The View On Pop Culture: Jethro Tull, Sideswipe, Otis Taylor (2002)

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Dismissed – unfairly – by many critics during the 1970s as progressive-rock dinosaurs, the members of Jethro Tull have since had the last laugh. A new breed of music critics (your humble columnist included), raised on classic Tull albums such as Aqualung and Thick As A Brick have been more gentle in their consideration of the band’s legacy. From their first album, released in 1968, through the underrated1999 release J-Tull Dot Com, Jethro Tull has managed to put eleven Gold™ and five Platinum™ albums on the table during a nearly 35-year career. Fronted by colorful singer, songwriter and manic flautist Ian Anderson and guitarist Martin Barre, Jethro Tull has ridden out the ever-changing trends of pop culture with a unique mix of guitar-driven hard rock and British folk with threads of blues and jazz thrown into their heady musical brew.

Over the course of the band’s lengthy career, there have only been a few officially released live Jethro Tull albums, which makes Living With the Past (Fuel 2000 Records) a delight for old-school fans. Living With the Past was compiled from several live performances and television appearances, including a November 2001 concert in London’s Hammersmith Apollo. With this CD, Anderson and crew come face to face with the band’s historic past, revisiting classic and obscure songs alike. Unlike many affairs of this sort, which have the artist re-recording their biggest hits for a pittance so that some huckster can peddle them to old fan’s memories, Living With the Past plays as more of a career retrospective than as a jaded cash-grab.

Anderson is reunited with original band members Mick Abrahams, Clive Bunker, and Glenn Cornick, who join the current Tull line-up as guest performers to run through tunes like “Aqualung,” “Living In the Past” and “Jack In the Green.” The performances are charming and professional, befitting a group of master musicians in the fifth decade of their trade. A welcome addition to the band’s lengthy canon, Living In the Past closes a chapter in Jethro Tull’s history and offers a new beginning for the rock legends. A DVD release by the same name offers the complete London concert as well as interviews with band members and other special features certain to thrill old and new Tull fans alike.

Los Angeles is a veritable hotbed of indie rock, bands like Firebug or Sideswipe cranking out refreshing, powerful music without so much as a sidelong glance from major label scouts busy seeking the next trend. With Greatest Hits (HoJo Records), the distaff foursome Sideswipe prove that not only can girls rock as hard as the boys but also that the major label A&R drones have been living too high on their expense accounts if they’ve overlooked a band as obviously talented as this. The core members, guitarist/vocalist Sally Landers and drummer Michelle Mangione have been playing together for over a decade with mixed success. Along with bassist Nancy Doyle and keyboardist Angela Riggio, Sideswipe has toured the U.S. and Europe, placed songs on TV shows like Dawson’s Creek, and has won all sorts of critical accolades.

Sideswipe’s sound has been described by other critics as a mix of the Indigo Girls and the Who, and there’s definitely that aspect to their songs, an inspired blending of folk roots and rock energy. The sweet harmonies of “Never Gonna Be The Same” owe a large debt to the Beatles, while several other cuts tread much the same artistic territory as ‘80s bands like the Bangles. The powerful “Make My Own Tracks” is obviously influenced by Melissa Etheridge’s folk-rock style while “Crucify Me” starts out with a Stax soul groove and pairs wonderful harmonies with Landers’ stinging six-string work. The delightful “Prisoner of War” showcases the band’s lyrical talents, falling in much the same vein as songs by the Indigo Girls or Disappear Fear. Surprisingly, material produced by Landers and Mangione for Greatest Hits shows a subtlety and deft touch lacking in songs shaped by other produces; it takes some skill for an artist to frame their material in such a proper light. Although they haven’t had many hits, and have never received the attention they deserve, Sideswipe’s Greatest Hits is a wonderful introduction to a talented band that has a bright future to explore.

Otis Taylor is, perhaps, the most unique bluesman that you’re likely to hear. Born in Chicago and raised in Denver, he learned to play guitar, banjo, and harmonica at the city’s Folklore Center. He later became part of the city’s late 1960s music scene, associating with musicians like rock guitarist Tommy Bolin. A brief residence in England yielded a failed record deal and Taylor subsequently retired from music in 1977 to pursue a successful career as a broker in antiques. As luck would have it for music lovers, noted bass player Kenny Passarelli convinced Taylor to pick up his guitar again in 1995. Since that time, Taylor’s original and highly personal sound has impacted contemporary blues music like few artists have been able to.

