Taj Mahal Author

Taj Mahal, born Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. in Harlem, New York City in 1942, is an American blues musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Renowned for reimagining the traditional blues with global influences from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and beyond, he has expanded the genre’s reach while honoring its roots. A multiple Grammy Award winner, he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025 . He lives in Berkeley, California.

Stephen Foehr’s novels and nonfiction probes mystery, travel, and music. The novels include varied and esoteric subjects such as: the London heist of tea worth millions; ways to resist an authoritarian government without being beaten, jailed, or killed; how to solve a murder using Einstein’s theory of quantum entanglement theory, with the aid of a female heavy metal guitarist and a burglar of peoples’ presumptions, expectations, and assumed truths. His nonfiction books explore how music influences the culture and history of Jamaica, Cuba, and Nashville.