SALLY TAYLOR
Apt. #6S (Blue Elbow)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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I've been listening to this one over and over, trying to figure out just why I like it so much. There's nothing particularly startling about it--sure, there's a guest shot by Maceo Parker, but it's not the most instrumentally-exciting disc in the pile on my desk. Sally Taylor has a fine voice, but there are a lot of fine voices out there. She writes a pretty fine song, too, in a style she calls "folk-rock" but sounds more like contemporary Americana blended with 70s pop to me. But while the tunes on this sophomoric effort are fine, and show great promise for the future, she's not really the composer of the year.

More than anything else, I suppose, it's the sincerity of her performances and her DIY spirit that make this one stand out from the pack. Like Ms. DiFranco, Sally Taylor records her own albums for her own label, selling them through her website (www.sallytaylor.com) and off a folding table at her shows. She's been playing about 200 dates a year, crisscrossing the country from her Colorado base, and along the way she's sold about 7,000 copies of her first album, Tomboy Bride. That one was more in the acoustic folkie vein, but all those nights on the stages of bars and clubs have toughened up her sound a bit for the new one. It hasn't dampened her optimism, though, or her desire to keep making the music she wants to make in just the way she wants it made.

Needless to say, if she wanted to take a faster path to stardom via major-label marketing hype, it wouldn't be hard for her to take the first steps in that direction. She is, after all, the latest member of one of America's most illustrious folk-pop families. Yep, those Taylors. Sally is the daughter of James Taylor and Carly Simon, and while she's real proud of the folks, and has worked with mom on a recent soundtrack project, she's determined to make her own way in the music world. That's a good way to make it, and she's good enough to make it that way. Log in and check her out.

Track List:

All This Time * Split Decisions * March Like Soldiers * 4 Kim * Fall 4 Me * Give Me The Strength * Convince Me * 40 Years * Nisa * Without Me * Immortal * How Can I?

© 2000 - Shaun Dale