The new sounds of blue-eyed soul…
“The Distance” is the new soul sound of Taylor Hicks, who says he is taking vibes from classic soul artists like Van Morrison and James Taylor.
Taylor recently announced the album title “The Distance” which is being released on the artist’s own recording label, Modern Whomp Records, in collaboration with independent music distributor, Artist To Market. “The Distance” is a record that Taylor has had complete control over—the music, recording and marketing. The title of the single has not been released yet, but often it is the title track from the record. But with Taylor, we know that nothing is ever “business as usual”, so we will just have to wait to see what he has chosen for the single.
And the backup’s not bad either! Taylor hired an A-list of musicians to record this album. Among them are Nathan East, Eric Clapton’s bass man, Doyle Bramhall a Grammy-nominated blues songwriter and musician from Texas and Abe Laborial, Paul McCartney’s drummer. His musical collaborations include renowned Nashville songwriter Gary Nicholson and friends Wynne Christian and Alan Little.
Taylor knows distance, traveling with his band throughout the South as an unknown blue-eyed soul singer. And he has gone the long distance from Birmingham to Broadway with a few hundred cities in between. From the Hollywood stage where he won American Idol in 2006 to his first Modern Whomp Solo Tour in 2007, distance has been a constant companion for Taylor, much of it traveled comfortably for the last couple of years on his own luxury tour bus. He is traveling again with the National Tour of Grease starring as Teen Angel now through May, 2009.
For someone who loves making music on the road, distance is a way of life. Lots of us have traveled the last year with him. I am looking forward to seeing where those distances have taken Taylor Hicks musically. I think this will be a fascinating contrast and comparison of what “the distance” from there to here has done to the heart and soul—the music—of Taylor Hicks.
This promises to be the best of Taylor Hicks. He recently told Blogcritic Sherry Lippman, “I can honestly tell you that it is a great record. I'm really excited about it.” Taylor is truly proud of this work. He has said, “The best is yet to come.”
“The Distance” will be worth the wait!
Source credit for quote: Blogcritic Sherry Lippman
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4 comments:
Like a crescendo in music, the waiting for "The Distance" will bring out a frenzy of excitement and hopefully a lot a good publicity! I for one, can hardly wait! And I love those little snippets that Taylor has been releasing from time to time! Great blog entry!
Anticipation - a great way to get us all excited about the New Year!
Looking forward to January and February and all of the days in between when Taylor conducts some interviews with the local media while touring with Grease. We will have to take him at his word - it's going to be a great CD! If Taylor is proud of it, then that is good enough for me!
There's no question, I am going The DISTANCE with this guy. I really want to hear how he is transforming his music .
Surely, this CD will take us far away from the American Idol mold.... a looonnng DISTANCE away.
cath
Thanks, Ragsqueen! I think we are in for a real treat! Taylor's had time to work on this...and as he says, "kind of live with the songs for a while," and now it's almost there!
Do you remember that two years ago this week we were enjoying the first sounds of "Taylor Hicks!" Here we are again anticipating a new album and celebrating the holidays with Taylor music!
Happy holidays!
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