If the blues shoe fits...
The Blind Lemon Gators – Gatorville
The Blind Lemon Gators – Gatorville
Scottish blues styled vocalist Greig Taylor has been a busy and musically productive man of late.
In 2018 The Greig Taylor Blues Combo made their live debut and an album is now in the pipeline.
That same year Taylor released #Songbook1, a primarily stripped back covers album that included interesting rearrangements of a number of rock and pop classics.
Greig Taylor was also part of the Celtic Blues and Gospel Show performances at the 2018 Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival with Earl Thomas; that led to a vocal role as part of the noted American blues and gospel singer’s A Capella group on The Gospel According... shows that toured Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Now, reinforcing Greig Taylor’s love and passion for rootsy, soul-baring blues, comes Gatorville, the debut album from The Blind Lemon Gators, featuring Taylor, guitarist Iain Donald (who also plays double bass on the album and a ‘Gator from the 2017 get-go) and Blues Combo drummer Dave Cantwell.
Opener 'Blues Man’s Shoes' captures what these rootsy, Delta-blues styled ‘Gators are all about.
Iain Donald’s introductory blues notes (and later-song slide work), followed by the down the bumpy railroad tracks rhythm from Dave Cantwell, capture the musical essence of the Gators while Greig Taylor's forthright declaration of "how can you even sing the blues if you’ve never even walked in a blue man’s shoes!" is as much in homage to the original pre and post war bluesmen as it is a rebuttal to those who think they just need to holler about being a Hoochie Coochie Man to call themselves a blues singer.
A slower but similar rhythm sets up the Cajun tinted 'A Little Death.'
A more delicate number, 'A Little Death' features delightful slide work from Iain Donald while the lyric speaks of a having that inherent awareness when someone close to you has strayed off the straight and narrow and needs that best-of-loving-intentions lecture (the backing vocal from Stacy Paris is both subtle and highly effective).
The blues come calling on the simply arranged but highly effective sparseness of the Sam Cooke styled 'All I Ever Wanted' before the only non-original song on the album, Lead Belly’s oft-covered 'Goodnight Irene,' is given a spacious vocal and guitar treatment in memory of Iain Donald’s mother, who sadly passed in 2018. Iain Donald's slide work and the impassioned but generally understated vocal from Greig Taylor are highlights of the entire album.
'Hurt,' a song of addiction and recovery, carries a decidedly New Orleans French Quarter vibe (courtesy of the Cajun styled box accordion from the Blues Combo’s Gill Hunter); 'Gravy Train' then rattles down the harp blowin’ tracks (harmonica player Dave Ivens making the first of two Gatorville appearances) on its way to the Saturday night dancefloor.
The chain-gang, slow marching rhythm of 'Better Land' perfectly encapsulates the pain and suffering of Greig Taylor’s gospel-blues lyric for injustices past and present ("Lord, please take me by the hand… trying to reach a Better Land").
It’s also a song Taylor considered writing for Earl Thomas, but it’s the ‘Gators gain that the number has found a home on Gatorville, to the degree that even on first run-through you can’t conceive of the album without it.
Carrying similar authenticity is harmonica blues number 'I Ain’t Got You' (the loneliness of addiction over the company of real love); it’s a song that could be straight out of the 50s blues canon or Chess Records.
The short and sharp 'Wicked Charm' delivers just that (early era ZZ Top riffage dovetailing with, and sometimes paralleling, Dave Cantwell’s repeating drum pattern) before the album closes with the can’t help but smile 'Ballad of Triggerelli.'
Based on a true story, the vocal and guitar number seems to tell the tale of incompatibility over what-could-have-been curiosity ("you maybe saw me on the telly… but then again, you were probably watching Corrie…")
Gatorville, recorded at Stirling's Tolbooth Studio by Mark Lough and mixed to semi-acoustic and space-to-breathe perfection by Wayne Proctor (who also mastered the album) is Greig Taylor’s most personal and significant work to date.
As importantly, and relating to the album’s opening statement, Greig Taylor’s life journey has seen him rise from Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison to BBC TV on a short series that featured his first group, GT’s Boos Band (who originally featured Iain Donald and where the "saw me on the telly" line from 'Triggerelli' hails from).
