A recent audio blog by Taylor Hicks from France teased fans to speculate if the music playing in the background was a snippet from his new album. It made me wonder…
We have had the opportunity to place the Early Works by Taylor in “life context.” Early Works is the music that grounds Taylor to a time when he wasn’t signing autographs at a stage door. It represents the roller coaster of being on stage playing the music he loves and facing reality the morning after of being a struggling singer driving byways in the South looking for the elusive road to success. It is where he has been and the voice he struggled to find.
A very popular song from another Idol, Clay Aiken, says, “To fly I had to want to leave the ground…on my way here.”
The context for the new music is very different. Taylor Hicks has flown. He now lives in the bright light of stardom. He has realized a lifelong dream. He has performed for the masses and on the Broadway stage. When he wrote Early Works, he was looking for recognition. Now he wears a stocking cap for disguise when he jogs.
I have no idea how his creative process works…I can’t say that the muses visit me. But I wonder if the new music will reflect a different context…come from a different place in Taylor’s life? How far away from Early Works will it be, or how close? Is there a style and essence to Taylor’s music that will always be reflected and supersede the life context?
Of course, the new music will have different sounds and different vibes. It will be fresh and contemporary. Still, I am betting on one common and continuing thread in Taylor’s music—intensity. You do not listen to the sounds of Taylor’s music. Taylor’s music, you experience. This is personified in his performances where he doesn’t just sing a song. He becomes the music.
Is Taylor’s music a reflection of the time? Or is Taylor’s music a reflection of who he is, and that doesn’t change from Birmingham to Broadway?
I’m waiting. I’m betting on it not changing!
Place your bets!
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3 comments:
I am betting that it will be change that will be reflective of where he came from and where he is now. Just as the post Idol CD was a change, it contained enough of Taylor to keep it the same...GENUINE. I cannot see Taylor as anything else :)
I, too, think that little snippet is a brief window into what Taylor's new CD will be, and I loved what little I heard! I'm betting the new music will be more like his original pre-Idol only with better sound, not like the post-AI release. While "Taylor Hicks" is fun to listen to, I really like the older Taylor better! Particularly 'West Texas Sky'!
I'm betting it will change. An artist is in a continual state of flux. Taylor's dynamic delivery will always be part of who he is as an artist, but I am guessing that in the content of the new CD, we will see a more mature, reflective man who is more sure of who he wants to be.
cath
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