Brit Taylor at The Stage
By WTJU
Date: 12/01/2022
Time: 3:15 pm - 3:45 pm
Brit Taylor, in town for a sold out concert at the Jefferson Theater December 1, will stop by WTJU that afternoon a little after 3 for a live session at The Stage which you can watch at WTJU’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. It will air at a later date on WTJU radio.
In a town known for dealing hard knocks, country singer/songwriter Brit Taylor hasn’t flinched. After a decade “of playing by the rules”, she broke out on her own and, in less than a year, released her debut album Real Me in 2020, followed by Real Me Deluxe in 2021, and she has already written and recorded her next album, Kentucky Blue, scheduled for release early next year. Her highly acclaimed debut album Real Me (opening after just 10 days as the highest-ranking debut album on the AMA/CDX Radio Chart at No. 37 and receiving positive reviews from American Songwriter, Rolling Stone, NPR’s World Cafe and others) was a self-reflective journey to self-awareness from the depths of despair. Her anticipated new album, produced by Grammy winners Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson, is a happier, more upbeat record, simply reflecting her life today.
Born where the famed Country Music Highway 23 slices through the Kentucky mountains, she grew up with family and music – and idols she loved – Chris Stapleton, Loretta Lynn, Tyler Childers, Dwight Yoakum, Patty Loveless, The Judds and so many more. Life was good for the singer who spent her childhood years on the Kentucky Opry, followed by a move to Nashville, a college degree, a music deal, marriage, and a mini-farm. And then it all went bad. Divorce, a band that dissolved, a beloved dog that died, a car that just quit, a publishing deal gone sour and a bank that wanted her home all made for a winter of despair. After a brief wallow in self-pity, Brit went to work, determined to make her music her way. Sick, tired and broken hearted from the “new Nashville” and the type of songs she was expected to write, she boldly walked away from her song-writing deal. Because she’d rather “clean shitty toilets than write shitty songs any longer,” Brit cleaned houses to pay the bills and successfully turned her side hustle into a bona-fide small business with employees. At the same time, she served as “general contractor” for her self-financed Real Me, pulling together a cast of professionals to produce it, to write with her, to play with her and to market her, all while recording on her own, newly created record label, Cut a Shine Records.
Her newest single “Kentucky Blue,” the title song for her album being released Feb. 3, 2023, follows the recent release of “Cabin in the Woods,” an upbeat tune with a healthy dose of swagger. The 2020 release of her self-reflective debut album Real Me quickly gained favorable reviews and immediate fan reception (“…a beautiful mix of classic country but vintage singer/songwriter and some bluegrass thrown in” – NPR World Café; “… a stunner which lyrically showcases Taylor’s brutally honest feelings” – American Songwriter; “… traditional country and reflective songwriting…Real Me is hard to beat” – CMT) led to the album debuting on the AMA/CDX Radio Chart at No. 37, the highest-ranking debut album on the chart and just 10 days after the album’s release. She followed with Real Me Deluxe and two single collaborations – “At Least There’s No Babies” with Dee White and “Gone as It Gets” with Adam Chaffins, Meg McCree and Ben Chapman.
Taylor was featured with an official artist showcase at the 2022 critically acclaimed AMERICANAFEST. She headlined the official packed-house, after-party at The Burl in Lexington of Kentucky Rising, an all-star concert in Lexington, KY, to raise money for flood victims in East Kentucky. Taylor’s impressive list of live performances this year includes opening for childhood hero and fellow East Kentuckian Dwight Yoakam, Ian Noe, Alabama and Robert Earl Keen. She is hitting the road with Kelsey Waldon and Blackberry Smoke this fall. She will be featured Thanksgiving weekend on PBS’s “The Caverns Sessions” (formerly known as “Bluegrass Underground”), a magical, musical series taped deep within the subterranean amphitheater of The Caverns in Tennessee’s Cumberland Mountains.
Brit is bravely standing out as her own self. With new publishing (Reservoir and One Riot) and distribution (Thirty Tigers) deals in hand, she knows it won’t be an easy path to navigate, but Brit learned that the best GPS is her inner self. She remains true to the timelessness of her sound and the honesty of her lyrics.
Today, the power of her music is that it is refreshingly simple yet surprisingly complex. Always true to herself, Brit Taylor continues to tells stories in song which manage – whether they are dramatic, humorous or heartfelt – to be downright honest. It is who she is. It is who she wants to be.
