Taj Mahal: The Natch'l Blues

IN THESE DAYS of controversy about blue men singing the whites (thank you, V. Stanshall) it's amazing just how few black men are signing the blues. Snooks Eaglin was probably the youngest down-home bluesman sticking with the old forms to get any sort of acclaim when the blues revival hit Britain. There seems to be an unwillingness for today's urban negroes to sign the old-time music, preferring to get involved mostly with the atom-age soul scene. Soul is louder, more braggart, more glossy and has no unpleasant Uncle Tom associations, so it's O.K.