Pointed, personal commentary rooted in history, wrapped in earthy, unusual instrumentation and delivered with a mixture of solace and scorn is Otis Taylor’s calling card.
The part-time antiques dealer and full-time bluesman was first pictured in these pages in 1964, a lanky, 16-year-old, banjo-strumming unicyclist. Taylor settled in Boulder almost four decades ago. It’s easy to catch the easygoing man in a light mood. His music is anything but.
We caught up to this W.C. Handy Blues Award winner before a recent trip to music festivals in Norway, France and Italy. He chatted about his forthcoming CD, “Below the Fold.”
Q: Tell us about that pudgy Otis Taylor baby picture in the new CD’s liner notes.
A: My wife got mad at me for that. She said it was too personal, but it was a joke. The photographer who shot the cover wanted to do a nude. That just wasn’t going to happen. Maybe when I was 20, but not now. I used to model in the 1980s and that’s how I met him. We’re good friends. He’s one of the few people who has a photographic history of me. So it got into my head that we needed a nude. My music is so dark sometimes, (the baby picture) helps.
Q: Your eldest daughter, Cassie, sings and plays bass on this album. How did you get a 19-year-old into playing the blues instead of overdosing on hip-hop and MTV?
A: She does watch a lot of MTV. It was my idea to have her sing backup on “White African” when she was 12. Then one day she was bored so my old bass player showed her how to play a very complex lead line. She learned it in 10 minutes.
When he quit, I had her take his place during the summer to help pay for school. She goes to Columbia College in Chicago.
Now I would rather her play than anybody else. Susan Tedeschi watched us play the other day and said, “I can’t believe how tight you and your daughter are.” Family people walk the same, talk the same and probably play the same. The way I strike a note or play a note, she does it the exact same way.
Q: Which takes more hustle – selling CDs or antiques?
A: It’s two different animals. One is about selling history. The other is about making history. One has a lasting, established value. With the other you try to establish the value.
It all has to do with passion. I just love (antiques.) It started with buying beaded moccasins when I was 15 and grew into buying paintings and Native American arts. But I think I would rather make history than sell history.
Staff writer Elana Ashanti Jefferson can be reached at 303-820-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com.
