Chip Taylor with guest musicians John Platania and Tony Mercadante sit down for a One On One Session at City Winery New York on March 19th, 2019. For more info visit: https://www.facebook.com/Chip-Taylor-40438231724 Audio & Video by: Ehud Lazin
Setlist:
Whiskey Salesman
I Love You Today
Some Hearts
Ridin'
Angel Of The Morning
Wild Thing
Songwriters Hall of Fame 2016 inductee Chip Taylor has been writing and performing for nearly 60 years and shows no sign of slowing down. The New York Times says it best , “If you only know him as the as the guy who wrote ‘Wild Thing’ and ‘Angel of the Morning” — you don’t know him! Chip Taylor is making some of the most distinctive acoustic music around today.”
Fix Your Words, featuring the Spotify hit Whatever Devil Is In Me, is Taylor's latest release and follows closely after his acclaimed A Song I Can Live, which Sweden's foremost music site, Rootsy.nu called "so powerful and packed with emotions. Joy, sadness, melancholy, a sense of humor. And an abundance of compassion and humanity. It's an album I will treasure forever. It will have a special place in my record collection, next to Bob Dylan's "Time Out Of Mind" and Leonard Cohen's "You Want It Darker".
Creating distinctive music that is also enduring and influential has been Chip Taylor’s métier over the course of what is closing in on five decades as “one of America’s finest songwriters as well as a masterful singer and performer,” says Rolling Stone. His two best-known songs are only some of the many pop, rock, country and R&B chart hits he wrote in the 1960s (Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield and Frank Sinatra all recorded his songs). Taylor was then one of the pioneers of the pivotal country-rock movement as a recording artist in the 1970s. His 1973 album, Last Chance, remains a beloved cult classic. But after refusing to play by the Nashville establishment rules, Taylor gave up music for full-time professional gambling in 1980.
"Chip Taylor could've rested on his laurels years ago and still been way ahead of everybody else today. Lucky for us he didn't and he's making some of the most relevant music out there," said Buddy Miller just last year. Since returning to music in 1996 he has enjoyed elder statesman stature within the Americana, contemporary folk and singer-songwriter scenes as an artist in his own right as well as in collaboration on albums and in performance with John Prine, Carrie Rodriguez, Kendel Carson and John Platania. In a remarkable and prolific run, Taylor has released nearly an album a year since his return, each rising high on the Americana chart. As England’s The Guardian notes, “Chip Taylor, like Johnny Cash, is well worth rediscovering by a new generation.”
2015's The Little Prayers Trilogy, was among the best-reviewed album of his long career. Mojo called it "a masterpiece while Uncut said it was the ”Crowning glory of a storied career” and placed it on its Best of 2015 list. Country Music People gave it ”Five stars .. nothing comes close.” A Song I Can Live With is a companion piece to last year's Little Brothers, a charming and intimate collection,
Taylor has been involved in a series of amazing projects in the last several years. Norway’s premier folk singer, Paal Flaata, recorded a full album of Taylor songs, Wait By The Fire, and rode it to the Top 10 and a Norwegian Grammy nomination. He recently joined with Carrie Rodriguez for a reunion tour in the fall behind the 10th Anniversary deluxe reissue of their Red Dog Tracks album. The Grammy-nominated Yonkers NY (2009) shows his facility with storytelling within songs. 2017 also brought a new book/CD, Son Of A Golf Pro, which combines Taylor's story of growing up on the golf course with often hilarious songs about the sport, and a lavish reissue of his three 1970s Warner Bros albums (including Last Chance).
Fuck All The Perfect People, the title track from his 2012 album, recently went viral on Spotify, garnering a million streams over a couple of months.
As Taylor’s muse continues to fire on all pistons, musical tastemakers agree that fans and listeners should tune their ears into the continuing creativity of a true musical master. “If names like Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Kris Kristofferson and Townes Van Zandt mean anything to you, you should make a point of discovering Chip Taylor,” urges critic Anthony DeCurtis. “Whether you know it or not, he’s earned his way into that exalted company.