To wit, Greig Taylor has certainly paid his dues and deserves to try those blues man’s shoes on for size.
And you know what? They're a great fit.
In 2018 The Greig Taylor Blues Combo made their live debut and an album is now in the pipeline.
That same year Taylor released #Songbook1, a primarily stripped back covers album that included interesting rearrangements of a number of rock and pop classics.
Greig Taylor was also part of the Celtic Blues and Gospel Show performances at the 2018 Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival with Earl Thomas; that led to a vocal role as part of the noted American blues and gospel singer’s A Capella group on The Gospel According... shows that toured Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Now, reinforcing Greig Taylor’s love and passion for rootsy, soul-baring blues, comes Gatorville, the debut album from The Blind Lemon Gators, featuring Taylor, guitarist Iain Donald (who also plays double bass on the album and a ‘Gator from the 2017 get-go) and Blues Combo drummer Dave Cantwell.
Opener 'Blues Man’s Shoes' captures what these rootsy, Delta-blues styled ‘Gators are all about.
Iain Donald’s introductory blues notes (and later-song slide work), followed by the down the bumpy railroad tracks rhythm from Dave Cantwell, capture the musical essence of the Gators while Greig Taylor's forthright declaration of "how can you even sing the blues if you’ve never even walked in a blue man’s shoes!" is as much in homage to the original pre and post war bluesmen as it is a rebuttal to those who think they just need to holler about being a Hoochie Coochie Man to call themselves a blues singer.
A slower but similar rhythm sets up the Cajun tinted 'A Little Death.'
A more delicate number, 'A Little Death' features delightful slide work from Iain Donald while the lyric speaks of a having that inherent awareness when someone close to you has strayed off the straight and narrow and needs that best-of-loving-intentions lecture (the backing vocal from Stacy Paris is both subtle and highly effective).
The blues come calling on the simply arranged but highly effective sparseness of the Sam Cooke styled 'All I Ever Wanted' before the only non-original song on the album, Lead Belly’s oft-covered 'Goodnight Irene,' is given a spacious vocal and guitar treatment in memory of Iain Donald’s mother, who sadly passed in 2018. Iain Donald's slide work and the impassioned but generally understated vocal from Greig Taylor are highlights of the entire album.
'Hurt,' a song of addiction and recovery, carries a decidedly New Orleans French Quarter vibe (courtesy of the Cajun styled box accordion from the Blues Combo’s Gill Hunter); 'Gravy Train' then rattles down the harp blowin’ tracks (harmonica player Dave Ivens making the first of two Gatorville appearances) on its way to the Saturday night dancefloor.
The chain-gang, slow marching rhythm of 'Better Land' perfectly encapsulates the pain and suffering of Greig Taylor’s gospel-blues lyric for injustices past and present ("Lord, please take me by the hand… trying to reach a Better Land").
It’s also a song Taylor considered writing for Earl Thomas, but it’s the ‘Gators gain that the number has found a home on Gatorville, to the degree that even on first run-through you can’t conceive of the album without it.
Carrying similar authenticity is harmonica blues number 'I Ain’t Got You' (the loneliness of addiction over the company of real love); it’s a song that could be straight out of the 50s blues canon or Chess Records.
The short and sharp 'Wicked Charm' delivers just that (early era ZZ Top riffage dovetailing with, and sometimes paralleling, Dave Cantwell’s repeating drum pattern) before the album closes with the can’t help but smile 'Ballad of Triggerelli.'
Based on a true story, the vocal and guitar number seems to tell the tale of incompatibility over what-could-have-been curiosity ("you maybe saw me on the telly… but then again, you were probably watching Corrie…")
Gatorville, recorded at Stirling's Tolbooth Studio by Mark Lough and mixed to semi-acoustic and space-to-breathe perfection by Wayne Proctor (who also mastered the album) is Greig Taylor’s most personal and significant work to date.
As importantly, and relating to the album’s opening statement, Greig Taylor’s life journey has seen him rise from Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison to BBC TV on a short series that featured his first group, GT’s Boos Band (who originally featured Iain Donald and where the "saw me on the telly" line from 'Triggerelli' hails from).
To wit, Greig Taylor has certainly paid his dues and deserves to try those blues man’s shoes on for size.
And you know what? They're a great fit.