‘Speed will only get you so far…’
– M. Taylor
Growing up two minutes away from one another, I’ve known Mark Taylor most of my life. We attended the same schools yet for 18 years we never spoke, or more specifically, we never quite acknowledged each other’s existence. Moving forward a decade and a half, he is as close a friend as I have. We bonded over music. We bonded over a passion to create, perform and innovate. Our friendship though, continues to build on an unspoken mutual drive to become better fathers, better people.
Mark’s music is an uncommon and beautiful arrangement of melody and grit; in time and out of time; take it away and bring it on home. Autobiographical, with a Springsteen-like honesty, his lyrics continue to be cathartic attempt to find his place in the world. The world through his eyes that is. Both big and bold, his baritone voice and un-repenting guitar style should be at competitive odds all night. The fact is each aspect of his playing seems to motivate the other to a heightened collective level.
I have a long standing admiration for any one individual who can get in-front of a crowd and perform something meaningful they have created. Poetry, public address, song; it matters not to me. I have never had a desire to play a solo gig. More than likely I never had the courage to do so either. My 300th performance was, as nerve wracking an experience as the first I ever played in public seventeen years ago in the 9th grade. Even under the shelter of what I would consider one of the best rhythm sections in the Country at the time, I was and am very nervous in front of crowds. Good fortune has allowed me to catch many Mark Taylor shows. Each performance varying in both patron numbers and enthusiasm; I wonder how he does it up there alone. Weaving through 4+ hours of genre bashing original material, his musical influences are lost and frankly unimportant to me. It dawned on me one evening that as much as I always thought I played music for my own amuse, and that I could not care less what anyone else thought…the fact is I cared, a bit anyway. And that is why Mark excels as a solo artist. He is unapologetically playing for his own pleasure.
I have purposely neglected to pigeon hole Mark Taylor as _______ act/performer. Yes, there are audible aspects of blues, roots, and soul in his music. There are though many more subtle aspects to his writing and playing that make him impossible to define. His DIY philosophy would make many involved with the storied history of East Coast hardcore blush. His wonderful ability to time stamp his visions in song through memorable lyrics is not unlike some of the great (North) American troubadours before him. Mark is indeed a refreshing dose of real, organic hard working talent in a world that seems to be dominated by the insta-bands rolling off big record assembly lines. Style beats technique 10 times out of 10 I have heard before. Like many of the musicians I most admire, Mark Taylor has always put his craft of song writing and live performance before technical prowess. As he put it to me recently at his family’s home outside of Wooler Ontario, ‘Speed will only get you so far….’ It applies to life as much as it does to music I think.
- Jeremy Taft of New Shady Groove