Eric Taylor

Looking for a new beginning after a short stint in California, Taylor arrived in Houston, Texas at a very opportune time. In the early 1970s Houston  was the place to be if you had the desire to play or write music. When Taylor arrived, he met  Townes Van Zandt, and they quickly became friends. Also in Houston at the time were Guy Clark, blues legends Lightin� Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb, among several others. Constantly listening toand learning from these legends enabled Taylor to create his own successfully unique style. His amazing finger pickin� guitar playing, reminds many of Townes during his heyday. The deep soulful voice and keen ability to tell a good story with his music were all fine tuned during this time as well.

Eric Taylor is one of our last remaining links to one of the most creative musical periods ever.
Many of today’s artists such as Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith, and Lyle Lovett, proudly declare that they have learned a great deal from Taylor. It is this legacy that links us with a rich musical heritage, and enables others to enjoy music at perhaps its purest form - a magical guitar, and a lone passionate voice.
After touring around the world with Van Zant and others during the 1970’s with Van Zandt and others, often living the hard life, Taylor took a break from the music business during the 1980’s to gather himself and put the pieces back together.
It was in 1995 that everything truly fell back into place with his release of Eric Taylor, which was voted the Texas Album of the Year at the Kerrville Music Awards. In 1998, he released Resurrect, which was recently named one of the 100 essential records of all time by Texas magazine “Buddy.”
With three other CDs released in the past five years, Taylor has continued to deliver timeless classics to his eager fans. His latest CD, entitled Hollywood Pocketknife, is due to be released on January 29. Taylor, who also produced his new CD, has provided yet another powerful and brilliantly written collection of songs. His ability to tell a story, and paint a picture with his words, makes this CD very enjoyable.
Just after Taylor arrived back from an overseas tour, we sat down and had a short conversation about his latest CD and his musical experiences.
AR:  The title cut Hollywood Pocketknife seems to be a reflective look at old Hollywood. Where did you get the idea?
ET:  Reflective is right. It’s a story that’s rattled around in my head for some time.
I think I’ve always had this romantic idea about working in old Hollywood, the early years of film up through the late fifties is an interest I continue [to have]. These were the days of “contract players.” They were under contract to one studio and were seen as needing protection and great care so as to not tarnish the image of the actor and thus, the studio. I’m sure being an actor would have been fun, but I’m thinkin’ more that I would have loved to be a driver, or maybe a butler, maybe for someone like Robert Mitchum, Chaplin or Barrymore, or even better, Marilyn.
A while back, in one of the old Hollywood Babylon books, I think, I saw a picture of a chauffeur or driver waiting outside the car for Marilyn Monroe. He was either carving on a small piece of wood or he was cleaning his fingernails or somethin’, but any case the image stuck with me. This picture of this young and handsome driver waiting for Marilyn. What was on his mind? What would he talk about today? Say maybe that you were interviewing him and asked him to talk about what it was like back then. Did he meet DiMaggio?
“What was he like?”
“Well, he was a jealous man, to be sure, but I liked him, all in all.”
Donald Turnipseed (also spelled as Turnupseed) was a 23 year old man that was driving the Ford sedan on the road to Salinas, California, September 30, 1955. This is the Ford that James Dean ran headlong into as Turnupseed made his turn off the road.  Into the sunset.
It’s another song about history; Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio and the Kennedy brothers.  The boys. It’s just another little play, I guess.
AR:  The Townes cover you chose for this CD is “Highway Kind.” Any particular reason you chose this one?

