Jackson Taylor

Jackson Taylor channels an outlaw country style via his band, layering in sufficient punk drive to suit any venue along with Southern rock touches and unadorned songcraft that produces a durable impression. Born in Moody, Texas, just north of Austin, to migrant-working parents as one of 11 siblings, he experienced a peripatetic childhood that carried the family between successive labor towns. Country music treasured by his father remained the chief cultural constant, instilling in Taylor a personal affinity that soon led him to pursue music himself. He finished high school in a small farming community in Washington state, then returned almost at once to Texas before heading to Nashville. There he earned a living as a songwriter, yet the town’s conformist music industry clashed with his outlook, prompting moves first to New York, then Los Angeles, and ultimately back to Texas, where he signed with Paul Gaske’s independent Gaske label. Working with the Jackson Taylor Band, he issued Easy Lovin’ Stranger, Goin’ Down Swingin’, and The Whiskey Sessions; after switching to Smith Entertainment Group he delivered Dark Days in 2007 and Aces ’N Eights in 2009. In later years Taylor performed both solo and with the Sinners, releasing the hard-driving country-rock albums Crazy Again and Which Way Is Up.