Larry Hill Taylor: Stepson of the Blues: Reviews

"Taylor's rich voice soars above the band, and if you close your eyes there are moments when you'd swear the late, great Lou Rawls was at the mic." 

Notice on Larry's Website Guestbook:
Larry,
We are still hearing good things about the Blues and the Spirit Symposium and your wonderful performance at the opening reception on Thursday, May 21 as well as your appropriate and cogent remarks about the state of the music business at the Lived Experience Panel. Thanks for helping us set the tone and thanks for bringing in all the Chicago musicians who gave us one of the best jams of the summer.
Long live the blues!
Dr. Janice Monti

Saw you at Westminster Presbyterian Church with the DC Blues Society in DC tonight (Saturday, 4/14/07)-really enjoyed your performance. Thanks.

Drummer and singer Larry Taylor learned the blues from his stepfather, Eddie Taylor, the guitarist who helped pioneer the postwar Chicago style. He's since played sideman to other greats, including A.C. Reed, Willie Kent, and Johnny Littlejohn, but for several years he's also fronted his own band. On his debut CD, the new They Were in This House (A.V.), Taylor presents himself as an earnest roots man, using his grainy baritone on standards like Howlin' Wolf's raucous "Killing Floor" and Jimmy Reed's "Signals of Love." (Wolf, Reed, and other now legendary figures were regular guests at the Taylors' west-side home, hence the album's title.) Taylor's own "Blues, Hard Luck & Trouble" has a Wolfish lope that showcases his rhythmic sense and quivering down-home vibrato, but he's most interesting on modern fare; while many soul and blues singers today smooth the edges off their songs, Taylor revels in the aggression and unbridled sensuality that infuses classic R & B and soul. On "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone"--a 1971 Johnnie Taylor hit that inspired a stream of answer songs--he sings with a blunt ferocity that evokes the dark, amoral world of the street hustler; on the cautionary tale "Last Two Dollars," another Johnnie Taylor track, his rasp contains a combination of anguish and stark desperation that evokes Mississippi's Highway 61, where rusted cars and rotting trailer homes languish within yards of glittering casinos

"Larry Taylor is the real deal. He is steeped in what Robert Palmer calls "deep blues." He is able to go into the blues landscape that people associate with the likes of Howlin' Wolf and Elmore James.  His timing is impeccable, and his vernacular is clear, passionate and persuasive."

   --Chicago African American poet and essayist Sterling D. Plumpp after hearing Larry Taylor's album They Were in This House ), Oct. 18, 2011

 

Sterling D. Plumpp, poet and essayist, was born to a sharecropping family in Clinton, MS, in 1940. Living 10 miles from school and wanting for a school bus, he spent less than a year in elementary studies. Nevertheless, when his family moved to Jackson, he graduated high school as class valedictorian. He moved to Chicago in 1962, spent two years in college and two in the military, then worked at the post office, before finding his niche in the University of Illinois faculty, 1971-2001, in the African American Studies and English departments.

  Plumpp won a million dollars in the Illinois lottery, which has allowed him to travel and continue his writing. His books include Ornate with Smoke, Black Rituals, and Blues Narratives. He edited Somehow We Survive, a collection of South African writing, and taught in the master of fine arts program at Chicago State University during the mid 2000s. In 2003 Third World Press published his poetry collection, Velvet BeBop Kentecloth.  Plumpp listens to live jazz and blues and knows the musicians; his poetry follows these musical rhythms. He was a featured elder speaker at the Dominican University Blues and Spirit symposia in 2008 and 2010.

..."With his siblings, Larry Taylor is continuing the blues tradition, long may it continue. I have no hesitation in giving this CD a glowing recommendation, definitely one to be investigated."

http://www.bluesandrhythm.co.uk/archive.html

Like so many younger blues artists, Chicagoan Larry Taylor grew up immersed in the music. The stepson of the late Eddie Taylor, Jimmy Reed’s guitarist during his most productive years, Larry took up drums as a youth. He recently moved out from behind the kit to display his vocal chops, which lend themselves perfectly to the soul-blues material on this debut CD.

