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Moving comfortably between acoustic and contemporary electric blues, Otis Taylor brings us an
exciting new album with social commentary laced all the way through. This is his fifth album. The
seasoned bluesman’s passionate volume of adventurous storytellin’ garnered several W.C. Handy
Award nominations this year.
Taylor, 55, grew up in Chicago and Denver. His first love was the banjo, which gets quite a
workout on Truth Is Not Fiction. Singing with a down-home ease and a genuine spirit, the
bluesman offers stories that honor Rosa Parks, stark prison landscapes, the Black experience in
America, the Native American experience in America, and your average hard-working man of the
house. He closes the album with Big Joe Williams’ “Baby, Please Don’t Go.”
Recalling the way “House of the Rising Sun” swept across the land several decades ago,
Taylor’s songs utilize dramatic tension and emotional release to convey a mood. His blues mood
serves to pump up our ambitions and to push us in ways we’d otherwise neglect. Everybody needs
a little push now and then. Taylor’s got just the remedy for that. Armed with his session of powerful
inspiration, we’re ready to face the world and to make things work out the way we truly want.
Visit Otis Taylor on the web for
audio samples and more.
~ Jim Santella
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Track Listing: Rosa; Kitchen Towel; Comb Your Brown Hair; Babies Don’t Lie ; Be Your Frankenstein; House of
the Crosses; Past Times; Shakey’s Gone; Be My Witness; Nasty Letter; Walk on Water; Baby Please
Don’t Go.
Personnel: Otis Taylor- vocals, guitar, electric banjo, mandolin, harmonica; Kenny Passarelli- bass, piano,
keyboards; Eddie Turner- guitar; Ben Solee- cello; Cassie Taylor- backup vocals.
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