As shown by his latest CD release, Respect the Dead (Northern Blues Music), Taylor has a tendency to push past the barriers of traditional blues, creating a new modern sound that incorporates his rock and folk roots with Delta-inspired blues and a literate and imaginative songwriting style. Taylor fearlessly runs across lyrical turf upon which even angels fear to tread, recounting in song the lives and experiences of African-Americans in a brutally realistic and often disconcerting manner. Respect the Dead offers many such dark lyrical moments, from the racially-inspired murder of “Black Witch” to the Civil Rights struggles of “32nd Time.” Although not a household name on par with contemporaries like Keb’ Mo’ or Alvin Youngblood Hart, the enormously talented Otis Taylor is nevertheless creating timeless music, important art that reflects the history, the hopes and the fears of the artist, his family and his ancestors. (View From The Hill, June 2002)

Archive Review: Otis Taylor's Double V (2004)

Contemporary blues artists mostly tend to fall into one of two categories. There are those who are strictly bound by tradition, following either the Delta or Chicago school of thought, with their individual and inevitable limitations. Then there are those who genuflect at the altar of Stevie Ray, guitar heroes and wannabes channeling the spirit of Jimi through endless blooze-rock exercises. Otis Taylor, on the other hand, falls into neither category. A unique and exciting artist following his own muse, Taylor infuses his music with life and energy, odd instrumentation and rhythmic meter supporting his intelligent lyrics.

Otis Taylor sounds like no bluesman you’ve ever heard before. Perhaps it’s because Taylor spent almost 20 years outside of the music industry, or maybe it’s because his musical education includes liberal doses of both rock ‘n’ roll (playing with Tommy Bolin back in the day) and folk (courtesy of the Denver Folklore Center). His songs blend elements of blues, traditional folk, and rock music with erudite lyrics that often offer edgy social commentary or historical morality tales recreated for a modern audience. The resulting mix is invigorating, Taylor’s imaginative and sometimes-reckless instrumentation satisfying your soul while his brilliant, thought-provoking wordplay massages your brain.

Otis Taylor’s Double V

Double V is Taylor’s second album for indie blues/jazz specialists Telarc and his sixth effort since ending his self-imposed exile from music. The album is not entirely unlike previous award-winning efforts such as White African or Respect the Dead, although it is a bit more ambitious. With Double V, Taylor forsakes the potent band that he’s used since returning to music. Using sparse instrumentation on Double V to highlight each song’s vocals and lyrics, Taylor’s mix of guitar, banjo and mandolin is supported by his daughter Cassie’s steady bass rhythm and augmented by the odd horn or cello. Each song on Double V is thus provided its own canvas, at times stark and at other times quite beautiful.

It’s his songwriting on which Taylor has built his well-deserved reputation, and Double V meet the high standard set by his earlier work. “Please Come Home Before It Rains” offers an upbeat soundtrack as a sailor reads a letter from his wife and reminisces of the things that he’s seen and the family that he misses. “Mama’s Selling Heroin” is semi-autobiographical, dark instrumentation and haunting vocals underlining the story of Taylor’s mother, serving as an allegory for the pain and heartbreak that drugs have brought to the African-American community. The ravages of poverty are explored on “Plastic Spoon,” an elderly couple forced to choose between medicine and food, opting for cheap dog chow to save money. Taylor tackles domestic abuse with “505 Train,” homelessness with “Reindeer Meat” and the slavery-like imprisonment of African-Americans under the U.S. justice system with “Sounds Of Attica.”

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Lest you think that Double V is overly dour and depressing, Taylor ends the album with the uplifting “Buy Myself Some Freedom.” Sung in an ethereal whisper by daughter Cassie, this tale of a young girl searching for a better life is filled with hope and dignity. It’s a fitting end to a solid collection of songs that present reality as a minefield of tragedy, emotion, and triumph over adversity. Even as it veers from tradition, Double V further cements Taylor’s reputation as a great, groundbreaking bluesman of keen insight and considerable vision. By redefining the sound of the blues, Taylor is also extending the tradition beyond its Delta roots into the 21st century. (Telarc Records, released May 21, 2004)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2004

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Otis Taylor’s Double V

New Music Monthly: February 2017 Releases

It may be  cold outside, but February's "New Music Monthly" offers up some scorching hot sides for the music lover's rock 'n' roll gratification! Black Star Riders' hard-rockin' third album Heavy Fire arrives this month, and roots 'n' blues veteran Elvis Bishop delivers joyful noise with Elvin Bishop's Big Fun Trio while new albums from the Sadies, Son Volt, Otis Taylor, and the Feelies are sure to please. Here's the music you'll be spending your hard-earned coin on in February!

FEBRUARY 3
Black Star Riders - Heavy Fire   BUY!
Communions - Blue   BUY!
The Soul of John Black - Early In The Moanin'   BUY!

FEBRUARY 10
Elvin Bishop - Big Fun Trio   BUY!
Arthur Lee - Arthur Lee   BUY!
Chuck Prophet - Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins   BUY!
The Sadies - Northern Passages   BUY!