Co-produced by Taylor, keyboardist Barrelhouse Bonni, and Steve Wagner of Delmark Records, “They Were in This House” is one of the best-sounding blues albums of the year. And the material is well-chosen, particularly “Jody Got Your Girl and Gone,” a funked-up military cadence, and “Last $2,”, both by Johnnie Taylor (no relation).

Taylor covers Howlin’ Wolf as well, and his no-nonsense original tunes sound like they, too, could be taken from the Wolf’s songbook

...while Taylor doesn't have a huge vocal range, he is an expressive, convincing vocalist who has no problem getting his emotional points across on either hardcore electric Chicago blues or hardcore soul. Taylor handles himself pleasingly well on blues items like Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor," Elmore James' "Knocking at Your Door," and Jimmy Reed's "Signals of Love" as well as on two songs that are associated with the late soul man Johnnie Taylor: "Jody Got Your Girl and Gone" and "Last $2." They Were in This House (which Larry Taylor produced with his manager Bonni McKeown, aka Barrelhouse Bonni) isn't groundbreaking -- no one will accuse Taylor of being innovative -- but it's a solid, enjoyable demonstration of the fact that the Chicagoan made a wise decision when he decided to start recording as a singer.

"Expect really great songs, fine arrangements, some tasty horns, genuine West /Side Chicago electric guitar licks and perfect vocal execution. They Were in This House has a spirit and personality that are 100% for real.

This is one of those CD's that is so good, so loaded with the real deal blues and so well done that it is so hard to only pick out a few tracks to mention.

It’s refreshing to see a new Chicago band that neither approaches blues via a funk/modern R&B sensibility, nor is consciously retro.”

Larry Taylor is a strong vocalist who is at home covering Johnnie Taylor’s “Jody Got Your Girl and Gone” (in 2 parts) as he is reviving Howlin’Wolf…Taylor’s originals, “Blues, Hard Luck & Trouble,” and “Green Line Blues” (inspired by Chicago’s mass transit) are solid songs and like the rest of the album, nicely played… He sings with plenty of soul which is matched by his backing band. This is well worth checking out and giving a listen to.

Taylor takes his own spin on these cover tunes and makes them unique and fun to listen to. Espeically tops on my list would be his appproach two the two--count them-- two Johnnie Taylor tunes "Jody Got your Girl and Gone" and "Last $2."... It all comes back to the vocal performances of Taylor who does a fine job of holding everything together. Check him out on the original composition "Tell Me Baby" parts one and two. He moans and groans in sync with the guitar. It's a wonderful little exchange that just rides this amazing groove and keeps on going. A great CD from the Windy City

West side Blues drummer Larry Hill Taylor has been called a "21st century griot" - a man who carries the stories of African-Americans in his bones, in his drums, in his voice.

Taylor, 55, spoke at the Forest Park Public Library last Thursday to promote his book, "Stepson of the Blues: a Chicago Song of Survival," as part of the library's Black History Month celebratory series of events. With him was co-author, "Barrelhouse" Bonni McKeown, who played piano at the event.

"Stepson of the Blues" - published in May 2010 - took three years to write, and is a history of Chicago told from the perspective of an African-American child growing up on the West Side in the late '50s and early '60s.

Taylor's mother Vera married Blues-guitar pioneer Eddie Taylor in the early '60s. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards pays homage to Eddie Taylor's playing, as a guitarist for Jimmy Reed, in his new book "Life."

But unlike the British bands, who repackaged the "Chicago Sound" and earned millions selling it back to American youth in the 1960s, original innovators like Taylor never had financial success with their music. Many Blues pioneers fell victim to theft of their intellectual property and songwriting royalties.

Taylor hung around Chicago bluesmen as a child. He learned to drum on pots and pans, imitating drummers he'd seen at the old Maxwell Street Market. Musicians like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Hubert Sumlin would visit his mother's Lawndale home and stay for her cooking.

