IN STORES NOW
CLOVIS PEOPLE, VOL. 3
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It's the ideal project for the architect of a sparse and hypnotic style that has come to be known as "trance blues." Taylor has spent his career crafting songs that are wide open to interpretation thematically as well as structurally. "I give people a starting point, and then they can take it where they want to take it," he explains. "That's true for the people playing my music as well as the people listening to it. That's how art should be. A person looking at a painting should be able to interpret it in whatever way he wants. The more words you put into a song, the less freedom the listener has to decide what it means."
The album title is inspired by a recent scientific discovery very close to Taylor's home in Boulder, Colorado. Barely 100 yards from the edge of his property, archeologists dug up a cache of tools and other implements belonging to a civilization known as the Clovis people, who walked the earth briefly about 13,000 years ago and then mysteriously disappeared.
"I just thought it was a cool title," says Taylor. "I went back to my musical past with these songs. That's why I called it Volume 3. There really is no Volume 1 or 2. My music only goes back about ten years, but there's something about reaching back to an earlier time and revisiting the stories of the past from a new perspective that I find compelling."
Helping to shape that new perspective is a crew of players who lend a variety of shades and voices to the mix. Among them is guitarist Gary Moore, a guest musician on two of Taylor's previous recordings (Definition of a Circle in 2007 and Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs in 2009), who moves in and out of the tracks with a hard riff here, a subtle accent there, and just the right atmospherics wherever he appears. Also on hand for nine of the twelve tracks is pedal steel guitarist Chuck Campbell - a member of the Campbell Brothers, the African-American gospel group that has developed a sound commonly known as "sacred steel." In addition, Clovis People, Vol. 3 features cornetist Ron Miles and bassist Cassie Taylor (Otis's 22-year-old daughter).
Indeed, some instincts are eternal, whether the frame of reference is 2010, 1950 or some time before recorded history. Clovis People, Vol. 3 is in some respects a vehicle for Taylor - an archeologist of a different kind - to re-examine some of the truths he's uncovered in his own era and preserve them for listeners in some future time.
"I went back to my musical past with these songs, all the way back to my first album," says Taylor. "I like finding different ways to retell the old stories. They continue to mean something to me, to the people who hear them, to the musicians who play with me many years after I first told them."
"I just thought it was a cool title," says Taylor. "I went back to my musical past with these songs. That's why I called it Volume 3. There really is no Volume 1 or 2. My music only goes back about ten years, but there's something about reaching back to an earlier time and revisiting the stories of the past from a new perspective that I find compelling."
Helping to shape that new perspective is a crew of players who lend a variety of shades and voices to the mix. Among them is guitarist Gary Moore, a guest musician on two of Taylor's previous recordings (Definition of a Circle in 2007 and Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs in 2009), who moves in and out of the tracks with a hard riff here, a subtle accent there, and just the right atmospherics wherever he appears. Also on hand for nine of the twelve tracks is pedal steel guitarist Chuck Campbell - a member of the Campbell Brothers, the African-American gospel group that has developed a sound commonly known as "sacred steel." In addition, Clovis People, Vol. 3 features cornetist Ron Miles and bassist Cassie Taylor (Otis's 22-year-old daughter).
Indeed, some instincts are eternal, whether the frame of reference is 2010, 1950 or some time before recorded history. Clovis People, Vol. 3 is in some respects a vehicle for Taylor - an archeologist of a different kind - to re-examine some of the truths he's uncovered in his own era and preserve them for listeners in some future time.
"I went back to my musical past with these songs, all the way back to my first album," says Taylor. "I like finding different ways to retell the old stories. They continue to mean something to me, to the people who hear them, to the musicians who play with me many years after I first told them."
THE BAND AND TOURING FRIENDS
OTIS TAYLOR
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It's the ideal project for the architect of a sparse and hypnotic style that has come to be known as "trance blues." Taylor has spent his career crafting songs that are wide open to interpretation, thematically as well as structurally. "I give people a starting point, and then they can take it where they want to take it," he explains. "That's true for the people playing my music as well as the people listening to it. That's how art should be. A person looking at a painting should be able to interpret it in whatever way he wants. The more words you put into a song, the less freedom the listener has to decide what it means..."
LARRY THOMPSON
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Larry Thompson is a highly acclaimed drummer in great demand as a performing and recording artist. He has worked in many different genres of music and has performed in almost all music venues including the blues with John Mayal, John Lee Hooker and Elvin Bishop, heavy rock with Tommy Bolin, Wall of Windows, and Body House, live radio and Television shows like E-Town on National Public Radio, classical shows with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the CSSO featuring Steve Barta and Wind Machine with The National Repertory Orchestra. He has also toured with folk artists like Glen Yarbrough and The Limelighters, rock artists like Iain Mathews, and performed with jazz artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Valentine, and Robin Ford to name a few.
ANNE HARRIS
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Anne Harris is a singer-songwriter, fiddler and indie recording artist whose "songs frequently sound born of a spiritual awakening" (Chicago Tribune.) Her "original sound and voice" (Bruce Hornsby) channels influences "from Celtic to African to American folk/rock" (Chicago magazine.) "Gravity and faith," the latest of her four studio records, exudes a revealing honesty and deep-rooted strength, with her signature, fiddling and string arrangements comprising a compelling sonic embrace. Anne is thrilled to be performing with Otis Taylor for selected tour dates.
JON PAUL JOHNSON
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Jon Paul Johnson is a lead vocalist and guitarist for the band "God Or Julie." Also, now a guitarist for the Otis Taylor Band.
TODD EDMUNDS
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Todd Edmunds is a bassist and sousaphonist from Augusta, Georgia. He has performed in a wide variety of musical situations. His exposure to the blues circuit came as a five year stint as full time bassist for Jason Ricci & New blood. He is a life long student of music with a foundation in jazz.
TIERRO LEE
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Tierro was a founding member and guitarist for the U.S. rock sensation Kan'Nal. Growing up in Washington D.C., Manila and Hong Kong, Tierro landed with his family in Toronto Canada at age 13. Already in love with music he discovered the guitar and was playing professionally by age 16. Recording music was an early inspiration and he graduated at the top of his class from the Recording Arts Program of Canada in 1991.
Blues Legend Otis Taylor was recording music for PUBLIC ENEMIES and invited him to participate in the recordings.
ZACHARY MISKIN - Europe
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Zachary Miskin has recorded on the Otis Taylor Telarc album, "Definition of a Circle." Born in NY, Zachary began his studies at the Manhattan School of Music and later studied at Vanderbilt University and the National Conservatory in Paris, France. His musical engagements at various concert halls and festivals have spanned a broad international spectrum from classical music at the Pablo Casals Festival to jazz at the Blues Passions Festival in Cognac, France. Concerts given in Paris, New York, London, Nashville, Colorado, New Mexico, Norway and Los Angeles.
SHAWN STARSKI
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Shawn Starski is a guitarist/songwriter. his lust for music started at a young age, it began in church then to the bars. For the past 10 years he has been able to share music with some great musicians. Touring all over the United States and Europe.
