Taj Mahal

Time Taj Mahal

When five-time Grammy Award winner Taj Mahal intersects with The Phantom Blues Band, it’s one of those rare joints that hits you before you even know you’ve been hit.

They walk in, plug in, and the whole room shifts. Studio assassins, road lifers, groove keepers—and somehow still hungry. They are an internationally renowned two-time Grammy Award-winning group.

Taj Mahal’s fearless, open-hearted spirit still shadows the whole thing with that genre-hopping joy. He leads you down the road with a history lesson, and the Phantoms carry it with honor—true to the griot tradition.

Mahal sings and plays harp as he fronts an all-star lineup of legendary musicians, with the three ringleaders for the Phantoms: Johnny Lee Schell, the soulful gunslinger with tone for days; Tony Braunagel, who keeps the whole ship steered straight and on time, every time; and Larry Fulcher, the anchor, the heartbeat, the quiet storm on bass.

Additionally, Jon Cleary brings that unmistakable New Orleans piano swagger, Mick Weaver—a session master—slides in with undeniable velvet magic, and in the horn section, Joe Sublett on sax and Les Lovitt on trumpet bring the orchestration fully into view.

This band doesn’t “back” anybody. They lift you up, carry you, and dare you to rise higher.

On this record, they move through blues, soul, R&B, and island color with the ease of men who’ve lived every bit of it. This is deep-groove, grown-folks music from a band that still plays like the night is young.

Time is their new release on Resonatin’ Records / Thirty Tigers and celebrates over thirty years of making this uplifting, inspiring, and aspirational music together.