Reviews
Artist:Sean Taylor Album: The Beat Goes On
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: https://www.seantaylorsongs.com
Over two decades of performing and recording, an always interesting but increasingly muscular and authoritative Sean Taylor has grown beyond the crowded pack of weary coffee bar troubadours and nimble guitarists. You can hear Affectionate nods to his vocal and instrumental heroes and traditions, but he is running with the musical ball and there is no, sense of slowing in this aptly named album.
Always Love", lyrically with references to being free, is a lockdown blues song with wider ruminations on fundamentals like love. Sean's slurred soulful voice, over a chiming sparse looped guitar evokes a sense of late period, less peace and love, John Martyn. Mark Hallman's organ and Michael Buckley's Saxophone just finesse the glorious atmosphere. A philosophical Taylor returns to the theme on the warm country of "Let Kindness Be Your Guide", a gig closing "Meet On The Ledge" in the making for sure. In a late night, sinister hiss, delivered over a beautiful picked guitar, "Lament For The Dead" is an eerie, atmospheric anthem for the last 18 months.
Taylor is a master guitarist who has been honing his keyboard skills to keep it fresh. So the title track, with another killer blissed out vocal, is an ode to hypnotic funky blues, delivered over pulsing Taylor, Mose Allison, piano and organ. There is, I think, a spiritual and titular link to the sixties hit of the same name and you could almost drop Buddy Rich's daughter, Cathy or Cher's sardonic vocals into the mix. "Better Times", with a sharp lead guitar line, is a love song that dissolves into a solo piano "Nocturne", that demonstrates Sean's sense of light and shade on the keys as he leads Bill Evans like into "Nowhere To Hide". NTH is another of the funky numbers, a sinister paranoid lyric over Taylor's "John Wayne" guitar and deft jazz piano.
"Be My Love In The Rain" ls a folk blues take on a piece of Robert Frost poetry. Sean locks himself into a soulful vocal, while his guitars and Hallman's upright bass give the song 70s folk rock bounce. "Back On The Road" and "Stay With Me Tonight" are both love songs. The first a woozy, affectionate look at a troubadour's life on the road, the second a boozier lovers call to spend the night. "The Heart Of The Ocean" is an impressionist love song to the sea that has taken Taylor 15 years to write. Listening to Sean's rippling piano, perfectly evoking the motion and mood of the Ocean, its hard to credit that this started on the guitar. As Sean riffs on words and syllables like a romantic poet mix of Van and Jim Morrison with a pinch of Mike Scott it becomes a mood piece you can become immersed in. Probably the strongest and most surprising part of the album, it also shows that twenty years and twelve albums in Taylor is still going up through the gears and isn't in top yet.
I'm imagining a drums, double bass and guitar then huge concert Steinway trio live album, with Taylor like a grinning Fedora-ed Oscar Peterson stretching this out for a whole side.
History has turned the page uh huh, and the beat goes on.
Marc Higgins
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Fatea Showcase Sessions
The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Pirate is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
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