ET:  It’s a song I’ve done off and on in the stage show for a long time. So far, I’ve covered “Where I Lead Me,” “Nothin’,” “Brand New Companion,” and now, “Highway Kind.” These are definitive Townes songs, for me. They best represent how I remember him. It’s good to remember. I first remember Townes as being kinda like a thoroughbred racehorse. He was that clean and fast and so damned near perfect on the guitar that I was stunned that anybody could sit with one guitar and a voice and do what he did. It just baffled me for a while.
You know, I’d never considered doin’ a cover of anybody’s song on one of my records. It was Dave van Ronk that pushed me off in that direction. He was big on givin’ credit to who you learned from.
AR:  One of my favorites from the CD is “Jail Widows Walk.” I thought the alto sax added a great deal to the song. Can you tell me a little about the story behind this song?
ET:  Thanks. Yeah, I like the sax too. Eric Demmer plays it. I’ve used him on several records now. Great sax, and he lives down around Pasadena, Texas. He played with “Gatemouth” Brown for many years, and also did some stuff with Clapton.
Well, when I was a kid, every small town had a Jail Widow’s Walk. It’s a single walkway that goes down between the courthouse and the jail. On Saturdays and Sundays the family members would visit the walkway and talk to their locked up loved ones from that walk. They would bring special food and fresh socks and toothpaste and such. When I was a kid I’d go down and watch all this happen. Sunday mornings was always a great smell of biscuits and gravy down on Jail Widow’s Walk. All the jailers and deputies and even the sheriff would get a little taste of what was brought down by the wives and girlfriends and mothers and aunts.
John Watson was a friend of the family. I remember riding in that Studebaker car when I was five or six years old. Mr. John had a small pistol that he would keep in the door glove, and there were times we were driving through downtown Greenville, South Carolina that he took it out of the glove (holster) and kept it in his hand until we got to the other side of town out on White Horse Road. My father owned a souped-up 54 Mercury, black bottom, red top, three on the column. It was a very powerful automobile, but it just couldn’t stand up to Mr. John’s Studebaker.

AR:  On “Olney’s Poison & the Houston Blues”, I am guessing it is a reflective look at Dave Olney and Lightnin Hopkins. Is that correct? Why the term “poison” in regards to Olney?

