The only record the Rising Sons released during their brief tenure — a single — certainly belies the band’s considerable musical legacy, or at least that of its members. Frontman Taj Mahal went on to become an ambassador for virtually every stripe of folk music in the African Diaspora; Ry Cooder did something similar as a guitarist and auteur. Kevin Kelley (Chris Hillman’s cousin) kept time on the Byrds’ Sweetheart Of The Rodeo LP, while Ed Cassidy, Kelley’s predecessor in the Rising Sons, left the band early on to play drums with Spirit.
The Sons were pretty hot shit back in ’65 and ’66 when they were holding forth in the clubs on the Sunset Strip. The group combined the juggy, pop-wise abandon of the Lovin’ Spoonful and the early Youngbloods with the psychedelicized blues-rock of Safe As Milk-era Beefheart and Moby Grape. Thing is, except for those of the Spoonful, the Sons’ recordings came first; back in the day, Taj and company must have sounded like they had the makings of a whole new thing.
This vinyl-only collection contains about half the band’s body of work, which was first issued, on CD, back in ’92. With Cooder choking off some of the knottiest guitar lines this side of Bobby Womack, the record’s high point is the group’s menacing cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s “.44 Blues”. And “2:10 Train”, a stoner reverie that anticipates Sir Doug’s soul-drenched “At The Crossroads”, could hardly be more sublime. The day-glo jangle of the early Taj staple “Take A Giant Step”, a King-Goffin original, is nearly as fine, albeit not quite up to the Monkees’ breathless version (the B-side of “Last Train To Clarksville”).
The only stiff here is the Sons’ listless reading of Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman”, with either Cooder or Jesse Lee Kincaid singing lead. And joke or not, we sure didn’t need Taj, a Massachusetts-bred intellectual, getting all Stepin Fetchit on us for an otherwise slashing take of “If The River Was Whiskey”.