Robert Arthur "Tut" Taylor Sr. (November 20, 1923 – April 9, 2015) was an American bluegrass musician. Taylor played

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

and

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

as a child, and began playing

dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

at age 14, learning to use the instrument with a distinctive flat-picking style. Taylor was a member of The Folkswingers in the 1960s, who released three

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

s; he recorded his debut solo effort in 1964. Later in the 1960s, he played with the Dixie Gentlemen and in

John Hartford John Cowan Hartford (December 30, 1937 – June 4, 2001) was an American folk, country, and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive kn ...

's Aereo-Plain band. Taylor became a local

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

fixture. In 1970, he co-founded the instrument shop GTR there, soon after releasing another solo album. He also co-founded the Old Time Pickin' Parlor, a Nashville venue noted for performances of

old-time music Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, contra dance, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering ...

, as well as Tut Taylor's General Store. In a March, 1992 interview,

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

reported having bought

Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...

' Martin D-28 Guitar from Tut Taylor. At the

Grammy Awards of 1995 The 37th Annual Grammy Awards were presented on March 1, 1995, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Bruce Springsteen was the night's biggest winner with 4 awards, including Song ...

, he was awarded the

Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album The Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works (songs or albums) in the bluegrass mu ...

for his work on '' The Great Dobro Sessions'' with

Jerry Douglas Gerald Calvin Douglas (born May 28, 1956) is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prol ...

. Taylor recorded hundreds of reels of tape documenting and preserving bluegrass music, from "kitchen recordings" to live concerts, as well as serving as a recording engineer for studio albums. He donated about 500 reels to the Steam Powered Preservation Society, which has digitized many of them and made them available for streaming or downloading. Taylor died on April 9, 2015.

Discography

* ''12-String Dobro'' World Pacific 1816, 1963 * ''Dobro Country'' (with Clarence & Roland White), World Pacific, 1964 * ''Blues & Bluegrass With Dixie Gentlemen'', Tune 1001, 1966 * ''

Aereo-Plain ''Aereo-Plain'' is a 1971 studio album by American bluegrass singer-songwriter and instrumentalist John Hartford. It reached number 193 on The Billboard 200 chart. Background The music on ''Aereo-Plain'' is a blend of traditional bluegrass musi ...

'', Warner Bros, 1971, Reissued by Rounder, 1997 * '' Friar Tut'', Rounder 0011, 1972 * ''No Name Album'', Flying Fish HDS704, 1974 * ''The HDS Sessions'', HDS 701, 1975 * ''The Old Post Office'', Flying Fish 008, 1975 * '' Norman Blake/Tut Taylor/Sam Bush/Butch Robins/Vassar Clements/David Holland/Jethro Burns'' (1976) * ''Dobrolic Plectral Society'', Takoma C1050, 1976 * ''The Great Dobro Sessions'', Sugar Hill, 1994 * ''Flat Pickin' The Kitchen'', Tutlee TL1001, 1997 * ''Flash Flood'', Tutlee TL1002, 1998 * '' Steam Powered Aereo-Takes'', Rounder, ROUN0480, 2002 * ''Tut and Clarence Flatpicking'', Tutlee TL1003, 2003 * ''

Shacktown Road ''Shacktown Road'' is an album by Americana and folk musicians Norman Blake, Nancy Blake and Tut Taylor, released in 2007. It was the first time Blake and Taylor recorded together since they were members of John Hartford's Aero-Plain band in ...

'' (2007) (with Norman Blake and Nancy Blake) * ''Oozing the Blues - Barker and Taylor'', 2008 (with Steve Barker and Lorrie Barker)

References

External links

Tut Taylor official web site.
Accessed February 2009.
Tut Taylor Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2013) {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Tut 1923 births 2015 deaths People from Milledgeville, Georgia Musicians from Nashville, Tennessee Guitarists from Georgia (U.S. state) American bluegrass musicians Resonator guitarists American bluegrass mandolinists Guitarists from Tennessee 20th-century American guitarists Country musicians from Tennessee Country musicians from Georgia (U.S. state)