The Road Well Travelled Allan Taylor

• 1 The Last Train 04:29
• 2 A Giant Red Balloon 05:37
• 3 The Joker's Hand 04:48
• 4 A Way Back Home 04:25
• 5 Just the Way it Goes 03:40
• 6 When Billy Plays the Banjo 05:45
• 7 I'm Going Home 05:32
• 8 The Road Well Travelled 05:37
• Total Runtime 39:53

Info for The Road Well Travelled

I took the road well travelled like many a travelling troubadour before me; Jack Kerouac, Woody Guthrie, the great writer Laurie Lee, who walked to Spain from a small village in England in the 1930’s, playing his violin along the way, and Knulp, in the novel by Hermann Hesse, and many more long gone and forgotten. The songs I’ve written during the last fifty-five years of my life on the road have been inspired by the wonderful places I’ve seen, and the people I’ve met.

This album, like the others that came before it, is a collection of experiences from life on the road. Recorded in the world famous Stockfisch studios in Northeim, Germany by Günter Pauler and his team I am pleased to present this new Album to my audience throughout the various countries I have travelled. Accompanied by some fine musicians in the studio, the songs reflect the solitary thoughts of a troubadour forever heading towards the next horizon. With a fond farewell to times past, and the hope of a peaceful future, I hope you, my fellow travellers through the joys and sadness of life, will find some comfort and share some dreams from this collection of my songs. (Allan Taylor)

Allan Taylor's years "On the Road" are in the past. The songwriter, singer and guitarist has retired from concert touring. At most, there may still be a few selected appearances. What remains are his songs, which tell of encounters and impressions on the road. For over 50 years now, Allan Taylor has been able to put his experiences and thoughts into words and sensitively shape them musically.

He has achieved this once again on his new album "The Road Well Travelled", recorded and atmospherically arranged like all his productions released on the Northeim Stockfisch label for almost 30 years.

In eight song gems, Allan Taylor looks back on his artistic career from the important folk clubs in England, his time in New York City, tours through America and performances in many other countries. The memories in the songs of the new production begin with "The Last Train". In "A Giant Red Balloon", the path leads far back into his youth. "The Joker's Hand" is an impressive duet with his young Danish colleague Jacob Dinesen.

In the concluding title track, "The Road Well Travelled", Allan Taylor takes a journey through his entire artistic life with touching spoken word vocals and sparse piano accompaniment. This great singer & songwriter has delivered a mature résumé here. An album that his fans will love and that could draw the attention of newcomers to his extensive oeuvre. (Klaus Hoheisel)

Allan Taylor, vocals, guitar
Jacob Dinesen, vocals, guitar, baritone guitar
Lutz Möller, piano, keyboard
Nico Schneider, banjo
Lea Morris, harmony vocals
Beo Brockhausen, saxophone, mbira
Hans-Jörg Maucksch, electric bass

Allan Taylor
is one of the last of the traveling troubadours who came through the social and artistic revolution of the nineteen sixties and carved out a career as a solo singer-songwriter. Born in Brighton, England in 1945 he experienced the Beatnik times, the Skiffle days, the Mods and Rockers and the early Hippy days, all played out on Brighton Beach. At the age of twenty one he left home and became part of the vibrant folk music of London, playing all of the major folk clubs of the time (for example, the famous Troubadour Club) and then to Greenwich Village, New York, playing legendary clubs such as Gerde’s, The Gaslight, The Bitter End, The Mercer Arts Center. He embraced the issues, images and emotions of his time and used these experiences as the basis of his songs. Signed to the international record company United Artists and recording in London, Nashville and Los Angeles his albums were released world-wide. By the mid-seventies he returned to Europe to live and then started on the second part of his career, having now established his modus operandi – collecting the stories for his songs in the bars and cafes of Europe and throughout the rest of the world.

For more than forty-five years Allan Taylor has travelled the world performing at festivals, concert halls and clubs. He is considered to be one of the foremost singer-songwriters and guitarists in his genre, with more than one hundred recorded versions of his songs by Artists in ten different languages. One song in particular, “It’s good to see you” was a hit in many countries, and to date, there are eighty cover versions of this song. Looking back as well as forward, few people can convey with such eloquence their life experiences. His songs are written from a lifetime of traveling; always the observer passing through, each song is a vignette of life, like a story told over a drink in a bar. He writes his songs in cafes, bars and hotel rooms throughout the world, songs for the lost and lonely, for the unsung heroes of life, for those marginalized by society – they all find a place in his songs. Each song has an integrity that tells you it comes from something real; characters come to life as people you know and places become as familiar as if you had been there.

Allan is considered to be one of the music scene’s great guitarists, creating during his stage performance a distinctive rich and mellow sound, and with a voice that speaks of a life-time of travel he can make each song a vignette of life, like a story told over a drink in a bar. His songs have an integrity that tell you they come from something real, where characters come to life as people you know and places become as familiar as if you had been there. When this happens, you know it’s an Allan Taylor concert.

Allan Taylor is also a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy and Music, having written his thesis for the Queen’s University of Belfast.

Booklet for The Road Well Travelled