Taj Mahal's blunt take on what holds people back

Taj Mahal is a blues legend. He's won a handful of GRAMMYs, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, and influenced generations of artists from Keith Richards to Hozier. "He's got it all together," Keith said, "and always did have." He was born Henry St. Claire Fredericks, Jr. in Harlem. A multi-instrumentalist and music scholar, Taj was exploring world music before it was even a genre. Taj, who once seriously considered becoming a farmer, has lost count of how many albums he's made. He's been making music since the '50s — and at 84, he's still on tour.

00:00 Welcome to Alchemy

00:36 Introducing Taj Mahal

01:39 The Unreleased Bill Withers Song & GRAMMY Wins

05:29 Family Roots: A Third-Generation Garveyite

11:05 Hearing Music Without Genre Lines

13:46 Rising Sons & the Ash Grove Days

17:04 The 1960s LA Scene & Opening for Otis Redding

19:05 UMass, Farming, and a 1979 Africa Tour

22:00 Music as a Spiritual Calling

25:07 A Word From Our Sponsor, the FLAG Art Foundation

26:19 Losing His Father Young

29:03 Learning to Write & the Story Behind "Taj Mahal"

31:32 Columbia, Clive Davis & the Blues Legends

35:16 Scoring "Sounder" & Life on the Road

39:12 Playing Alone: Connecting to "the Great Creator"

42:39 Songwriting, Enya, and His Philosophy on Music

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About our Founding Sponsor, ⁠⁠The FLAG Art Foundation (flagartfoundation.org)⁠⁠:

The FLAG Art Foundation is a nonprofit contemporary art exhibition space in New York's Chelsea Arts District. Since 2008, FLAG has staged more than 100 exhibitions celebrating nearly 1,000 artists, with innovative partnerships including the Parrish Art Museum, the Serpentine Galleries in London, and the Harlem Children's Zone. FLAG is free and open to the public. Follow FLAG on ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ (instagram.com/flagartfoundation).

About Anthony Mason:

Anthony Mason, the host of Alchemy, is also a Special Correspondent with CBS News. One of the most versatile and experienced television journalists, Anthony co-hosted CBS This Morning: Saturday for seven years (2012-2019), and then the weekday CBS This Morning broadcast for two more. But he may be best known for his interviews with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, Annie Leibovitz, Judi Dench, David Hockney, and André 3000. He has won a dozen Emmy Awards. In 2023, the Songwriters Hall of Fame presented him their Patron of the Arts Award. And for the past three years he has hosted the GRAMMY Hall of Fame Gala.