I had heard of Taj Mahal but had never sampled his work until very recently, and I picked his 1997 album "Senor Blues" pretty much at random.  My experiences with Van Morrison and Dr John had got me interested in what I guess is a second or third generation of blues (the first being Leadbelly and Robert Johnson, I guess) and what we have with these musicians who are now around 60 years of age is something a bit more polished or finished than what I imagine the original blues shouters to have produced.  But there's still plenty of energy as well as polish on "Senor Blues" with a range of material running from the late 1990's back to around 1930 ("I'll be glad when you're dead") and taking in work by Hank Williams ("Mind your own Business"), Delbert McClintock, Marvin Gaye, and Sam Cooke.  It's all great.  The title track is a beauty, as is "I must have had a bad day" and everything else on the album.  The backup band is right on point (nice brass work), and there's a lot of variety to the material.  Vocally, Taj can go rough or smooth as the song demands.  The whole thing is a delight.  The transformation of pain into pleasure is one of the great mysteries of art -- why do we leave "King Lear" feeling uplifted? -- and on a very fundamental level, the blues has a similar effect.  Highly recommended.