AMG Review of Blue Light Boogie

Steve Huey
All Music Guide

Blue Light Boogie is a compilation drawn from Taj Mahal's work for the Private Music label during the '90s, specifically the albums Like Never Before (1991) and Dancing the Blues (1993); there's also an ample and varied helping of covers ranging from traditional, rural blues to rock & roll. It's sort of an odd tactic for a compilation, given that The Best of the Private Years, released a year later, doesn't duplicate any of this material; as a result, that supposedly balanced introduction ends up skewed away from Blue Light Boogie's sources, not featuring any songs from Like Never Before. Still, even if all of this is a ham-handed way for a record company to handle an artist's discography, Blue Light Boogie is overall a pretty decent sampler and an entertaining listen. Just don't expect an introduction to Mahal's '90s recordings that has any sense of completeness.