Reviews
Artist:Sean Taylor
Album:Calcutta Grove
Label:Self Released
Tracks:11
Website:http://www.myspace.com/seantaylorsongs
Regular readers of Fatea will know that one artist that we really rate is Sean Taylor whose "Angels" album was our album of the year for 2007.
2008 saw Sean consolidate his live work with festivals as diverse as Glastonbury and Lucerne, Tenby Blues Festival and Broadstairs Folk Week and a great set at Tolpuddle Martyrs Fair.
Along the way he picked up gigs in Switzerland and Germany, has supported the likes of The Neville Brothers, The Groundhogs, Chickenshack and Big Joe Turner. He also played a number of gigs as part of the 'Love Music Hate Racism' movement.
More importantly, having consolidated his live act, Sean went back into the studio to record album number three, "Calcutta Grove", follow up to the aforementioned "Angels" and his debut "Corrugatuions".
The first thing you notice about "Calcutta Grove" is that its far more instant that than the previous cuts. Both of his earlier albums have taken a couple of listens before they really click in, "Calcutta Grove" is pretty much there from the off.
I think the reason for that is the shear amount of live dates Sean played before recording this album. On the live circuit you don't have the time to wait for your audience to click, you've got to hook them early on and then bring them in to the more complicated numbers. It's a lesson that Sean has learnt well, "Calcutta Grove" feels more like a complete set, beginning, middle and end.
It also has Sean making more use of his wider instrumental talents. First and foremost, Taylor is a great blues guitarist, often nodding in the direction a number of his influences. He pays tribute to a couple by covering their songs, or interpretation of songs on this album, namely Skip James and Richie Havens. He has used piano, keyboards and gob iron before they just seem to get more prominence on this album.
The signoff track "The River Merchant's Wife", an instrumental track influenced by Ezra Pound's poem o the same name, highlights Sean's talent over a keyboard as well as the fretboard. He also plays percussion on the album."
Most pleasingly he hasn't compromised anything to make this album easier to get into, just built the album differently. Sean's albums are a good mix of emotion, social commentary and politics, with all themes being represented across the eleven tracks that make the album what it is.
There is a real sense of the troubadour contained in "Calcutta Grove" is an album that has an sense of journey to it, of an artist making a progress through life, trying to find a sense of purpose and worth, the trials and tribulations of getting there.
No where is this more apparent than on the eight and a half minute epic, "Nightmares", also the only track on the album to feature another musician, Gemma Fuller on the trumpet. It's a track that features many changes, tempo, mood, instrument as it moves relentless forward and shows that whilst life can be diverted there's an unrelentless movement forward. You can look back, but not go back. It's a hugely poignant track.
Not that Taylor needs length for a track to really hit home "The Concept Of Irony" takes just one minute four seconds. If you don't get it in that time, you really aren't going to. It's also another track that embraces greater use of piano and is yet another instrumental, sometimes words aren't expressive enough.
At least before the album really takes off, the best known song on "Calcutta Grove" is his cover of "Freedom". It's very nature and amount of times it's been covered really gives you the opportunity to understand how far Sean Taylor has come since his last album, an album given five stars by Maverick Magazine.
Hopefully this will be the album to break him to a wider audience. If it was just down to hardwork and talent, Sean Taylor would already be better known. He'd have his slots on Later and sessions of Radio Two, but as you know the music industry needs breaks, well this is one hell of a crack.
Neil King