Recorded in Nashville with Keb’ and Taj co-producing, the GRAMMY-nominated Room On The Porch finds the pair in peak form, playing to each other’s strengths and opening up new creative horizons more than a half-century into their storied careers. The songs are warm and inviting, rooted in the joy of human connection and the power of positivity, and the performances are as timeless as they are adventurous, incorporating the full spectrum of American roots music from blues and jazz to folk and country. Keb’ and Taj invited an all-star group of players, singers, and co-writers (including their sons) to join them in the studio for the sessions, but the spotlight remains firmly fixed on the legendary pair throughout the collection, their instantly recognizable voices and guitar stylings complementing and elevating each other at every turn. The result is a delightful, big-hearted work that manages to feel both classic and current all at once, an album rooted in deep tradition delivered by two icons with a boundless appetite for growth, reinvention, and discovery.

Though the two only began recording together as TajMo in 2017 the pair’s creative relationship (and mutual admiration) stretches back decades.

Born Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr., Taj landed his first record deal in the mid-1960s with Rising Sons—an early band he formed with Ry Cooder and Jessie Lee Kincaid—before going solo under the name Taj Mahal in 1968. While his early work was thoroughly entrenched in the Mississippi Delta, he soon began blending an intoxicating mix of sounds from throughout the African Diaspora into his records, touching on everything from rock and roll and R&B to reggae and jazz to West Indian and Caribbean music as he quickly became known as one of the most influential and progressive roots musicians of the modern era. Over the course of more than six decades and nearly 50 albums, Taj would go on to win five Grammy Awards (plus the Recording Academy’s coveted Lifetime Achievement honor); perform everywhere from The White House to Carnegie Hall; be inducted into the Blues Music Hall of Fame; receive the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award; and collaborate with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Angelique Kidjo, and countless other luminaries.

Born and raised in Compton, Keb’ spent the first few decades of his career working primarily behind the scenes, establishing himself initially as a highly respected guitarist, songwriter, and arranger. Though he recorded a one-off album in 1980 under his birth name, Kevin Moore, it wasn’t until 1994 that the world would meet Keb’ Mo’ with the release of his widely acclaimed self-titled debut. Critics were quick to take note of Keb’s modern, genre-bending take on old school sounds, and two years later, he garnered his first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album with Just Like You. In the decades to come, Keb’ would take home four more Grammy Awards; top the Billboard Blues Chart seven times; collaborate with icons like Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, The Chicks, and Lyle Lovett; have compositions recorded and sampled by artists as diverse as B.B. King, Zac Brown, and BTS; perform multiple times at the White House; release signature guitars with both Gibson and Martin; compose music for television series like Mike and Molly, Memphis Beat, B Positive, and Martha Stewart Living; and earn the Americana Music Association’s award for Lifetime Achievement in Performance.