Analogue Productions - AAPB 113 -  180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio

1st Time on Vinyl - Limited Edition - Pressed at QRP Quality Record Pressings 

Great package, mind-blowing sound!!" — Taj, on receiving his copy of Labor of Love

When I first played this record at home I had no idea how it was recorded. The recording quality was obviously high and transparency great, but I felt the last bit of spatial "magic" was missing. I later found out it was recorded at 16 bit/44.1K resolution, which was probably the limit "in the old days".Labor of Love will not be released digitally so this is it. Don't be a fool and let the resolution stop you. These are probably the best sounding damn "field recordings" you're likely ever to hear and the stripped-down music is transportive and magical Sound 9/10 Music 9/10 Michael Fremer Analogue Planet

What we have here is magic: classic blues tunes — 'Stagger Lee,' 'My Creole Bell,' 'Mistreated Blues,' 'Zanzibar,' 'John Henry' and more — treated with such love and wit and heartache and (to use a tired term that's appropriate here) authenticity. Few field-hand recordings are drenched with this much sweat. And none of those field-hand recordings (few live or studio recordings, period) sound so vivid." — Fred Kaplan, Stereophile

Previously unreleased late 1990s recordings!

200-gram vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings!

Taj Mahal, loose and casual in informal recording sessions with peers

Taj performs with guest artists: John Dee Holeman, Cool John Ferguson, Cootie Stark and Algia Mae Hinton

The blues live on because the blues give people life, not the other way around. Talk about the blues with Grammy winning singer-songwriter and composer Taj Mahal, or Tim Duffy, founder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, and you'll quickly understand how deeply they grasp this. So it's no surprise that their shared love of blues has created a special vinyl-only album release that's got the loose, easy feel of a porch-sitting guitar strum, sipping sweet tea on a warm summer day.

Labor of Love comprises recordings made by Duffy, hanging out with Taj and other artists in a Houston hotel room and during visits to the Music Maker Relief Foundation headquarters in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Taj and Tim first connected in the mid-1990s as Tim was establishing the foundation. The foundation is dedicated to preserving Southern roots music by directly supporting senior artists in need, while documenting their music and sharing their stage and recording talents with the world.

A CD collection released by the foundation featuring Music Maker artists caught Taj's attention. Tim invited Taj to his place in rural Pinnacle, N.C., where he hung out with several of the artists. Taj loved how they played and sang, but he especially loved "getting to know their lives and how they made things work."

Not much time passed before a performing tour was launched, with Taj as the headliner. Meanwhile, Tim, sensing an incredibly rich opportunity, was hauling along with the tour, high-end recording gear. He set it up in hotel rooms hoping to capture an impromptu session. One night in Houston, magic happened. A few senior bluesmen, Tim, Taj and the daughter of Katie Mae, immortalized in the Lightin' Hopkins classic "Katie Mae Blues" hung out together in a hotel room in Houston. Taj picked up an acoustic guitar and started in on classic tunes — "Stack-O-Lee," "Walking Blues," and more. The tape was rolling.

During the time of the tour, Taj was also visiting during hang-out, barbecue and recording sessions at Music Maker's new North Carolina headquarters in Hillsborough. When the music got going, Taj would play some piano, bass, harp, banjo, mandolin and whatever else was needed.

Now is the time for these immortalized sessions to be heard. So here they are on a solid piece of wax. And what wax it is — a full-on 200-gram vinyl Analogue Productions masterpiece plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings, maker of the world's best-sounding LPs. Packaged in a Stoughton Printing tip-on gatefold jacket. You won't find a more intimate portrayal of Taj as a freewheeling, fun-loving, always-in-the-pocket sideman.

"Labor of Love is a time capsule. Even if 1998 doesn't seem that long ago, it was. Stripping down a record to voices and acoustic instruments will cause anyone to think throwback, yet few can pull it off as genuine and procure it quite like Taj Mahal and friends. Proof positive that all it takes is a soul with something to say and a way to catch it on tape to light that fire in the listener. If you're akin to the blues, God bless you. If you're not, let this be your easing in, you'll find that at the heart of any Labor Of Love there's a definitive true blues." — Glide Magazine, January 2017

"Music Maker Foundation founder Tim Duffy has managed to capture Mahal at his most skeletal on this vinyl-only release, culled mostly from Duffy's archives of off-the-cuff performances recorded in 1998 on a 42-city Music Makers tour with Mahal headlining. Some of the cuts were recorded after the shows, late at night in hotel room jams, and some were taped at Duffy's Pinnacle, North Carolina, Music Makers studio/residence. ... Music Maker Foundation releases are always special, but this one should be on your Christmas list and receive your attention all year long. It's a gift that keeps on giving." — Grant Britt, nodepression.com

Drums – Ardie Dean
Electric Guitar – Cool John Ferguson
Guitar – Etta Baker
Guitar, Banjo, Piano, Harmonica, Slide Guitar, Vocals, Electric Upright Bass – Taj Mahal
Guitar, Vocals – Cootie Stark, John Dee Holeman
Harmonica, Vocals – Neal Pattman
Mastered By, Lacquer Cut By – Kevin Gray
Producer, Recorded By – Tim Duffy
Vocals, Twelve-String Guitar – Algia Mae Hinton

    1. Stack-O-Lee
    2. Shortnin' Bread (with Neal Patman)
    3. My Creole Belle
    4. I Ain't The One You Love (with Algia Mae Hinton)
    5. Fishing Blues
    6. Mistreating Blues (with John Dee Holeman)
    7. African Wysie
    8. So Sweet (with Cootie Stark)
    9. Klondike Gold
    10. Hambone (with John Dee Holeman)
    11. Walking Blues
    12. John Henry (with Etta Baker)
    13. Song For Brenda (with Cool John Ferguson)