Swingin' Live at the Church in Tulsa is the 2024 Taj Mahal album that was awarded the 2025 Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. The album was released in early 2024.

Since it's a live recording held in a studio, I assume that the audience would be rather small, as I can’t speak about the size of the recording studio. It does have a great intimate feeling and vibes that live music can generate. It is also a nice treat as Taj Mahal maintains a deep allegiance to the blues. In some ways, I thought “traditional blues album” meant a minimalist offering, but not necessarily so, as I discovered and in a fine way, about this album.

The recording was captured at The Church Studio in Tulsa, OK, an institution in and of itself, as it was founded by the late Leon Russell.

The 83-year-old Taj Mahal shines as his vocals are steady, strong, and familiar like comfort food. Taj is backed up by what is reportedly his basic band. The lineup includes bassist Bill Rich, drummer Kester Smith, and guitarist/Hawaiian lap steel player Bobby Ingano with assistance by Rob Ickes on dobro (also known as a resonator guitar -- I had to look it up), and bluegrass artist Trey Hensley, himself a Grammy-nominated musician and singer/songwriter who twangs on lead on "Lovin' in My Baby's Eyes". Hensley joins Mahal in "Sitting On Top of the World", a song favorite from back in the day. In fact, Howlin’ Wolf supposedly finished his sets with this song.

The straight-up blues “Slow Drag” speaks directly about the brutal experiences of incarceration, which I found very challenging as social commentary: “I'm tired of living in this low-down prison cell... If I ever get out of this prison, I'm going to do just like I please...I'm gonna take off straight running, to the nearest bunch of trees...”

The itinerary also includes Taj Mahal favorites like “Queen Bee”, and some historical numbers like “Betty and Dupree”, “Corrina”, and the downhome “Mean Old World”. Of course, “Twilight in Hawaii” doesn’t sound like traditional blues, but it's an instrumental by Bobby Ingano on lap guitar painting sonic images of swaying palm trees, and complementing Taj Mahal’s sartorial partiality for aloha shirts.

This review catches up with Taj Mahal, as we should treasure his deep, generations-long, and profound artistry. Especially when it is captured and delivered live. As another review found on Amazon.com stated, “Taj Mahal has not only helped popularize and reshape the scope of the blues, but he has also personified the concept of ‘World Music' since years before the phrase even existed. From a base of traditional country blues, Taj has explored and incorporated reggae, Latin, R&B, Cajun, Caribbean, gospel, West African, jazz, calypso, Hawaiian slack-key, and countless other musical styles into his astonishing body of work...” Respect!

Nuff said!