Swingin' Live at the Church in Tulsa is a 2024 album by American blues musician Taj Mahal, recorded live before an audience in The Church Studio. It has received positive reviews from critics.
Swingin' Live at the Church in Tulsa won the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
Reception Writing for American Songwriter, Grant Britt stated that this album "mesmerizes" and the vocals are "like hearing the voice of God". In The Arts Fuse, Scott McLennan called this release "a snapshot of a vibrant octogenarian artist who is still moving forward" that will please blues purists with Mahal's musicianship. Swingin' Live at the Church in Tulsa was an editor's pick in Spill Magazine, where Ljubinko Zivkovic rated it 9 out of 10, praising the sextet of musicians and continuing that the music is "the good old blues in its purest (electric) form and that mastery that has not left him so far shines, both in his, the band's playing and Taj Mahal's always incredible vocal delivery".
Track listing "Betty and Dupree" (Chuck Willis) – 7:42 "Mailbox Blues" (Taj Mahal) – 4:06 "Queen Bee" (Mahal) – 6:03 "Lovin' in My Baby's Eyes" (Mahal) – 3:56 "Waiting for My Papa to Come Home" (Mahal) – 3:50 "Slow Drag" (Mahal) – 5:44 "Sitting On Top of the World" (Chester Burnett) – 5:48 "Twilight in Hawaii" (David Keliʻi) – 5:58 "Corrina" (Jesse Edwin Davis III and Mahal) – 5:11 "Mean Old World" (Aaron Walker and Marl Young) – 9:48
Personnel The Taj Mahal Sextet Taj Mahal – guitar, banjo, ukulele, piano, vocals Trey Hensley – acoustic guitar, vocals Rob Ickes – dobro guitar Bobby Ingano – Hawaiian lap steel guitar, Fender Stratocaster Bill Rich – bass guitar Kester Smith – drums
Technical Taj Mahal – producer Teresa Knox – executive producer Cade Roberts – sound engineer John DiBiase - mixing engineer Todd Divel – assistant engineer Dan Heinrichs – front-of-house engineer Phil Clarkin – photographer Matthew Simonson – videographer Nicholas Townsend - Mastering Engineer
See also 2024 in American music List of 2024 albums
References
External links
Review from Folk Alley Review from Rock and Blues Muse Review from Tinnitist