ET:  Actually, it’s a reflective of look at Richard Dobson, Guy and Susanna Clark, David Olney, Townes, Lightnin, Little Joe Washington, Albert Collins, and The Sisters of Mercy.
Olney has a great song called, “Little Bot of Poison,” that I’ve always been fond of. I’ve been listenin’ to Olney since the old days of The X-Rays. They played around Houston a good bit and I would catch a show now and then.
Guy and Susanna lived at one end of Stratford Street, in Houston, and I lived at the other. Big ol’ rent houses, both of them. Guy worked on guitars and Volkswagens at the same big ol’ kitchen table down at their place. I mean that literally. I mean one week you might see him cutting the top off of some 1920 somethin’ double O Martin at that table and the next week the same table would be covered in oily newspaper and a Volkswagen engine. Parts layin’ around everywhere. Susanna would be working on a painting like “ol’ Number 1” Smells like gesso smells like rain.
All these people mentioned in this song, I could see any of these people play on almost any given night back in those days. It was a marvel, and a great education.
It’s about the Houston Blues. Houston was always a great town for music, but simply a wonder when it came to being a writers’ town. It broke ground like no other town I know of from the standpoint of writers and their music. Townes used to say, “If you can’t catch the blues in Houston, you can’t catch the blues.” He was right.
AR:  I know Townes mentioned a great deal about the influence Lightnin’ had on his music. Do you feel the same way? What others had a influence?
ET:  I would think that it would be impossible to be around Lightnin’ and not be taken away, much less influenced.  The same with Townes and Guy. These were people that were workin’ for the song.
AR:  I was lucky enough to catch your live performance recently. The 2 songs I enjoyed a great deal live, which you have included on the CD, are “Postcards, 3 For A Dime” and “Peppercorn Tree”. You have a unique, and very enjoyable, ability to pick the guitar and provide a back beat with your boot. How did you pick this up?
ET:  I’ve never thought much about it, but yeah, I guess I do it all the shows. I have no idea where I picked it up, but I’m sure I stole it somewhere.
I use a variation of a finger pickin’ style called double-thumbin’ and it seems to lend itself to the back-beat thing. Like I say, I’m not so aware of it. Thanks, I’m glad you like it.
AR:  Speaking of your live shows, I recall you always speak highly of Townes of course, but I have never heard you mention Blaze Foley. What were your opinions of him? He seemed to be a “haunted soul” from everything I have read.
ET:  Sure, Blaze was around, between Houston and Austin, for years. He’d show up to sleep on the sofa overnight and end up stayin’ for a few weeks. He was brilliant. I would say that he was not for the faint-hearted nor did he easily tolerate them, and there was certainly a visceral connection between Blaze and his audience. You either got it or you didn’t. I loved it, but there were a lot of people that just couldn’t hang with it. After a while, most of his audience was made up a few steadfast fans, mostly writers and musicians. I can’t remember there ever being more 15 or 20 people at a time attending his shows. Sure, I’m glad that people are getting to hear his songs these days because they are amazing songs, but I’ve also got to say that it really pisses me off. Where were these people when he needed them? Why weren’t all these fans around when he was alive? Personally, I never saw him as a “haunted soul”.
AR:  What is your opinion on today’s music scene? I know just there in Texas alone there are several aging stars, such as Billy Joe Shaver, and even some younger up and comers like Hayes Carll.  Is there anyone you particularly enjoy? What are your thoughts?
ET:  It’s hard for me to cultivate an interest in any scene. I’m not much of a scene person, I guess. There’s always been some good music and there will be some more. I don’t have a clue about the music business and I never have.
I have always been a fan of Shaver. I got to see him play several times back at the Old Quarter in Houston. Just him and a guitar, that’s the way to see Billy Joe. I like some of Hayes Carll as well. The first time I ever heard him was when he opened a show for me in Houston a few years ago. He’s got something, and I’m glad he’s getting some recognition for it.
AR:  What is next for you?
ET:  Keep writing. I’m still looking toward working on more prose work and maybe bring back some of the plays. As it stands now, I’m really just enjoying the work and the travel and shows. These last twelve years of touring have been good for me because I’ve discovered how much I like to perform. That wasn’t always the case. I just finished seven weeks in Europe and the UK with only two real days off. I loved it.
AR:  You mentioned working on plays. Anything in particular you would like to elaborate or mention?
ET:  I’ve worked on several things over the years, going all the way back to Joseph Cross.  It’s one thing to write a play, it’s another to get it picked up by the people with enough money to make you look smart and underdressed. Theater is a very expensive undertaking. I hate dealing with people over money, so I just lose interest in the fight during the discussion. It’s agents and advisors and all that goes with it. I’d still love to get it done. 
AR:  Have you written, or plan on writing, any books either autobigraphical or otherwise?
ET:  I haven’t finished any books, but I’ve probably written several that are waiting to be put together in some kind of logical order of words. Over the last year, I have started an outline that might turn into something.
AR:  You have been playing music for a while now. Is there anyone in the music business today who you would love to work with, but have not had the opportunity to do so yet?
ET:  Anybody but Jimmy Buffet, I suppose.
AR:  You close out Hollywood Pocketknife with a traditional song titled “Rally Around the Flag”. You even get help from Vince Bell for this song. What was the story behind this song for you?
ET:  When the idea for using the song came around, I had not one thought about the things that are going on today.
It’s a traditional song, written during or after the Civil War, that I’ve known of for many years. There’s a great version done by Ry Cooder, I think, on the Boomer’s Story record. Any case, I was looking for something that Vince, Steve, and I could do together. It turned out that the only remaining studio time on this project fell on the fourth of July. Vince, Steve, and I are close and long runnin’ friends and partners. I’m really proud of how it sounds because it’s so simple and Vince sounds so much like Vince and the same with Steve. Fromholz had a major stroke a few years back. This is the first recording of him, in the studio, since the stroke. Steve Fromholz wrote The Texas Trilogy. The song is on there because it’s just us pullin’ for each other. It’s about us and the friendship of three good fighters. Seems like I came up with the idea at the last minute of the night before. Maybe that’s why it works.

Author: John Walker