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Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs
 
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Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs

Otis Taylor
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews) | More about this product
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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Samples
Song Title Time Price
listen  1. Looking For Some Heat 5:55$0.99 Buy Track
listen  2. Sunday Morning 4:15$0.99 Buy Track
listen  3. Silver Dollar on My Head 3:44$0.99 Buy Track
listen  4. Lost My Guitar 4:36$0.99 Buy Track
listen  5. I'm Not Mysterious 7:29$0.99 Buy Track
listen  6. Young Girl Down the Street 6:20$0.99 Buy Track
listen  7. Country Girl Boy 4:47$0.99 Buy Track
listen  8. Talking About It Blues 4:45$0.99 Buy Track
listen  9. Walk On Water 8:01$0.99 Buy Track
listen10. Mama's Best Friend 5:00$0.99 Buy Track
listen11. Maybe Yeah 4:08$0.99 Buy Track
listen12. Dagger By My Side 3:45$0.99 Buy Track
listen13. If You Hope 5:57$0.99 Buy Track

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Biography

Bluesman Otis Taylor never skirted tough subject matter in a career that took him from the Folklore Center in Denver to a brief stay in London, England, to retirement from music in 1977 to operate as a successful antiques broker and since 1995 back again to the blues.

Taylor's 2001 CD White African (Northern Blues Music), featuring Kenny Passarelli (bass, keyboards) and Eddie Turner (lead guitar),… Read more in Amazon's Otis Taylor Store

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Customers buy this album with Recapturing the Banjo ~ Otis Taylor

Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs + Recapturing the Banjo
Price For Both: $28.98

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Product Details

  • Audio CD (June 23, 2009)
  • Original Release Date: June 23, 2009
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Telarc
  • ASIN: B0026S1XAK
  • In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,927 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #20 in  Music > Blues > Acoustic Blues
    #52 in  Music > Blues > Modern Blues
    #85 in  Music > Blues > Contemporary Blues

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

No one ever accused blues singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist Otis Taylor of overindulging in the brighter and happier aspects of the human condition. His songs are often peopled with characters whose emotional landscape - no matter how raw or dark - is laid bare for all to experience, and the story is often less than pretty.

But if love - in any or all of its joyous and painful variations - is somewhere amid that confusing emotional swirl, he'll go there too. The result will by no means be syrupy, over-simplistic ballads obsessing over romantic love. Instead, Taylor's love songs take a hard, realistic look at the relative benefits and costs of what is perhaps the most confusing and unnerving of forces within the human heart.

Taylor's new recording, Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs, throws a light on the complexities of love in all of its forms. In addition to Taylor's trademark haunting vocals and simple but stirring guitar riffs - a combination often referred to as trance blues - the album also features guest appearances by Irish blues-rock guitarist Gary Moore (previously heard on Taylor's Definition of a Circle in 2007) and jazz/hip-hop pianist Jason Moran.

Within these songs of love are tales of tragedy and loss, misunderstanding and deception - but often a glimmer of hope as well. "That's just my nature," says Taylor. "I may write love songs, but they aren't always going to be happy and pretty. Look at songs like `Teen Angel' or `Ode To Billy Joe.' Those are love songs, but they aren't exactly happy. So why shouldn't my songs be considered love songs?"

"This is a different kind of endeavor for me," he says of the new recording. "I found myself saying, `What can I do after making a banjo album? What will people want to listen to?' My answer was love songs. I'm doing things here that I didn't have the opportunity to do on previous albums, things that people wouldn't normally expect from me, compared to what I've done so far. I think it's one of my best works because it has such unusual elements."

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Hats off to Mr. Taylor, July 7, 2009
By E. Taylor Atkins (Sycamore, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I've been a fan of Otis Taylor's music since White African and Respect the Dead. Those albums had a raw power that was missing from so much contemporary blues. Taylor combines the best aspects of the blues at its most "primitive" musically and lyrically, as exemplified by John Lee Hooker -- wicked riffs and dark grooves, relatively stark and simple lyrics that search out new wrinkles and nuances with each repetition. To these he added new instrumental textures (electric mandolin, for instance) and a sophisticated command of African-American history, with which he constructed story-songs. With each subsequent album, he has pushed himself as an arranger and added new instrumentation: cellos, violins, cornet, organ, trap drums, and here on Pentatonic Wars, African hand drums. This tendency always makes me approach a new Otis Taylor album with trepidation. I'm not always sure I like it as instantly as I did White African. BUT repeated listens have always proven Mr. Taylor's genius. By the third listen, I'm totally in awe of his abilities to maintain those core elements that first drew me to his music, while still expanding his range as a musician and arranger.
I used to DJ a public radio blues program in downstate Illinois. Whenever I played country blues or piano blues, someone would call in and complain; they had a very narrow sense of what "blues" is, meaning they insisted on loud electric guitar solos and thought Chicago blues was all there was. If you are one of "those" people, don't bother with Otis Taylor. But if you can accept blues as a sensibility rather than a "genre" of music, Otis Taylor is your man. I will continue to give him my money and let him guide me on his blues journey.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Incredible, June 26, 2009
The title (AFI) says it all. Otis has done it again. Though he describes his music as "Transnational Blues," it's more "Trans-Galactic Interspatial Harmony." Some of the sweetest but heart-breaking music, followed by tunes that may me want to pay tribute to him as the Pharaoh Sanders/Sun Ra of the banjo Gary Moore on lead accompanies on many of the songs. I have had the pleasure of seeing him and his daughter Cassie (bass player and vocalist with the sweetest voice imaginable) here in Paonia at the Paradise Theater (he'll be back Aug 1). I play him regularly on my jazz and blues shows on the local public radio station at kvnf.org.

Hugh Carson
[...]
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4.0 out of 5 stars Trance music, October 12, 2009
By Lucy- Blues Fan (Minnetonka, Minnesota United States) - See all my reviews
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I really liked the album. I first saw Otis this past summer at the Bayfront Blues Fest. All of his many cd's were sold out before he finished performing. Good cd. I'd reccomend it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Sorry, this is not working for me
Otis Taylor has a unique voice in todays blues scene. His droning and repetive style can together with his strong lyrics evoke a deep blues feeling. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Tom

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Beautiful
This cd has some of the most beautiful music I have heard in a long time. And if you have a CD player or receiver that decodes HDCD it is even better (yes, it is recorded in HDCD... Read more
Published 2 months ago by R.L. Marcus

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Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs
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