Otis Taylor is an American blues musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist wh… Read Full Bio ↴Otis Taylor is an American blues musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist whose talents include the guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, and vocals. In 2001, he was awarded a fellowship to the Sundance Film Composers Laboratory.
Taylor's career in music performance and recording has taken a circuitous path. Born in Chicago 1948, and growing up in Denver after his family relocated there, he began listening to blues and folk-blues in his teens. Through Denver's Folklore Center, he began to play the blues. By 1977, though, he "retired" from music and had a successful antiques business. He returned to music when he was nearly 50, and having immersed himself in the history of the folklore of the blues, he traced the migration of both the blues and the banjo from its roots in Africa to its "birth" in the American south.
His music is uncompromising and fierce, and it walks the line of gritty and gorgeous well. He incorporates elements of the blues masters Johnson, Jefferson, McTell and others, but always makes the resulting music his own.
His return to performance and recording began in 1995, but it was his acceptance of a Sundance Festival composition fellowship in 2000 that sparked his emergence as a preeminent bluesman with When Negroes Walked The Earth. His song, 'Nasty Letter', plays over the credits at the end of the 2007 Mark Wahlberg film Shooter.
Taylor's career in music performance and recording has taken a circuitous path. Born in Chicago 1948, and growing up in Denver after his family relocated there, he began listening to blues and folk-blues in his teens. Through Denver's Folklore Center, he began to play the blues. By 1977, though, he "retired" from music and had a successful antiques business. He returned to music when he was nearly 50, and having immersed himself in the history of the folklore of the blues, he traced the migration of both the blues and the banjo from its roots in Africa to its "birth" in the American south.
His music is uncompromising and fierce, and it walks the line of gritty and gorgeous well. He incorporates elements of the blues masters Johnson, Jefferson, McTell and others, but always makes the resulting music his own.
His return to performance and recording began in 1995, but it was his acceptance of a Sundance Festival composition fellowship in 2000 that sparked his emergence as a preeminent bluesman with When Negroes Walked The Earth. His song, 'Nasty Letter', plays over the credits at the end of the 2007 Mark Wahlberg film Shooter.
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Recapturing The Banjo
Otis Taylor Lyrics
Hey Joe Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun of your…
Live Your Life Just live your life Before you die Just might be for a…
Ran So Hard the Sun Went Down Spoke to the wrong person that day, Went back home and…
Simple Mind Mujer ingrata tu traición Dejo huellas en mi corazón Y ya qu…
Ten Million Slaves Rain and fire crossed that ocean Another mad man done struc…
Brook Robin Behrle
on Blue Rain In Africa
Every time I hear this song by Otis and band, I am moved to tears. It touches my heart and soul. It moves me say prayers for all Indigenous peoples of the world. Thank You Otis Taylor Band, for sharing your music and words.