Results for "Otis Taylor"

Otis Taylor

Otis Taylor - guitar, banjo, vocals With Otis Taylor, it’s best to expect the unexpected. While his music, an amalgamation of roots styles in their rawest form, discusses heavyweight issues like murder, homelessness, tyranny and injustice, his personal style is lighthearted. “I’m good at dark, but I’m not a particularly unhappy person,” he says. Part of Taylor’s appeal is his contrasting character traits. But it is precisely this element of surprise that makes him one of the most compelling artists to emerge in recent years. Guitar Player proclaimed him “arguably the most relevant blues artist of our time,” while Billboard has called him “one of the most innovative, thought-provoking blues artists to emerge in the last 20 years.” Whether it’s his unique instrumentation (he fancies banjo and cello), or the sudden sound of a female vocal, or a seemingly upbeat optimistic song takes a turn for the forlorn, what remains consistent is poignant storytelling based in truth and history. Truth and history are at the heart of “Recapturing the Banjo,” Taylor’s fifth release on Telarc

Pennsylvania Blues Festival 2013

By WADE LUQUET

22nd Pennsylvania Blues Festival Blue Mountain Ski ResortPalmerton, PAJuly 26-28, 2013For the past 22 years, veteran festival producer Michael Cloeren has thrown a weekend party in the Pocono mountains, playing host to fifteen of his favorite blues musician friends and their bands and inviting a few thousand avid fans of the ...

Luis Bonilla, Terri Lyne Carrington, Tony Levin & Otis Taylor

By MARTIN LONGLEY

The Luis Bonilla Quintet Dizzy's Club March 19, 2013 For two nights only, trombonist Luis Bonilla brought his quintet to Dizzy's Club. The first set on the first evening launched off into an assured blast of convoluted style amalgamation. Many might view Bonilla as a Latin jazz specialist because ...

Rain So Hard

Featuring the music of Otis Taylor
Duration: 9:43

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Pennsylvania Blues Festival: Palmerton, PA, July 27-29, 2012

By WADE LUQUET

Pennsylvania Blues FestivalBlue Mountain Ski AreaPalmerton, PAJuly 27-29, 2012For 21 years, the Pocono Mountains have been the epicenter of the blues, attracting thousands to the bottom of a ski slope for three days each summer. Blue Mountain Ski Resort lent itself well to the fifteen national acts that performed on two ...