Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate - "Catfish Blues"

In the summer, Sean posted a song from Kulanian the surprisingly beautiful collaboration between Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabete. I remember that he was very excited by the song ?Queen Bee,? which someone had sent him. I told him that I had the album and that it was consistently great, though I preferred the dusty, character drenched Taj Mahal vocals to the gregarious big smile of Diabate.

Mahal?s Guitar is a lumbering elephant and Diabete?s kora is a scurrying mouse. They are friends (though my editor, Max Maki, claims that they are certainly not friends).

One magical property of the album was brought to my attention on the occasion of Sean?s most recent visit to Montreal: when he asked if he could copy Kulanian, I explained to him that it had been taken from me when I was robbed for the first of two times a few years prior. He was disappointed and returned to Scotland in a thick haze of depression.

But today I found it; an unshaken survivor of two robberies.

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Blind Lemon Jefferson - "Dry Southern Blues"

Blind Lemon Jefferson may have been interested in a lot of things. That?s a fact. But on ?Dry Southern Blues? he shows very little interest in singing a vocal line that relates in any way to his guitar work.

Dylan covered Jefferson?s ?See That My Grave?s Kept Clean? on his debut album. And John Fahey played guitar with Canned Heat for a while. Do I need to spell it out for you? Everything's connected!