Song Premiere: TajMo, “Room on the Porch”
In 2017, Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ got together to release their soul-stirring debut album TajMo, which won the 2018 GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Blues Album. The two world-class guitarists and songwriters have captured the magic again and will release their new album, Room on the Porch, which they co-produced, on May 23. As Keb’ Mo’ says, “That first album turned out so great that part of me wondered if maybe we just got lucky. But when we got back into the studio together, I felt that same magic again, and I realized it wasn’t luck at all.”
Warm and joyous, the first single and title track from the album, featuring Ruby Amanfu, invites everyone to come into the room and to sit down and share our stories and our love and friendship with one another. Like a river winding lazily between its banks, the layers of slide guitar, guitar, and fiddle cascade softly, washing away hatred and baptizing us in an open embrace of belonging. The song’s opening words set the tone: “Hello Friend.”
Taj Mahal’s and Ruby Amanfu’s voices twine around each other in a conversation, each beckoning us to step onto the porch and “Stay as long as you like/That’s alright/Come on up/There’s room on the porch for everyone.” They then embrace everyone around them with the caressing music, encouraging us: “Share your feelings, share your heart /Just be you, it’s who you are/ You’ll be accepted, you’re so precious to me.”
In these fractious times when hatred dominates the news and the streets of our neighborhoods, TajMo’s “Room on the Porch” reminds us that inviting our neighbors onto our porches, accepting them as the precious souls they are, no matter our differences with them, is a small way of healing the world.
###
More about Room on the Porch, out May 23, 2025, HERE
More about “Room on the Porch,” out today, HERE
