Like Never Before/Dancing The Blues

Different but good

This is a great 'twofer' of two of Taj's early 90s CDs at a very cheap price. Here's what I said about the albums at the time-Like Never Before: This record was released in 1991 after Taj had taken a break for a number of side projects including children's records. He was obviously refreshed - the record is full of new ideas and incorporates new production techniques, check out the lovely song "Every wind in the river" and also the scratching and rap stylings of "Squat that rabbit". A bit radical for blues but both work very well. Taj revists the song "Giant step" and also takes the traditional blues "Blues with a feeling" to New Orleans, with an added dash of steel guitar (!?!). Guests include banjo player David Johnson, guitarist David Lindley, Andy Kravitz and Bill Summers and the backing band sound great throughout. This is a really good, imaginative record that saw Taj coming back to form and his next couple of records in the 90s were even better.Dancing the Blues: This is Taj's salute to his blues and R&B heroes and their hits from the 50s and 60s. From the opening track "The blues ain't nothing", where Taj's harp sounds just like it did on his 1968 debut record, you know you are in for a treat. The CD sounds fabulous with great musicians including members of Little Feat, the Texacali Horns and Brits Mick Weaver and Ian McLagan on keyboards, who don't just recreate the sounds of the originals but breathe new life into them.Taj is in great voice throughout - on "Sitting on top of the world" he sounds like Howlin' Wolf and on "Mockingbird" he's joined in a duet by Etta James - great! Although their are some marvellous uptempo songs on this record I think most of my own favourite tracks are the slower songs "That's How Strong My Love Is" and "Stranger in My Own Home Town". Probably Taj's best record for years.