FEBRUARY 17
Merrell Fankhauser - Things   BUY!
Son Volt - Notes of Blue   BUY!
Otis Taylor - Fantasizing About Being Black   BUY!

FEBRUARY 24
The Feelies - In Between   BUY!
Eric Gales - Middle of the Road   BUY!
Wesley Stace - Wesley Stace's John Wesley Harding (w/the Jayhawks)   BUY!

(Album release dates are subject to change without notice and they don't always let me know, so there...)

Album of the Month: The Feelies' In Between, the band's first album in six years. The Feelies reformed in 2016 in celebration of the band's 40th anniversary and the reissuing of their classic albums Time For A Witness and Only Life. The new LP promises more of the same avant-pop genius that inspired bands like R.E.M. and Yo La Tengo, among many others. Get a taste of the new Feelies album below.

CD Preview: Otis Taylor’s Fantasizing About Being Black

It has never been unusual for blues music – an art form created by and primarily performed by African American artists through the years – to take on issues of race and economic injustice (admittedly often in coded language). No single artist that I can think of has addressed race more frequently, intelligently, and fiercely than the great Otis Taylor. In this era of racial intolerance and divisiveness, Taylor’s unique perspective, historical knowledge, and his skilled songwriting are sorely needed. Thankfully, Taylor’s latest album, Fantasizing About Being Black, will be released on February 27, 2017 by his own independent Trance Blues Festival label.

Following his critically-acclaimed 2015 psych-blues gem Hey Joe Opus/Red Meat, which the Reverend called “a wild musical ride, to be sure…worth the price of admission” in Blues Music magazine, Taylor’s Fantasizing About Being Black offers a lyrical lesson in the historical trauma of the African American experience. In a press release for the album, Taylor says that his 15th album is about “the different levels of racism in the African American experience that are unfortunately still with us today. The history of African Americans is the history of America,” he says.

Taylor says “after 15 albums, I’ve taken all of my thoughts about the history of racial injustice and created a musical interpretation for modern times. When I started recording in 2015, I had no idea the topics would become even more relevant.” The album features seven new songs as well as stunning revisions of previously-recorded Taylor songs like “Twelve String Mile” (from When Negroes Walked The Earth), “Walk On Water” (from Truth Is Not Fiction), and “Jump Jelly Belly” (from Respect The Dead), among others. New songs include “Banjo Bam Bam,” the story of a slave in shackles; the acoustic “D to E Blues,” which expresses the yearning for freedom; and the anthemic “Roll Down The Hill.”

Musically, the material on Fantasizing About Being Black follows Taylor’s signature trance blues sound, a unique hybrid of African American culture that nevertheless offers innovative instrumentation and unique musical arrangement. Taylor recorded the album with violinist Anne Harris, bassist Todd Edmunds, and drummer Larry Thompson along with guests like guitarist Jerry Douglas, playing a koa wood lap guitar, young guitarist Brandon Niederauer, and cornetist Ron Miles. Multi-instrumentalist Taylor, of course, plays just about anything with strings as well as a wicked harmonica.

Taylor's choices for instrumentation on the album were deeply considered. “I experimented with banjo and fiddle because slaves on the southern plantations played those instruments,” he says, “and I wanted to include the richness of the early African slave instrument sounds throughout the record.” Taylor adds “if you close your eyes, you can imagine the past, yet see the connections and relevance to what’s happening now.”      

A truly unique artist who has been expanding the boundaries of blues music since the release of his 1996 debut Blue-Eyed Monster, the Blues Music Award winner has garnered a truckload of accolades over the past two decades. Otis Taylor proudly walks in the footsteps of blues legends like Charley Patton and Son House, bringing social consciousness to the blues even while putting his own innovative musical imprint on the genre.

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Otis Taylor's Fantasizing About Being Black 

Related Content: 
Otis Taylor - Hey Joe Opus/Red Meat CD review
Otis Taylor - Double V CD review

CD Review: Otis Taylor's Hey Joe Opus/Red Meat

Veteran bluesman Otis Taylor has forged a distinctive career by defying expectations. When a legion of blues guitarists tried to channel the ghost of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Taylor began playing the banjo (and quite well, I might add). While many contemporary bluesmen and women sought to take an existing form – Chicago, Delta, Hill Country blues, Memphis soul, et al – and claim it for themselves, Taylor created his own unique style and called it ‘trance blues.’ It could be argued that Taylor has done more to expand the sonic palette of the blues than any other modern artist; you just never know what he’s going to do next...

