Keyboard player: Gail Nobles
Podcast vocals: Gail Nobles

Song: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Song by: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band featuring Taj Mahal
Photo credit: By pixgremlin: http://www.aworan.com c/o Pix Gremlin - Taj Mahal,
Usage: CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3882087

Good evening! This Sunday evening I’m here to talk about a blues musician whose name is Taj Mahal. He plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments. This Sunday evening, you may be listening for the gospel but Taj Mahal knows about that too. There is one song that I have seen his name on as an arranger titled Will the Circle Be Unbroken. The song is by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band featuring Taj Mahal.

(Singing)

Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50 year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific.

Mahal was born Henry Saint Claire Fredericks, Jr. on May 17, 1942, in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, he was raised in a musical environment: his mother was a member of a local gospel choir and his father, Henry Saint Claire Fredericks Sr., was an Afro-Caribbean jazz arranger and piano player. His family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to world music. Today Taj Mahal is a blues musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, and film composer.

You can hear all of Mahal’s music and albums on Spotify. Will The Circle Be Unbroken was just one of the songs that I wanted to share and point out that touched me. The blues can be spiritual too. I’m Gail Nobles and you’re listening to podcast and blues.