*** Taj Mahal and the Phantom Blues Band

SHOUTIN' IN KEY

(Hannibal)

Taj Mahal's homonymous 1968 debut established him as an acoustic country blues master who also had a sure hand when it came to the electric varieties. But that status also threatened to eclipse everything else this singer, songwriter, guitarist, harp blower, and ethnomusicologist from Springfield, Massachusetts, accomplished in its wake. So Taj ignored the trends and the purists and traveled wherever his instincts took him. And after 30 some odd years they've brought him into the company of the horn-heavy Phantom Blues Band, who join him on a live recording that was compiled from a three-night-stand at the Mind in Los Angeles. The album finds him mixing Western swing with uptempo R&B ("Honky Tonk"), delving into classic reggae (Delroy Wilson's "Rain from the Sky"), and offering up a little Latin soul (Mahal's "Sentidos Dulce"). His voice is a little ragged these days, and the new versions of "EZ Rider" and Sleepy John Estes's "Leaving Trunk" (both of which he introduced on Taj Mahal) lack some of the raw passion of the originals. But Shoutin' in Key proves that Taj still has a powerful grasp on the blues.

-- Linda Laban

(Taj Mahal and The Phantom Blues Band play House of Blues this Sunday, August 27. Call 491-BLUE.)