But Blues music is about hardship, and Taylor's book chronicles post-Great Migration hard times on the West Side. Taylor was born to a 12-year-old mother, and was raised primarily by his then-24-year-old grandmother. His parents allegedly abused him, and he ran with the Conservative Vice Lords of 12th Street gang in the early '60s. He claimed the group was more of a social-service organization, than a criminal enterprise; that is, prior to the assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Hampton of the Black Panthers. He joined the Nation of Islam, at one point. Drugs, addiction, and struggle are all part of his story.

This excludes the difficulties imposed by the music industry.

McKeown said Taylor was overlooked by Chicago blues promoters and the media.

"In the last 30 years the pay situation [for blues players] has deteriorated," she said. Partly to blame are new city regulations that closed down smaller "blues feeder clubs"; and a relocated, and city-run Maxwell Street Market. The famous bazaar was home to many a street-corner blues virtuoso.

She said she jumped into promoting him - with no prior knowledge of the music industry - because she thought he would be a success. But she says Larry's outspokenness has made him few friends in the local music business. "He told a French magazine that some Chicago club owners paid with drugs instead of money, and that got him in trouble."

He's had some bright spots in his career:  Taylor toured Germany in 1977 with the offspring of other famous Chicago bluesmen; he organized the Crossroads stage for the 2008 Chicago Blues Fest; he works semi-regularly with his blues and soul group, but he hasn't reaped what he thinks the music industry owes him.

"These hands, this voice, these legs are worth millions," he said.

He blames greed and racism for pitting blues musicians against each other and driving down pay. "I could have been a superstar a long time ago." He also believes that successful blues artists like Buddy Guy do not encourage African-American protégés.

"Buddy's trying to kill the Blues," Taylor said. "He thinks when him and B.B. King die, the Blues is gonna die."

Taylor doesn't think so. "Blues is the root, the rest is the fruit," said Taylor, quoting Blues great Willie Dixon.

McKeown agrees, "African-American culture is the heartbeat of America. It's what makes us go - from hip-hop to R&B. Blues is so powerful everywhere in the world," she said.

Taylor and McKeown will discuss their book at the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake. on Wed., Feb. 23, at 7 p.m

Steve Sanders interviewed Larry and Bonni on WGN-TV Channel 9 Midday show, St. Patrick's Day 2011. "Chicago is the home of electric blues, where it started. But we're not seeing the devotion one might expect, are we?"

http://www.wgntv.com/news/middaynews/chicagoscene/wgntv-chicago-scene-bonni-mckeown-stepson-of-the-blues-a-chicago-song-of-survival,0,4588599.story

In the Chicago music community,WestSide singer and drummer Larry Hill Taylor is a crowned prince, the son of noted blues singer VeraTaylor and stepson of guitarist Eddie Taylor. In Stepson of the Blues, Taylor (with blues pianist Bonni McKeown) tells his story of strife and survival in Lawndale during the wild 1950s and 60s. A must-read for anyone, anywhere, who has a love and appreciation for the Chicago blues scene.

“Stepson of the Blues: A Chicago Song of Survival”” by Larry Hill Taylor with Bonni McKeown (Peaceful Patriot Press)

Larry Hill Taylor is the stepson of the late Eddie Taylor, who served as second guitarist for John Lee Hooker, but made an even more significant impact as the architect of the “Jimmy Reed Sound”, one of the most influential and commercially successful blues styles of the 1950’s/60’s and beyond. Eddie Taylor later recorded under his own name, but never achieved a level of stardom commensurate with his musical importance. The Taylor family is a multi-talented one, as Taylor’s wife, Vera (Larry’s mother), was a well-regarded singer, Larry himself is a drummer/singer/bandleader of some repute, while his brother Eddie Jr. and sister Demetria are also known on the Chicago blues scene.

