There's plenty of reason for optimism. On February 21, Taylor, joined by the JW-Jones Band and Rita Chiarelli, shares a Toronto stage for the NorthernBlues launch party, and he's already been invited to a slew of prestigious festivals, Santa Fe's annual Thirsty Ear soiree among them, with more expected to confirm soon. And documentary filmmaker Janet Russo is exploring the possibility of making a film about "Writing the Blues," a program that Taylor puts on at schools to teach youngsters about the blues. As part of the assemblies, which Taylor has offered in Denver, Los Angeles and Chicago, students are encouraged to write lyrics in the blues style and perform them on stage with him. "I always warn the teachers that it can get a little manic, because the kids get so excited," Taylor says. "One time we had 350 kids in an auditorium, and when I asked them who wants to sing, 250 of them stood up. They have to come up and tell what makes them sad, and I've heard some incredible stuff, some beautiful stuff, some heavy stuff. A lot of possible song material."
Not that Taylor is at a loss for subject matter. "I think there's an endless amount of things to write about if you just write about what's really going on with you or your people or your country," he says. And while he's encouraged that a handful of younger performers, including Harris and Hart, are penning tunes in the blues idiom that aren't just mimeographs of those made by their elders, he'd like more to follow suit. "I'd hate to see the blues end up like polka," he says, "but some people try to protect it too much. Some of these people idolize Robert Johnson, and they want to do everything like Robert Johnson did. But Robert Johnson didn't idolize anybody. He just wanted to be Robert Johnson, and he was. And that's what people need to do. They need to be themselves, not somebody else."
John Johnston
Otis Taylor's new release, White African, is a dark affair -- but it shines a light on the Denver bluesman's gifts.
Details
With Corey Harris, Shemekia Copeland, and Otis and Cassie Taylor
8 p.m. Saturday, February 3, $15.75, 303-786-7030
Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street, Boulder
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In order to live these words, Taylor had to walk away from the security of a successful career that had long supported his family (specifically, wife Carol and daughters Cassie and Jae) in favor of a pursuit he'd quit in a moment of apparent good sense nearly two decades earlier. But thanks to his contract with NorthernBlues and a growing feeling that he's among the individuals whose work is keeping the blues alive, what might have seemed like a foolhardy capitulation to a midlife crisis at the time is starting to look a lot better now.
"I had to pay a price and be obscure and work hard for four years and not give up," he says. "I told myself, 'I'm not giving up,' and I didn't. I'm like a roach. I'm not going away."
