On Room On The Porch, Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ Don’t Beat Around the Bush

Few albums are as intimate as Room On The Porch by Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo. The record instantly embraces the listener with soulful blues and colorful folk stylings. It’s a collection of songs that sticks with you, full of life lessons and important messages of love and acceptance. The clean, grounded production of the album adds to its deeply personal energy; it really feels like Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ are playing right in front of you, directly sharing their wisdom and experience with the listener. Even when the album delves into darker subject matters, it still fully embraces the listener in its powerful and poignant world. From the first guitar strum, Room On The Porch is bursting with personality, Southern charm, and gripping emotions.

The album's first track, “Room On The Porch,” does a great job of introducing the personal vibe of the record. Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo are able to convey themes of love and inclusion by utilizing imagery from a classic Southern scene: a front porch full of people. The song starts off with the lyrics “Hello friend, I mean you // You ain’t got to be shy or cool // Grab yourself a chair, set yourself down,” immediately inviting the listener into the world of Room On The Porch. Ruby Amanfu, who is featured on the song, adds a great deal of charm and personality to the already enjoyable song.

The next track, “My Darling My Dear,” is a catchy love song that perfectly matches the positive energy of the previous track. It’s an earnest, sticky sweet tune all about the narrator's devotion to the one he loves. The track features bare-bones, stripped-down instrumentals that really add to the rustic and authentic nature of the song.

The love continues on the fourth track, “She Keeps Me Movin.” The track presents the narrator's feelings in a more high-energy and expressive way, directly contrasting to the earnest and slow perspective presented by “My Darling My Dear.” It’s another fun and catchy tune that amps up the energy after a string of slower tracks.

“Junkyard Dog” is a fun track that differs stylistically from the rest of Room On The Porch. It starts off with a killer keyboard solo that transitions into a charged, bold breakup tune. The track is equipped with fun vocal production that shows the duo's ability to push themselves artistically. It’s definitely more jaded than the rest of the album, but it adds a nice angsty touch to what has up to this point been a decidedly positive collection of songs.

The next track, “Blues’ll Give You Back Your Soul,” is a slow, soulful track that focuses on repairing a damaged relationship and facing the pain that comes with it. It follows “Junkyard Dog” up nicely, keeping some of the same jaded energy while lowering the intensity and rawness. The track has some really fun lyrical moments, including the lines “I used to be your prince // But now I’m just a frog // Swimming in muddy water // Sleepin’ in a hollow log.”

Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ bring back some of the positive energy of the album's early tracks with “Better Than Ever.” It’s another love song, but it has a different vibe than the ones that came before it; the song comes after a series of angsty, jaded tunes about a failing love, providing a nice resolution to that storyline. “Junkyard Dog” and “Blues’ll Give You Back Your Soul,” tell the story of an increasingly damaged relationship, and “Better Than Ever” showcases that relationship becoming whole again. It’s a breath of fresh air, a hopeful sign that signals a positive future.

The album's final track, “Rough Time Blues,” caps the project off very interestingly; it’s a song about financial insecurity and the struggle of going through rough times. It’s a classic blues tune that showcases the duo's ability to deliver a really solid stripped-down track.

Room On The Porch may initially appear as nothing more than a fun, jolly album, but it has layers of emotions that unfold the further you get into the tracklist. It’s subversive, gripping, but above all else, it’s personal. From the first track, in which the duo is inviting you to sit on their porch, to the exciting and deeply earnest trilogy of “Junkyard Dog,” “Blues’ll Give You Back Your Soul,” and “Better Than Ever,” the duo is fully willing to bear their soul on the album– It’s earnest, it’s deep, and it’s powerful.

By Sean Perry