“It was pure survival,” she said. “I needed money to eat and to pay the bills and to make my music.”
Her hard work is paying off. Taylor is currently in the middle of a string of dates with Blackberry Smoke and she has opened for Dwight Yoakam, Alabama, Kelsey Waldon and Ian Noe this year.
Her sophomore album, Kentucky Blue, follows the success of her self-financed, self-reflective debut album, Real Me. Having the courage to find her “real me” set Taylor free. Kentucky Blue is a musical celebration of her healing and rebirth. It exudes confidence with a touch of attitude that replaces the melancholy, contemplative sound of Real Me. It is a shift back to her East Kentucky influences where the cry of the fiddle, the moan of the steel guitar, the twangy banjo and the atmospheric string section are like a journey floating through time and space.
Brit continues to unabashedly write and sing about what she lives and what she knows and sees. It’s genuine. It’s who she is.
About Brit Taylor
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, and she has already written and recorded her next album, scheduled for release 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 “Fergie” 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.
Brit is bravely standing out as her own self. With new publishing and distribution 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 which manage – whether they are dramatic, humorous or heartfelt – to be downright honest. It is who she is.
Web: www.brittaylormusic.com Facebook: Brit Taylor Instagram: brittaylormusic
I’ve just watched and for that matter heard of Britt Taylor on PBS and I think she is great will have to check more into her music best of luck to her.