Eric Taylor (September 25, 1949 – March 9, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter from Texas, known for his storytelling style, combining spoken word with anecdotal songs to create a theater-style performance. In addition to Taylor's nine solo releases, his songs have been recorded by

Nanci Griffith Nanci Caroline Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She often appeared on the PBS music program ''Austin City Limits'', starting in 1985 during season 10. In 1990, Griffith appeared on th ...

, Lyle Lovett, Peter Cooper, and others.

Early life

Taylor was born in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. He began playing guitar as a child and performed in a racially-integrated

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...

band in high school. He briefly attended

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

before dropping out and moving to Houston to pursue a career in music.

Career

Taylor toured extensively in the United States and Europe, playing notable venues such as Club Passim, The Bottom Line, Caffe Lena, Bluebird Café, Red Clay Theatre, Bridger Folk, The Ark, CSPS, The Freight and Salvage, Paradiso (Amsterdam), Theatre Kikker (

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), Berlin Guitars (

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), The Real Music Club (

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), DC Music Club (

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

), Hotel du Nord (

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) and The Bein Inn (

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

). Festival appearances include Kerrville Folk Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Glasgow Americana Festival (Scotland), Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, 1st Americana Fest (Austria), Take Root Festival (The Netherlands), and Roots of Heaven Festival (The Netherlands). He taught at the Kerrville Song School, and conducted songwriting workshops throughout the United States and in Europe. Taylor was married to singer-songwriter

from 1976 to 1982. In 2009, Lovett released ''Natural Forces'', his second album of covered songs, and again included a Taylor song. This time it was "Whooping Crane," from Taylor's 1995 self-titled album.Arthur Wood
Eric Taylor
''Folkwax'' (link requires free subscription) Lovett's 2012 ''Release Me'' album, also has one of Taylor's songs "Understand You." Taylor's last release was ''Studio 10'' in 2013, recorded at the Red Shack Studio in Houston and features nine original songs and a cover of Tim Grimm's "Cover These Bones." In 2016, Taylor was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for Musical Composition for songs he wrote for the Storyworks television documentary, ''Road Kid to Writer: The Tracks of Jim Tully.'' Taylor died on March 9, 2020, at the age of 70 from liver disease.

Discography

* ''Through The Dark Nightly'' (1976) – air Retail Records, compilation with other Houston songwriters: Bill Cade, Stephen Jarrard, Lynn Langman, Don Sanders* ''Shameless Love'' (1981, Featherbed; reissued 2004, Blue Ruby Music) * ''Eric Taylor'' (1995,

Watermelon The watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a Glossary of botanical terms#scandent, scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is plant breeding ...

) * ''Resurrect'' (1998, E1 Music) * ''Scuffletown'' (2001, Eminent Records) * ''The Kerrville Tapes'' (2003, Silverwolf) * ''The Great Divide'' (2005, Blue Ruby Music) * ''Hollywood Pocketknife'' (2007, Blue Ruby Music) * ''Live at the Red Shack'' (2011, Blue Ruby Music) * ''Studio 10'' (2013, Blue Ruby Music)

References

External links

erictaylorsongwriter.comBlue Ruby Music: Official website for Eric Taylor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Eric 1949 births 2020 deaths American folk singers American male singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Texas Musicians from Atlanta 20th-century American singer-songwriters 20th-century American male singers 21st-century American singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) Lyle Lovett and His Large Band members