Preview

There is almost too much to put down here about Chip Taylor: one of three talented brothers, one of whom is an academy award winning actor; the composer of one of the great rock and roll anthems of all time; for twenty years, a highly successful professional gambler - it's truly the stuff of legend! But here goes...

Chip Taylor was born James Wesley Voight, the third son of a professional golfer father and schoolteacher mother. His brother Barry Voight is a noted geologist who devised the formula to predict the elusive occurrences of volcanic eruptions, and his other brother Jon Voight is an Academy Award winning actor.

Taylor, who hails from Yonkers, NY, was first captivated by music when a physical sensation came over him while seeing "My Wild Irish Rose" on Broadway at the age of eight years old. During his junior year in high school, his band The Town and Country Brothers was the first white act signed to King Records, and soon after, as a solo artist, Chip had his first hit single, "Me As I Am" on Warner Bros. Records. In the years that followed, Taylor made his mark as a professional songwriter as well as a pioneering country-rock recording artist and record producer. Best known for writing such classics as "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning," among many others, he has enjoyed scores of covers over the years by such diverse artists as Frank Sinatra, The Pretenders, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, Fats Domino, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Linda Ronstadt, Ike & Tina Turner and Shaggy, to name just a few.

By the 1980s, Taylor had left music behind to concentrate on his alternate career as a successful professional gambler. During his years as a professional gambler, Taylor's prowess at blackjack eventually led to him being banned from all the major casinos in Atlantic City and several others in Las Vegas and Europe. Taylor and his partner Ernie Dahlman were such accomplished thoroughbred handicappers that the Long Island Off Track Betting parlour they frequented gave the team their own room with a private teller and televised race replay system.

When his mother fell ill in 1995, Taylor picked up the guitar again to sing for her - his biggest fan. The experience renewed his love of making music and he set aside gambling to begin performing, writing and recording again to considerable critical acclaim in America and Europe.

Chip Taylor enjoys the second-longest span of No.1 hits in music history between "Wild Thing" by The Troggs in 1966 and Shaggy's version of "Angel of the Morning" in 2001. "Angel of the Morning" has hit the Top 10 three times: in 1968 by Merilee Rush, in 1981 by Juice Newton and in 2001 by Shaggy.

Taylor happened to hear Rodriguez playing fiddle with alternative country artist Hayseed during the 2001 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, and, impressed by her talent and presence, he asked her to accompany him on some subsequent Texas shows and then join him on a European tour. At the time, Rodriguez told Taylor that she didn't sing. But worried that she might not get the gig, she added, "I'll try to sing a little background if you want me too." After she sang harmonies for a few nights in Holland, Taylor coaxed Rodriguez to duet with him on a song he co-wrote years before, "Storybook Children" (which in 1967 was recorded by co-writer Billy Vera & Judy Clay to become the first hit song by an interracial couple). When she stepped up to the microphone and began to sing, the audience went wild with applause.

"It was like a 'Rocky' movie," recalls Taylor. "In all my years, I've never seen an audience go nuts like that." He began featuring Rodriguez on harmony and duet vocals and was inspired to write new songs for them to sing as a duo. The end result was a new creative partnership that resulted in Let's Leave This Town, further American and European tours, and now The Trouble with Humans.

As an extra-special added bonus, Chip and Carrie are accompanied on this tour by the superlative and distinctive guitarist John Platania, who not only featured prominently on all Chip's fine pre-1980s albums, but also was a sideman for Van Morrison for many years, and whose countless session and production credits include the two most recent CDs from our old friend, Guy Davis.

Review

Hell, I'm running out of superlatives again. Comparisons are kinda invidious, but the general consensus at HQ is that of all the Talbot gigs of the last 3 years or so, this one merits a place in our all-time top three. And that's saying something.

Both on and off stage, Chip Taylor is a supremely charming communicator. The veteran songwriter's appeal lies in a winning combination: a laconic and unpretentious but deeply emotive voice tied to an equivalently unflashy minimalist guitar style, deployed in the service of an unending stream of classic country-flavoured songs that veer from heart-wrenching emotion (there was many an unashamed tear shed in the darkened room) to grin-inducing homily and celebration of life and humanity. Chip's own life seems in many respects to have been a charmed one, and part of his easy-going showmanship is a knack of making the entire audience his new-found friends, and including us all in his continuing run of luck.

Chip is flanked on one side by the dazzling young fiddle player/singer/co-writer Carrie Rodriguez, and on the other by the truly legendary John Platania. Carrie's brought classical training to her playing, and her command of the country (especially Texas) fiddle style is nothing short of phenomenal. Not only that, Chip's King Midas touch has extracted from Carrie a voice of such startling control and beauty that it pins you to the spot, and which, especially when combined with Chip's weathered pipes, is sublimely moving. As the icing on the cake, John Platania's guitar playing is jam-packed with killer licks and background tones, evoking pedal-steel one moment, and rocking out the next with a risky abandon that's characterized his playing, not only with Chip but also with Van Morrison, since the early 1970s. John's presence more than compensated for any lack of a bass player.

The evening's songs were drawn largely from the two current Chip & Carrie CDs ('Memphis, Texas', 'The Trouble With Humans', and 'Fall' were stand-outs), but Chip's back catalogue got a good airing, especially from the classic 1974 'Last Chance' album. 'Angel of the Morning' fits the duo format like a glove, and the mandatory 'Wild Thing' featured the audience on full song. As a bonus, we got a privileged debut performance of a brand-new song (of instant classic status, naturally) called 'Once Again, One Day... You Will Be Mine' (I still think that title's too long, Chip!).

At Chip's invitation, the Cambria Arts honchos spent a happy hour over a dram or two with this most civilized of men in the madness that is the Talbot back bar, during which the promise of a return visit (next year, all being well) was cemented, and a perfect (and massively attended) evening was toasted.

Tottering happily home at 3:30 a.m., a full moon unexpectedly penetrated the clouds. Very apt ...