Taylor’s Hey Joe Opus/Red Meat is the follow-up to 2013’s acclaimed My World Is Gone, a conceptual song cycle recorded in collaboration with Native American guitarist Mato Nanji of Indigenous. Hey Joe Opus/Red Meat takes the old-school concept album a step further, offering songs that “explore the decisions that we make and how they effect us” [sic], tying together the vocal tracks with mesmerizing instrumentals. Breathing new life into the ancient garage-rock tune like nobody since Jimi Hendrix, Taylor imbues “Hey Joe” with an uneasy malevolence, his anguished vocals punctuated by guest Warren Haynes’ shimmering fretwork and Anne Harris’s eerie, howling violin.

Taylor uses “Hey Joe” as an artistic foundation for the album, returning to the song later, but first segueing into the exhilarating instrumental “Sunday Morning” (reprised twice later). With Taylor, Haynes, and Taylor Scott swapping guitar lines, the rest of the band fills in the corners with a breathtaking display of musicianship. The transgender tale “Peggy Lee” tackles the uncertainty of gender issues with intelligence and a gentle Piedmont blues vibe that features David Moore’s nimble banjo and Bill Nershi’s gorgeous acoustic guitar, while a seven-minute reprise of “Hey Joe” features Langhorne Slim on vocals for an entirely different take. The urgent “Cold at Midnight” benefits from Ron Miles’ haunting cornet, the strident final reprise of “Sunday Morning” sounding judgmental by contrast.

It’s a wild musical ride, to be sure, but Otis Taylor’s Hey Joe Opus/Red Meat is worth the price of admission. (Trance Blues Festival Records, released May 5th, 2015)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Otis Taylor's Hey Joe Opus/Red Meat

Review originally published by Blues Music magazine

CD Review: Otis Taylor's Double V (2004)

Contemporary blues artists mostly tend to fall into one of two categories. There are those who are strictly bound by tradition, following either the Delta or Chicago school of thought, with their individual and inevitable limitations. Then there are those who genuflect at the altar of Stevie Ray, guitar heroes and wannabes channeling the spirit of Jimi through endless blooze-rock exercises. Otis Taylor, on the other hand, falls into neither category. A unique and exciting artist following his own muse, Taylor infuses his music with life and energy, odd instrumentation and rhythmic meter supporting his intelligent lyrics.

Otis Taylor sounds like no bluesman you’ve ever heard before. Perhaps it’s because Taylor spent almost 20 years outside of the music industry, or maybe it’s because his musical education includes liberal doses of both rock 'n' roll (he played with Tommy Bolin back in the day) and folk (courtesy of the Denver Folklore Center). His songs blend elements of blues, traditional folk, and rock music with erudite lyrics that often offer edgy social commentary or historical morality tales recreated for a modern audience. The resulting mix is invigorating, Taylor’s imaginative and sometimes-reckless instrumentation satisfying your soul while his brilliant, thought-provoking wordplay massages your brain.

Otis Taylor's Double V

Double V is Taylor’s second album for indie blues/jazz specialists Telarc and his sixth effort since ending his self-imposed exile from music. The album is not entirely unlike previous award-winning efforts such as White African or Respect The Dead, although it is a bit more ambitious. With Double V, Taylor forsakes the potent band that he’s used since returning to music. Using sparse instrumentation on Double V to highlight each song’s vocals and lyrics, Taylor’s mix of guitar, banjo, and mandolin is supported by his daughter Cassie’s steady bass rhythm and augmented by the odd horn or cello. Each song on Double V is thus provided its own canvas, at times stark and at other times quite beautiful.

It’s his songwriting on which Taylor has built his well-deserved reputation, and Double V meet the high standard set by his earlier work. “Please Come Home Before It Rains” offers an upbeat soundtrack as a sailor reads a letter from his wife and reminisces of the things that he’s seen and the family that he misses. “Mama’s Selling Heroin” is semi-autobiographical, dark instrumentation and haunting vocals underlining the story of Taylor’s mother, serving as an allegory for the pain and heartbreak that drugs have brought to the African-American community.

The ravages of poverty are explored on “Plastic Spoon,” an elderly couple forced to choose between medicine and food, opting for cheap dog chow to save money. Taylor tackles domestic abuse with “505 Train,” homelessness with “Reindeer Meat” and the slavery-like imprisonment of African-Americans under the U.S. justice system with “Sounds Of Attica.”

The Reverend's Bottom Line

Lest you think that Double V is overly dour and depressing, Taylor ends the album with the uplifting “Buy Myself Some Freedom.” Sung in an ethereal whisper by daughter Cassie, this tale of a young girl searching for a better life is filled with hope and dignity. It’s a fitting end to a solid collection of songs that present reality as a minefield of tragedy, emotion and triumph over adversity.

Even as it veers from tradition, Double V further cements Taylor’s reputation as a great, groundbreaking bluesman of keen insight and considerable vision. By redefining the sound of the blues, Taylor is also extending the tradition beyond its Delta roots and into the 21st century. (Alt.Culture.Guide, 2004)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Otis Taylor's Double V