Taylor writes the following in the artwork for his new record, Defending The Name:
"These 16 songs are my story. This is the celebration of the triumphs that led to my confidence and the illumination of the tragedies that created my demons. My triumphs and tragedies brought me to music, music taught me to love and love is the resolution of Defending The Name."
For this New Jersey native living outside our nation's capital, songwriting is the vehicle of choice in the relentless pursuit of identity and community. With three records bearing his name but none revealing his true identity, Carson channeled his folk-fandom of storyteller-writers like Lyle Lovett, Ellis Paul and Martin Sexton and delved deep into the previously taboo domain of his family history.
He sought to understand his personal struggles in the context of his inherited family story and what he found was more vibrant and stirring than he could have imagined. The 16 songs on Defending The Name span five generations of Carson's family tree, from his great-grandfather to his future children, and the stories he pulled from shoeboxes, closets and backyard holes juxtapose adultery, murder and ignorance with courtship, integrity and wisdom.
The first song written and not coincidentally the first track on the record is "Moonshiner." The story of the record starts as far back as Taylor could dig, with his great-grandfather during Prohibition in a farming suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. Falling on tight times, a hard-working and loving husband and father turns to alternative revenue streams -- selling his home-brewed moonshine on the black market. With it's success came conflict. Other moonshiners, threatened by their decreased market share, took matters into their own hands and on a bluebird-sky day they drove up to the house to eliminate the competition. The hard-working and loving husband and father stowed his family and won the firefight -- he was acquitted of the murders as self-defense but spent his remaining days in jail for moonshining. Taylor realized that in matters of the heart apples rarely fall far from the tree, resolving that if faced with Defending The Name of his family, he will do the same.
The songs are raw rock and roll, polished pop and candlelit folk -- a dynamic sound to mirror the heart of a man searching for a place, a community and a life to call home. To help bring the vision to life, Taylor partnered with producer Todd Wright (Pat McGee, Getaway Car) and during the writing process he shared stages with Stephen Kellogg, Ellis Paul, Ryan Montbleau and Pat McGee -- all of whom passed along pearls of songwriting wisdom that contributed to the storytelling on this record.
The writing, recording and now sharing of Defending The Name has shaped Taylor Carson's character as a person and performer in ways he could never have anticipated. "I've always felt a weight dragging behind me but never knew what it was," Carson remarks, "and through bringing these stories out of their hiding places and into the light I can feel the burden lifting. Ultimately this is a record about love and redemption -- I hope listeners find their own truth in these notes and lyrics. And I hope listeners join us live to communally celebrate that resolve."
Read more...