ARCHIVES

RICK TAYLOR

www.ricktaylormusic.com

Rick Taylor made his first major appearance as a singer, songwriter and guitarist at the famed Mariposa Folk Festival in 1971.

Rick is well known for his high energy live performances, rich, expressive baritone voice, and his quirky and novel song writing styles such as the cult classics “Black Leather Diaper” and “Drunkards Lullaby”, as well as his delicately, haunting, well crafted ballads, and unforgettable “guitarnastics”.  Rick’s early chart hit classics “Letters From Jane” and “Soldier in the Rain”, released internationally in 1989 on Volunteer Records, remained in “gold rotation” on many radio stations around the world for several years.

Rick’s 2005 international CD release Clown River also earned him some notoriety.  The disc, containing 13 original solo guitar compositions, is a beautifully woven instrumental story where Rick has reached deeply into his influences of the great finger style guitar traditions.  The release caught the attention of Borealis Records and Rick was invited to be a featured artist on their guitar compilation CD - Six Strings North of the Border Volume 3, released internationally in Feb. 2006 and now available as a 3 CD boxed set.  This compilation includes many of Canada’s finger style guitar greats such as Bruce Cockburn, Colin Linden, Amos Garrett, Stephen Fearing, Don Ross, Kevin Breit, Harry Manx and more.

After living 23 years in Vancouver where Rick performed, recorded and produced, he relocated back to his home province of Ontario in 2007 and released his long awaited and critically acclaimed CD The Wonky Years in 2008.  This raucous 10 song collection – recorded over a 10 year period with his band – runs the gammit of blues, roots rock, bluegrass, rockabilly, country swing and folk and displays the immense breadth of Rick’s song writing, guitar playing, vocal abilities and styles.

February 2010 saw Rick returning to his blues roots with his definitive CD release of Lucky Room.  This solo collection of 11 songs covers the road from Mississippi to Chicago, paying homage to the blues masters from the late 1920’s to the early 1950’s that have helped shape Rick’s music over a 40 plus year career.  This critically acclaimed work has garnered heavy rotation achieving radio chart hit status - reaching #3 on Roots Music Report charts - Canada and #10 on the U.S.A. Roots Music Report - Blues charts.