Over the years I’ve developed a knack for figuring out if I’m going to like a record pretty quickly. If it doesn’t pull me in after 10-15 minutes, another listen or two isn’t going to change my mind. Where I do get tricked occasionally is in the mood or style of the music. Bluegrass is generally an upbeat, reasonably light style, but now and then it sinks in that the song is a deep, dark murder ballad. Overdriven, bluesy guitar can sometimes mask a tender love song. I had that kind of unexpected experience with the debut record from Texan Nick Taylor, entitled Not Alone.
The CD opens with Dogs, an almost anthemic rock ballad. When Taylor starts the verse with “I’m fighting with the dogs in my head”, he’s not just talking about everyone’s fight with their demons. He is also alluding to the need to connect with the world as fuel for that fight…and hence the name of the album. The cut is powerful enough that I was ready for a rock album, and it was the third track, 3am on the Interstate, and its subtle mandolin part before it began dawning on me this is a country record. By Getting Along, a singer-songwriter story of love found and lost in the desert, it was clear this was a different path than I’d started down.
My favorite songs from the project all have a working man’s blues kind of theme to them. Dead Land Future is a Texas Hill Country waltz without being a waltz where Taylor relates an experience “working toward another man’s dream”. Futures Past is a little less twangy, but it’s still anchored in the dreams of a better life. Songs About the Glory starts with just an acoustic guitar before the full band kicks in and the pedal steel gives it an unmistakeable country quality. When our protagonist hears those tunes on the radio he’s left to “wonder when my day will come”.
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At some level I suppose every song a musician writes is cathartic, because there’s a release that comes from just getting it on paper. But clearly some compositions carry a stronger message: witness Harlan Howard’s description of country music as “3 chords and the truth”. There’s some of that powerful truth here so regardless of whether this is a rock or country record, Not Alone is an auspicious start for Nick Taylor.
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