Julian Taylor is no stranger to these pages, and his musical journey has lasted more than 25 years… so far. He first got noticed in the band Staggered Crossing, and when they broke up in 2007 he went on something of a semi-hiatus, playing low-key events until in 2014 there was a resurgence as The Julian Taylor Band, and then another new direction in 2020 with the release of the ultra-personal The Ridge, an album that really traveled beyond Canada and earnt Taylor two Juno Award nominations (Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year and Contemporary Roots Album of the Year), along with a Canadian Folk Music Awards for Solo Artist and nomination for English Songwriter of the Year, five Native American Music Award nominations, plus a nomination for Canada’s most prestigious music accolade, the Polaris Music Prize. And the rest is well-documented history on Americana UK and elsewhere.
However, during that hiatus, Julian Taylor continued to play at various open-mic events he organised, and as a bar artist, including plenty of covers of favourite songs either solo or in a dedicated covers band. When Americana UK spoke with Julian Taylor he told us about some of his early musical influences, mentioning that briefly meeting Robert Plant at an AMAUK Awards evening was a thrill because he was a big Zep’ fan with a love for a lot of other British bands: “The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin that sort of era of Seventies rock from Great Britain, it’s in the collection for sure. It’s not the only stuff in the collection; of course there’s other things, but as far as rock’n’roll music goes, it’s there.” It’s not the only kind of rock he likes, of course, and we’ve seen recent collaborations from the Canadian troubadour with Jim James, Allison Russell, Jim Cuddy and more. So it’s no great shock that Julian Taylor is also a fan of the Grateful Dead, and this recording of one of the classic songs from American Beauty is as fine an acoustic solo version as you could ever hope to hear.
Friend Of The Devil is one of those strange songs where the melody belies the lyrics; here we have a man on the run, from the sheriff, from multiple women and even the Devil himself. He’s certainly out of luck, but that’s a superbly warm melody that he’s singing his story to. There’s more than a hint that he’s come to terms with the past and is resetting his path even as he plots an escape: “Set out running going to take my time“, and it’s a feeling Julian Taylor has touched on himself in his own music, which makes this song choice just a bit more poignant.
This recording of Julian Taylor covering Friend of The Devil was made for a LIVE at SiriusXM session at the Dine Alone Records Store in Toronto.
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