On the surface, none of this would appear to make Larry Taylor’s life story so momentous that it would justify the publication of his autobiography. The history of Eddie Taylor and Jimmy Reed would be more likely to attract casual readers than that of Eddie’s stepson. But Larry Taylor has a compelling story to tell - several of them, as a matter of fact. This book, co-authored by Larry’s former manager, Bonnie McKeown, herself a blues pianist who has logged time in the Chicago clubs, is - when all is said and done - part autobiography, part diatribe. Larry Taylor feels misused by the blues establishment, he feels his fellow black Chicago blues musicians have been misused, indeed he feels that black blues musicians in general have been dealt a dirty deal. And he’s angry enough to try to do something about it, by laying his own career and reputation on the line to shout out to the world that something extremely unfair has going on in the world of blues for a long time, and the situation is not getting any better.

The first section of the book is more about his Mississippi family origins, his upbringing in Chicago, his various adventures and misadventures, his musical education, etc. In one sense, his childhood reads rather like you might expect a fairly typical Mississippi-rooted, urban ghetto childhood in the world of the blues to read. But of course, no one’s life is ever really as typical as anyone else’s. Taylor’s youth was enlivened by the presence of some of the all-time greats of the blues, who regularly visited his parents in their home, thanks to Eddie Sr.’s vaunted position among the blues royalty of his day. Young Larry picked up tips and lessons from the greats, and kept their words of wisdom to heart, while also getting to see them in their less public moments.

Larry’s life begins to take a less stereotypical turn toward his future career as a bluesman, when he joins a neighborhood street gang. This may well be a part of many modern-day blues musicians’ background, but it’s one which has become so associated with hip-hop in the outsider’s eye - of course, there was no hip-hop when Taylor joined up in the 1960’s - that it takes the reader by surprise. Soon Taylor finds himself involved with martyred Black Panther activist Fred Hampton, and with the Nation of Islam, again not a “typical” blues background, but one which helped instill a particular sense of right vs. wrong into the young Larry Taylor.

Then his life falls apart, when he is falsely accused of being a child molester, which leads to a horrifying round of legal injustices, incarceration in a veritable hell-hole of a prison, and intrusive psychological evaluations which led to some pretty harrowing treatment. The fact that the Taylor family was complicit in Larry’s imprisonment - perhaps feeling he could simply be scared straight, without any thought of how damaging his experiences would be - is a blotch on Eddie and Vera Taylor’s reputations.

Larry’s story doesn’t get any prettier once he gets out of a prison. As he tries to find steady work in the low-paying, jealousy-ridden, dishonestly-run Chicago blues clubs, he suffers through problems with women and develops a serious hard-drug addiction which he has a great deal of trouble shaking to this day. He also finds himself hounded by what he assumes to be FBI spies, seemingly lurking around every corner. Quite honestly, there are times when this comes across as a paranoid obsession, but it’s his life, and I can’t say he’s mistaken or lying.

But while the second half of the book covers these and other personal subjects, what really sticks with the reader in the latter stages of the book is Taylor’s full-throttle expose of the current blues scene. We learn that even in Chicago blues clubs which, judging by the city’s reputation, one would expect to be dominated by hard-core African-American blues musicians, white musicians - make that white rock musicians posing as blues musicians - often get the best-paying jobs, except of course for a handful of long-established superstars such as Buddy Guy and B.B. King. Taylor points out in various contexts that what black fans listen to and call blues is a very different thing from what white fans call blues. Black blues fans include what was known in the 1960’s as “soul music” as part of their steady diet, whereas white blues fans eschew “soul-blues” and prefer rock-oriented music which may or may not have solid roots in the blues. Even a cursory observation of the Southern Chitlin’ Circuit soul-blues sales charts vis-a-vis the playlists of the typical white DJ posting to Yahoo’s blues-dj list will support this contention. This dichotomy severely impacts black blues musicians who try to make a living in areas where the better-paying clubs cater to white fans, and has essentially left us with two competing musical scenes, both known as “blues”, one white, one black.

