Lewis Taylor

Lewis Taylor is an outlying singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose output is almost as variegated as his deep fascinations with styles that extend from classic blues and soul to prog rock, psych-pop, and post-punk. The London-born musician started out in the mid-'80s as a teenaged touring guitarist with the Edgar Broughton Band, and around the same time released two albums under the name Sheriff Jack. He made his major-label debut a decade later with Lewis Taylor (1996), highlighted by the soulful charting singles "Bittersweet" and "Lucky." He charted again when he partnered shortly thereafter with Carleen Anderson for "18 with a Bullet." Taylor intended to follow his self-titled LP with a set closer to Baroque pop than neo-soul, but it was shelved -- ultimately reconfigured and self-issued the next decade as The Lost Album -- in favor of a more R&B-rooted subsequent recording, Lewis II (2000). Taylor retreated from music after the self-released Stoned, Pt. 1 (2002) and Stoned, Pt. 2 (2004), though he had become known for session work with the likes of Daniel Bedingfield, Melanie C, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and saw Robbie Williams take a cover of his "Lovelight" to the U.K. Top Ten. Taylor became active again in the 2020s. He returned with the mellow if heartfelt and stimulating Numb (2022) and the freshly retrospective Acoustic Sessions (2023), reminders of his ability to synthesize myriad influences and sound like no one but himself.Born and raised in North London, Andrew Lewis Taylor became a music obsessive at an unusually early age and soon learned to play piano and guitar. In the '80s, his brother worked at the local Wemeenit Studios, run by Edgar Broughton Band drummer Steve Broughton, and suggested Taylor as guitarist for a re-formation of the Broughtons. Taylor knew the material, landed the job, and toured Europe and Scandinavia with the heavy Harvest label veterans. Meanwhile, Taylor adopted the alias Sheriff Jack, named after a song by the Red Krayola, and over the course of 1986 and 1987, produced the albums Laugh Yourself Awake and What Lovely Melodies!, along with the EPs Let's Be Non-Chalant and Everybody Twist. All the material was released on Midnight Music, then the label home of Robyn Hitchcock, another one of Taylor's inspirations. Tunes such as "We're Gonna Be in Love" and "Pylons" were aired on BBC Radio 1 thanks to John Peel.Taylor seemingly disappeared from the music scene until a demo attracted a 1994 deal with Island Records. He debuted as Lewis Taylor in 1997 with "Bittersweet," a smoldering R&B ballad with a touch of gospel that entered the U.K. pop chart that April at number 86. Four months later, the tempestuous full-length Lewis Taylor arrived with the slinking, Joe Meek-sampling "Lucky" slightly outperforming "Bittersweet" as the second single. Taylor was behind all the album's instrumentation, and was assisted only by executive producer Sabina Smyth, who also sang backgrounds and contributed to the production and arrangements, and fellow producer Paul Staveley O'Duffy, who assisted on a handful of tracks. The album received vocal support from the likes of Elton John and David Bowie, and though it made fans out of high-profile U.S. artists such as D'Angelo and Aaliyah, along with legends Chaka Khan and Leon Ware, it never saw Stateside release. A third chart entry for Taylor resulted from a duet with Carleen Anderson, "18 with a Bullet," recorded for the soundtrack of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. The single registered on the U.K. chart at number 83, the same spot where "Lucky" had landed. Island Records expected Taylor to continue down the same R&B-rooted path for his follow-up, but the artist bristled at being classified as a blue-eyed neo-soul hopeful and turned in a set that had more in common with '60s and '70s pop mavericks such as Brian Wilson and Todd Rundgren. The label refused to release the material but accepted Taylor's next offering, issued as Lewis II in 2000. Although songs such as "My Aching Heart," "You Make Me Wanna," and "The Way You Done Me" were as immediate as anything off the debut, nothing from the otherwise more nuanced and refined album was selected as a single. A cover of Jeff Buckley's "Everybody Here Wants You" appeared as a bonus track and further affirmed that Taylor was equally keen to reference current music. The same year, Taylor branched out as touring musical director for Finley Quaye.He then went independent with the launch of his anagrammatically-named Slow Reality label. Stoned, Pt. 1 and the remix-oriented Stoned, Pt. 2, both of which were made with Sabina Smyth, arrived respectively in 2002 and 2004. These albums, while tightly connected to Taylor's major-label work, also showed Taylor pushing forward, whether he was tapping into Norman Whitfield- or Sly Stone-style psychedelic soul, crafting slightly peculiar contemporary pop-R&B love songs, or combining disco, funk, and house. They also featured some of Taylor's wildest guitar solos recontextualizing playing styles as divergent as those of Yes' Steve Howe, Parliament-Funkadelic's Eddie Hazel, and the Isley Brothers' Ernie Isley. Also in 2004, Taylor, with help from Smyth, reworked the material from his intended second LP and released it as The Lost Album. Radically distinctive if instantly identifiable as Taylor's work, it could have also been titled West Coast, as it evoked the Beach Boys and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young with its rich harmonies, glistening acoustic guitars, and non-rock instruments such as harp and harpsichord. Additionally, the merch table at Taylor's gigs during the period was stocked with copies of an untitled CD-R roughly split between acoustic versions and covers, and Limited Edition 2004, an exclusive odds 'n' sods compilation that closed with a bittersweet cover of Japan's "Ghosts."Meanwhile, Taylor was hidden in plain sight on several high-profile albums throughout the first half of the 2000s, building on the occasional collaborative work he had done the previous decade with Ophélie Winter and David McAlmont. He assisted in various capacities on Daniel Bedingfield's Gotta Get Thru This, Melanie C's Reason, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Shoot from the Hip -- all Top 20 U.K. hits -- and on Axelle Red's Belgian Top Five hit Face A/Face B. During 2005 and 2006, some of Taylor's music saw release in the States with help from the Sony-distributed Hacktone label. Stoned drew primarily from Stoned, Pt. 1 and also included tracks from Stoned, Pt. 2, the untitled CD-R, and Limited Edition 2004. The Hacktone edition of The Lost Album, presented with new artwork more indicative of the contents, resequenced the original running order and added acoustic versions. A New York date in January 2006 was Taylor's U.S. live debut and his last performance overall. That June, he stepped away from the music industry to regain his sense of self. Five months later, Robbie Williams released a cover of Taylor's "Lovelight" that reached number eight on the U.K. pop chart.Not counting an incomplete remake of Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, released in low-profile digital form, nearly two decades went by without new material from Taylor. Work he had put in before his hiatus, such as a featured appearance on Deborah Bond's "If I Didn't Need You," and the fronting of two songs on the Vicar's Songbook #1 -- a King Crimson-related project -- trickled out over time. Going by Andrew Taylor, he worked in the background as musical director for Gnarls Barkley's Top of the Pops debut, and he resumed his role as live guitarist for the Edgar Broughton Band, documented on Live at Rockpalast. More covers of Taylor's songs appeared during the drought as well. Anthony Hamilton updated the self-titled album's "Betterlove," heard on Southern Comfort as "Better Love." Taylor Dayne not only reinterpreted "Satisfied" but made it the title song of her 2008 album. Taylor -- Lewis Taylor, that is -- resurfaced in 2022 with Numb, a simultaneously taut, lush, and atmospheric set of new material written and produced with Sabina Smyth. The Acoustic Album, a fresh look at songs from his back catalog, followed in 2023, as did the B-sides compilation The Damn Rest. The latter continued a vinyl reissue program carried out by the Be With label.
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