Jackson Taylor channels an outlaw country aesthetic via his ensemble, charging performances with punk drive suited to any stage while weaving in Southern rock textures and unadorned songcraft that leaves a durable impression. Born in Moody, Texas, just north of Austin, to migrant-working parents as one of eleven siblings, he spent his early years shifting between labor towns. The one steady cultural presence amid that movement was the country music his father prized, which Taylor adopted and soon began exploring as a musician himself. He finished high school in a small farming community in Washington, then returned almost at once to Texas before heading to Nashville. Songwriting work came his way there, yet the town’s prevailing conformity failed to suit him, so he relocated first to New York, then Los Angeles, and ultimately back to Texas, where he signed with Paul Gaske’s independent Gaske label. Teaming with the Jackson Taylor Band, he issued Hollow Eyed & Wasted, Humboldt County, Gypsies & Drifters, Easy Lovin’ Stranger, Goin’ Down Swingin’, and The Whiskey Sessions before moving to the Smith Entertainment Group for the 2007 release Dark Days and the 2009 release Aces ’N Eights. In the years that followed, Taylor has worked both alone and with the Sinners, delivering further hard-charging country-rock albums including Crazy Again and Which Way Is Up.
