JOHN P TAYLOR BAND EPK
BIOG
John P Taylor band are a musical melting pot of like-minded musicians and songwriters, creating what they describe as ‘Grooving Americana based blues’.
North Yorkshire based founder member John P Taylor, an established musician and producer for over thirty years, assembled the collective as a writing and recording project back in 2015. With a fine pedigree of players and composers, the album ‘Realtime’ was conceived, recorded and finally released in February 2017. The band has gone on to release three more studio albums, ‘Cypress Rd’ in 2019, ‘Riverflow’ in 2020 and most recently ‘To Feel Alive’ in April 2023.
The current line up comprises of session guitarist and songwriter Geoff Keeler who has worked with Taylor on various other projects in the past, including Sods Law since 2010. Also in from day one is bassist Chris Ringer who along with his harmonic prowess, adds a further dimension to the soulful sound of this group. His CV reads like a who’s who of songwriters and performers, particularly with a roots background. Notably contemporary folk outfit Prelude. A solid partnership has been forged with drummer and percussionist Dan Higgins. Once again, having worked with Taylor live and in the studio environment, Higgins is a musician and producer who thrives when writing and recording but then comes into his own when playing live. Keys player and songwriter Chris Groom joined the line up in 2017. His style and diversity have made it a seamless transition going forward and his writing skills have led to a great creative input on the last tree albums.
The band will be heading back out to play live shows promoting the latest album in 2023. Starting with a performance @ Tapestry Arts in Bradford on Friday May 19th
OUR CATALOGUE
RECENT PRESS
ALBUM REVIEW BY GABOR KLEINBLOESEM FROM STRUTTERZINE MAG IN HOLLAND
JOHN P. TAYLOR BAND ‘RIVER FLOW’ (MIRAGE MUSIC/UK IMPORT)
I was immediately impressed when putting on this artiste’s first two albums Realtime from 2017, Cypress Rd from 2019 and when doing my research, it seems like I already did a write up on a band he was involved with in the past. Because the legendary melodic rockband BIG GUNS belted out a couple of sensational albums back in the 90s, and we reviewed them! I found out John produced them, so there is already a connection between Strutter’zine and John.
Now let’s talk about his own music, which is very sensational actually. John is a great singer/songwriter/guitarist and his music fits somewhere between Americana bluesy rock, mature Melodic Rock/AOR and a little bit of Soul. Kinda like a mixture between ROBERT PALMER, CHRIS REA and JOHN MAYER, with also some STEVE OVERLAND, PAUL RODGERS and ROBERT HART memories, while musically it’s a mix of these singers’ music/bands as well. I have really enjoyed listening to his wonderful albums, with as highlights on the first 2 albums the superb uptempo AOR pieces Save the day (a la JOHN TAGLIERI/JOURNEY), Slow time tonight and A better way, the AORish ballad Dark side of the night and the bluesy melodic rocker So much more.
In 2020 the JOHN P. TAYLOR BAND (including bassist CHRIS RINGER, guitarist GEOFF KEELER, keys player CHRIS ATKINS-GROOM and drummer DAN HIGGINS) released their latest album River flow, which seems to be their most diverse album so far. Starting quite calm but developing into a very professional record that seems to be heading more into a pure Southern/Bluesy (Hard) Rock direction and this is of course not bad at all! And besides, there is still enough other music styles to be heard as well, such as the lovely semi-westcoast ballad Shine on, which sounds like a classic groovy mixture of STEELY DAN and ROBERT PALMER in his finest days. Other highlights are the bluesy early BLACK STONE CHERRY/WHITESNAKE-ish melodic rockers Devil shine a light on me and Anything you need but also the uptempo AOR song This time, the uptempo melodic rocker Let it go and the first couple of calmer bluesy southern rocksongs River flow and Lie to me some more. I was really overwhelmed by the incredible high level of John’s voice and music, because it sounds so crystal clear and perfect, so I really wonder why he hasn’t had his breakthrough yet. Also fans of KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD will love this a lot, while STEVE OVERLAND, ROBERT HART fans and people of the old school ROBERT PALMER/JOHN MAYER, will all be impressed when hearing THE JOHN P. TAYLOR BAND’s music.
JOHN P TAYLOR BAND ‘REALTIME’
Review by Simon Green of BLUES IN BRITIAN Magazine. February 2017
This was another of those occasions when ambivalent expectations of an album by an unknown quantity are replaced on listening by a feeling of pleasant surprise. This Yorkshire based musician has apparently been around for thirty years before assembling a group of well seasoned veterans to collaborate on writing and producing the music that resulted in the excellent Realtime. The collective experience shows on the quality of playing and production throughout, giving the tracks a very polished feel.
The tone of the set is established from the first track ‘Unforgiven’ with a funky upbeat groove and jazzy chords abounding. The guitar playing from Geoff Keeler (lovely lyrical fills) and the piano playing from Kevin Leach deserve a special mention as being constantly excellent the delightful interplay between them on ‘Café Jura’ being a good example. The keyboard player has worked a lot with Chris Rea and there’s a touch of similarity to that gent’s vocal style in John P Taylor’s singing (which is also reminiscent of Geoff Achison at times and he shares the Australian’s penchant for more complex jazzy chord structures). For me the best tracks are like ‘So Much More’, which kicks off with a heavy riff that propels the song along but which also has a strong melody and a nice groove anchored by a clever bass line that keeps things interesting. This is a mature set of songs that are definitely worth checking out.
Simon Green