Access to the album for review available upon request.
Taylor, known for musically telling stories which always are real and downright honest, has faced her struggles. A divorce, the death of a long-loved pet, a fight with the bank for her house and a car that refused to run made for a season best forgotten. To top it off, after nearly a decade in Nashville of playing by the rules, she had left her old publishing deal to make the music she heard in her heart, not the music they demanded she deliver.
When the bills started coming in, Taylor started her own cleaning company, scrubbing businesses at night while songwriting during the day. It was hard; it was depressing; it was a struggle. But it was the hand that life had dealt. Saying she would rather “clean shitty toilets than write shitty music,” Taylor’s pay-the-bills cleaning business made it possible for her to release her debut solo album, Real Me, to critical acclaim. It wasn’t an easy journey.
“I was struggling,” Taylor said. “The days of songwriting were fulfilling and the nights of cleaning were a drudge but a necessity, and none of it felt good. I got up in the morning and I went to bed at night, feeling lonely and alone. I would anticipate the next day, yet dread the energy it took to survive it.”
Then life changed, and she found joy in the pain of living. She met Adam Chaffins, a fellow Eastern Kentuckian, musician and the man who would later become her husband. Even before marriage, he became her partner in survival.
“Everything got easier when I started seeing the man I would marry,” Taylor said. “As cheesy as it might sound, everything just kind of fell in place once we got together. All that internal resistance and reluctance around my career and business just disappeared. Or maybe it just felt that way?”
Taylor learned that life wasn’t always easy, but she quickly found that living it with people you love makes it a whole lot easier, even in the hardest of times.
“When you leave the work day or week behind and come home to someone you love, it just wipes all the stress and pain away,” Taylor said.
Taylor grew up in Eastern Kentucky where family is always Number One. It is why generations have sacrificed their own dreams and ambitions to stay in the hollers and the hills with the ones they love. “It’s a beautiful thing, and I am proud it is my heritage,” Taylor said.
When Adam came into Taylor’s life, about year after she had started her cleaning company, life changed. Adam was always there for her, willing to lend his helping hand.
“We’d leave gigs in Nashville and go directly to clean a church on a Saturday night, staying deep into the wee hours of the morning,” Taylor said. “But it was okay because we had each other.”
The cleaning company she started – which was actually just Taylor and a mop – has grown to a true small business supporting several team members and a roster of clients.
And Taylor and Chaffins, now happily married and each with a personal publishing deal, have become a country music super couple. Their individual careers are on the rise, her business is flourishing and their lives are good.
“Ain’t A Hard Living” truly is a real song about real life. It’s a musical journey about finding the silver lining, about having fun through the hard times and about embracing the good times.
“We clean together, we sing together, we tour together,” Taylor said. “We are strong individuals who are succeeding, each on our own, but we can still do and enjoy everything together.”
The power of Taylor’s music has always been that it is refreshingly simple yet surprisingly complex, empathetic yet empowering. Always remaining true to herself, she continues to tells stories which manage – whether they are dramatic, humorous or heartfelt – to be as authentic as she is.
“Ain’t A Hard Livin’ ” – Written by Brit Taylor and Pat McLaughlin
Produced by: Sturgill Simpson and David “Fergie” Ferguson
Recorded: Clement Recording Studio (formerly The Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa)
Musician: Brit Taylor – Guitar and Vocals
Label – Cut a Shine Records
Distribution – Thirty Tigers
Upcoming Kentucky Blue Tour Dates:
February 4 – Nashville, TN, The Basement
February 9 – Indianapolis, IN, Dukes Indy
February 10 – Lexington, KY, The Burl
February 16-17 – Douglas, GA, Martin Centre Theater
February 18 – Montgomery, AL, Montgomery Performing Arts Centre
February 23 – Decatur, GA, Eddie’s Attic
February 24 – Birmingham, AL, Dave’s Pub
February 25 – Tupelo, MS, Blue Canoe
February 26 – Chattanooga, TN, Cherry Street Tavern
Festivals:
June 1 – Schellraiser Festival, McGill, NV
June 4 – Railbird Music Festival, Lexington, KY
About Brit Taylor
In a town known for dealing hard knocks, country singer/songwriter Brit Taylor hasn’t flinched. With a debut album out to critical success and a sophomore album due next month, life is good. It wasn’t an easy journey. After a decade “of playing by the rules”, Taylor 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 wrote and recorded her next album, Kentucky Blue, scheduled for release Feb. 3. 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 sophomore 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 several team members. 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.
The power of Brit’s music is that it is real, in both its simplicity and complexity. She combines the emotional acuity of her songwriting with her rich alto to create music that, through words and sound, has a unique vulnerability and strength. It is always 100% Brit Taylor – empathetic, empowering, intoxicating – and as authentic as she is.
Web: www.brittaylormusic.com Facebook: Brit Taylor Instagram: brittaylormusic
