pre-save now. Listen to the title track below, and read on for the full tracklist.

Time – Taj Mahal:

  1. Life of Love
  2. Wild About My Lovin’
  3. Crazy About A Jukebox
  4. Time
  5. You Put The Whammy On Me
  6. Talkin’ Blues
  7. Sweet Lorene
  8. Ask Me About Nothing (But The Blues)
  9. It’s Your Voodoo Working
  10. Rowdy Blues