Taylor goes on to castigate the blues establishment as a whole, as represented by the Blues Foundation (which tellingly took W. C. Handy’s name off their long-established annual awards) and by many of the people who post on the Internet’s often-controversial BLUES-L listserv (where Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore are thought by many to have been the Kings of The Blues). Some blues fans may consider Taylor’s screed to be sour grapes, the rantings of an artist who has failed to crack the upper reaches of blues stardom and has become embittered as a result. However, I know from my own experiences (as a white college professor in his 60’s, so race, age, and position are not necessarily factors; by comparison, Larry Taylor is 55 years old) that the blues scene can be very difficult for anyone to crack. As someone who has lectured on blues, written about blues for some 40 years, and taught university-level courses on blues, I am still totally lacking in credibility among Western New York blues fans. The latter tend to gravitate toward what I call “biker bar” blues, the hard-core audience for which can be extremely narrow-minded about what they will accept or reject as blues, and who often show themselves to be quite intolerant of opinions on this subject that differ from their own.. My perspective on the matter comes, of course, from a very different angle than Larry Taylor’s, and unlike him I don’t need to depend on blues as my source of income, but I can easily understand where he’s coming from. I don’t blame him at all for being frustrated, and I applaud his boldness for taking a strong, if unpopular stance on this subject.

Of course, the people who most need to read this book and think seriously about what he has to say will probably ignore it. ‘Twas ever thus. So many negative things have happened in Larry Taylor’s life that the book simply cannot be a pleasant read, something light to skim over without giving it a second thought. But in the end, his faith in Islam (which he discusses in an Appendix) serves to see him through. This is, after all, a tale of survival. I hope he gets the right people to listen.

More information on the book, including ordering information, as well as a sample of Larry Taylor’s music,may be found at http://www.stepsonoftheblues.com/

Labels: blues, Bonni McKeown, Chicago, Eddie Taylor, Larry Hill Taylor

posted by Tom Bingham | 3:46 PM

I just finished stepson of the blues. What a remarkable, sensitive, and important book. I ordered Larry's CD as well.

Stepson of the Blues won’t leave you be. Every line, chapter and drumbeat will gnaw at the scabs of racism, ignorance and injustice; underscoring the timeless, ubiquitous voice of Our People.

--Regina Harris Baiocchi, Composer, poet and author of Indigo Sound; Urban Haiku; and Blues Haiku

...Larry Taylor’s early recollections about music are priceless and powerful, especially his intense childhood drive to express himself using homemade drums, and then a toy set from his birth father that his stepfather trashes. Finally Cassell Burrows, Wolf’s drummer, one of a steady stream of notable blues musicians regularly dropping by the Taylor home, sees Larry’s passion and arranges to leave a practice set at the house.

 While living above Big Duke’s Blue Flame Lounge on the West Side—another of many abodes for the Taylors, who seemed always one jump ahead of eviction—Larry pries up boards in the kitchen so he and his siblings can watch their father perform with Howlin’ Wolf’s band downstairs.

 After all the bad blood between Larry and his stepfather Eddie, Larry ultimately recognizes that Eddie was a great musician who was victimized by poverty, bad luck, missed opportunities, lack of management and perhaps even by his loyalty to troubled friends like Jimmy Reed. Larry repeatedly champions his stepfathers worthiness, perhaps seeing something of himself in Eddie Taylor.

...In many ways this is a courageous book. Taylor details his incarcerations and serious drug problems and continuing efforts to rehabilitate himself. In his attempts to come clean, he invokes the names of many people who might have chosen anonymity, including family members, and makes some unsubstantiated charges against individuals and institutions.  However, there may be merit to some of his charges and justifiable outrage about an unfair, changing music scene that is making survival very difficult for perhaps the most marginal of working musicians—the true blues artists of the originating culture...

(see the magazine for the rest of this long, critical review, which we hope to address in a dialog later)