Album Notes

A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
by Moshe Benarroch

Jim Taylor's 1995 release Time Flies is a very strong CD and on it you will find everything that can be described as folk and nothing that cannot. It is a CD that could have been released any year between 1957 and today- there are no musical trends, no electric shocks (admittedly, there is some electric guitar, but you won't notice it), no reggae, no rap, no disco, no etceteras. Reviewing it three years after its release seems perfectly acceptable because of its generic timelessness.

Jim Taylor first caught my attention when I heard him on a compilation CD put out by the Tangible label. The disc included music by songwriters from the Asheville area and I thought Taylor's track was the best on the album. The producers of the album must have thought so, too, because they named the CD Here We Are after the Taylor song, "Here I Am". In Taylor's song, which can also be found on Time Flies, the songwriter discusses trains and travels, movement and places- subjects that seems to appear throughout his music:

I can hear that southern train whistle from my window.
I can see the highway curving out of sight.
I can feel the thunder of a big jet plane.
Sailing away into the night.

Primarily, the music on this CD is a guitar and vocal affair but it also contains some very fine flute playing (by Georgia Pressman), as well as other instrumentation contributed by Mac Smith (cello and electric guitar), Joel Pressman (bass), Billy Cunningham (dobro, fiddle), Bob Reynolds (mandolin) and Pete Latrella (drums).