Otis Taylor
Double V
Telarc
By Danté Dominick
 Each
new Otis Taylor album is like the next chapter in a novel. New
twists and satellite story lines evolve, but all are clearly
entrenched to one articulate and powerfully driven theme. An
unwavering, and even uncomfortable, power that makes you feel
naked in a wide-open town square.
Taylor's folk/blues started attracting critics' attention
in 1998 with When Negroes Walked the Earth (Shoelace Music).
By 2001 White African (NorthernBlues Music) saw Taylor
with a substantial fan base. This month not only marks Taylor's
sixth release in seven years, but also finds last year's effort,
Truth is Not Fiction (Telarc), nominated for four W.C.
Handy Awards including "Blues Album of the Year" and
"Contemporary Blues-Male Artist of the Year."
If you are looking for fancy fretwork, look elsewhere. Taylor's
layered arrangements, however, are significant aural achievements
worth taking notes. He doesn't sound like Johnnie Lee Hooker
per say, but there is a clear similarity in the way Taylor's
songs latch on to one short groove and ride it from beginning
to end. His songs do not even have an A and B part; no bridge,
chorus etc. Many are one chord.
His sparse structure is made full by the subtly increasing
embellishments that are added to the score. Cellos, sometimes
four on one song, add dramatic, even eerie, tones. Ome (read
ancient-sounding) banjo, soft-psychedelic guitar and electric
mandolin are all part of the puzzle glued together by his immediately
catchy, dare I say funky, folk/blues riffs.
And the vocals? Taylor's physical frame and visage is as
close to a bear as can be hoped to find in a human, and his voice
does not belie this strong impression in any way, even when he
whispers. If you understood no English it would still be clear
Taylor's tales are poignant matters.
Titles of "Mama's Selling Heroin" and "Took
Their Land" are rather self-explanatory, but one must listen
to "505 Train" to learn that is the train a small child
realizes her mother is running away on to leave behind the beatings
from her husband, "and she's never coming back."
"Plastic Spoon" is an unforgivable tale of an elderly
couple dieting on dog food as a means to afford their healthcare.
You get the idea that this is not exactly light-hearted fare.
Regardless, Taylor is extremely popular on the outdoor, summer
festival circuit. A large part of his recognition is the result
of his affect on previously unaware festival-goers who swing
and sway to his every beat and then go on to purchase some discs
and spread the word.
His daughter Cassie has been an added feature of his festival
performances for years, and on Double V the seventeen-year
old plays the bass throughout, in addition to occasional backing
vocals. When used, her angelic, breath-giving vocals super-impose
a feeling of heaven and redemption atop the grueling, present
world her father is depicting.
Cassie Taylor leads on the disc's final number. Introduced
by moving trumpet, the song is sung from the perspective of an
African-American child in the 1960s, "I wish I could go
down to a department store and buy myself some freedom."
Her youthful voice drives a tremendous reminder: a child who
lived to feel those gut-wrenching, spirit-shattering emotions
is alive among us today as a middle-aged adult. It was not even
50 years ago that blacks, by our own government's written law,
were deemed inferior to whites. Many normal, adjusted adults
in our society grew up knowing lynching as a horrible, and potential,
reality.
Perhaps it is the black-and-white footage amidst this era
of super high-fidelity, but somehow there is a large misunderstanding
as to how recent these events were. The ramifications are still
a reality and, yes, uncomfortable to discuss.
But it is this very discussion that Otis Taylor continues,
reluctant to casually sweep its debris under the carpet. Hopefully
it doesn't turn listeners off, and instead illuminates precedents
that ignorant, unfavorable conditions can be overcome. Monumental
achievements have been made in the past, and so too they can
be made in the present and future.
Lord knows we could use some right now.
www.otistaylor.com
Contact Dante Dominick at dominick-at-rockzilla.net
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