Most of the cuts have a several backing musicians and singers settling comfortably into the grooves. If the song selection were a bit more adventurous, if both drummer Tony Branagle and the recording had a bit more snap, it could be a stone classic. As it is, it's still a heck of a lot of fun. This is another in Alexander's fine series of all analog, no compression, no equalization, no limiting, no noise reduction, no nonsense recordings. Bhatt his modified lap steel, and Ravikiran backs them up on the chitra vina, a more traditional instrument that is an ancestor of the sitar, but played with a slide.
Nothing here is rushed.
Everything is serene, with a sense of elegance and beauty appropriate to the Taj Mahal, the tomb built by Mogul emperor Shah Jahan in the seventeenth century to memorialize his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Indian microtones are completely at home here. The album ends with some studio chatter as Taj talks about the affinity he feels with these musicians and reminisces about his first encounter with curry, while the instruments comment in the background. Wonderful stuff, beautifully recorded. Water Lily Acoustics has a whole bunch of terrific music, from gospel, to traditional Indian and Turkish music, to marvelous hybrids like this.