2004 Downbeat Critics’ Poll Blues Album of the Year
Otis Taylor’s newest recording, Double V will be his most intimate recording to date. The album marks his sophomore effort for the preeminent blues/jazz/classical label. Double V comprises a dozen songs written, arranged and produced by Taylor. Demonstrating a deep connection to his heritage, the title is symbolic of the civil rights movement. “After World War II, the black soldiers would hold up their hands and make a ‘V’ out of their middle and index fingers,” Taylor explains. “This stood for victory at home and in Europe. The ‘V’ is also indicative of the blacks unremitting fight for the right to vote.”
On an even more personal level, the record is a collaboration between father and daughter. Seventeen-year-old Cassie Taylor, who has performed live and in studio with her father since age 12, plays bass on the entire disc, provides back-up vocals on several tracks, and steps into the spotlight for the first time by singing lead on one song, “Buy Myself Some Freedom.”
“It’s always challenging to work with my dad” says Cassie, “but this time it was us, being really together on something. I guess before I felt like I was working for him, and this project was an opportunity to work with him.”
From the vibrant grooves of the opening cut, “Please Come Home Before It Rains” to the aggressive intensity of “Mama’s Selling Heroin” and the spiritual warmth of “Buy Myself Some Freedom,” Otis Taylor takes listeners on an aural excursion greatly inspired by an unconventional childhood. “On all my records, the subject of struggles is often discussed from a historical perspective. But on Double V, a lot of the songs take an internal approach and reveal some of what I experienced as a kid.” He muses, “See, now you’ll know why I am the way I am.”
Since Taylor’s return to music in 1995, he has released five CDs, earned a slew of W.C. Handy awards and/or nominations (the blues equivalent of the Grammy), and garnered international acclaim from media and audiences worldwide. Thus, he has carved a unique niche as a blues artist whom USA Today calls, “One of the genre’s most original practitioners in years.” And 2003 ended on an equally high note. The New York Times ranked his first Telarc CD, Truth Is Not Fiction, among their picks for “Albums and Songs of the Year,” while online retailers Amazon and Borders Books & Music named it one of the Best Blues CDs of the Year.
Otis Taylor - vocals, guitar, banjo, electric banjo, electric mandolin, harmonica
Cassie Taylor -- vocals, bass
Ben Sollee -- cello
Shaun Diaz -- cello
Lara Turner -- cello
Marcello Sanches -- cello
Ron Miles -- trumpet
Reviews
“Where most bluesmen rely on the twelve-bar form as shorthand for pain, Taylor's murky swamp drones and intricate African folk move right past entertainment -- into a realm where the blues can again be about illumination, and provocation… THREE STARS” -- Rolling Stone Magazine
“The blues today has no one quite like Otis Taylor...FOUR STARS” -- Blender
“This new CD further confirms Taylor's standing as the pre-eminent blues songwriter currently cutting tracks...Also take note of Taylor's daughter, Cassie, who performs on bass guitar and delivers a haunting vocal on "Buy Myself Some Freedom." -- Billboard
“For an artist who so perfectly encapsulates everything powerful about deep blues, Otis Taylor sure knows how to manipulate the genre to his advantage...Double V is his most satisfying album since White African and his most free-thinking effort to date.” -- Blues Revue
"Otis Taylor’s fifth album in as many years, is yet another intense, rewarding recording by the Colorado bluesman...Double V still plays to Taylor’s storytelling skills, but while earlier albums resembled collections of short fiction, this one is something of a memoir." -- The New Yorker
“Edgy protest bluesman Otis Taylor gets real on Double V (Telarc), swallowing bitter pills like "Mama's Selling Heroin" and "Took Their Land," which addresses the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. B+” -- Knight Ridder
“The remarkable originality that he demonstrates both as a lyricist and an arranger, connects to the larger blues tradition while simultaneously defining easy categorization." -- Paste
“Well, it finally happened; Otis Taylor has become a ‘star’...Here is an artist who is not afraid to confront the hypocrisies that weave the American social-cultural fabric together by using a foundation of African and early American roots music sounds to captivate listeners. Taylor hypnotizes his audience with music that gets right to one’s core soul.” -- Real Blues
"His evocative lyrics follow in the African-American storytelling tradition. The music sounds fresh and innovative, though, because of his banjo playing and use of other instruments not typically associated with a blues band." -- Chicago Sun Times
“He is one of the most artistic, relevant and mellifluous blues artists at work today.” -- International Herald Tribune
”Otis Taylor, an impressive bluesman whose moan can shake a firehouse down, works his songs around contemporary themes...Taylor may be taking some big chances. But who says you gotta play the blues with just a battered guitar in your lap, right?” -- Dirty Linen
“Not only has Taylor reintroduced the banjo to the blues, but he also remains the most compelling new talent in American blues.” -- Global Rhythm
“Taylor’s latest continues to affirm my belief that he is exactly what the blues need, a highly original storyteller who makes the personal and the political one without ever blurring the human faces behind his tales.” -- Jambase.com
“Phillip Glass meets the Delta in this folk-blues noir of down-home protest doggerel.” -- Down Beat
“Otis Taylor remains the real deal, and Double V is a brutally honest slice of life.” -- Relix
“Filled with sparse arrangements and a brooding style, (Double V) it is unlike almost anything that now fills the record racks.” -- San Jose Mercury News
“The repetitive almost droning acoustic music of his fifth CD has more in common with the rhythmic guitar lines of African mbaqanga than the familiar blues riffs of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry...The blues hasn’t sounded so poignant and original in decades.” -- Chicago Tribune
“Chalk up another ace from one of the most innovative and audacious voices—albeit one also deeply rooted in folk tradition—on the contemporary scene.” -- Living Blues
Clips
of Otis Taylor live @ Portsmouth Guildhall 05/06/07 supporting Gary Moore
