BarFly
Lynn Taylor
Good Dirt Records
By Grant Britt
May 22 , 2012
There’s something about Lynn Taylor’s voice that gets right under your skin. But it’s an infestation you’ll welcome if you’re a fan of real country music. Taylor’s vocals recall Wayne the Train Hancock, with a touch of John Prine. And if you mention Hancock, you need to include Hank Sr, whose ghost is floating above Taylor as well, dropping down into Taylor’s vocals intermittently with a twangy sigh.
This old boy can bust your chops and break your heart with a lyric as well. Try “Thought You’d Fly Away” for a dip in the white trash gene pool. “Come from a town where the kids are all feral/ run around shootin’ up /fish in barrel,” Taylor moans. “Broken down cars rustin’ out in the lawns/ broken down moms wonderin’ what went wrong.” And that’s one of his love songs.
The Nashville-based preacher’s son had a band called Felix Wiley that had some mid level success opening for artists including John Hartford and Ralph Stanley, putting out couple of albums before Taylor gave up the music biz for his landscaping business.
With his new band the Bar Flies,Taylor’s sound ranges from country to honky-tonk to rockabilly to folk, delivered with a sandpapery twang. “Beefboy Jack and Mississippi John” sounds like honky-tonk Kristofferson, souped up with a nasty slide knifing through the narrative of two good ole boys coping with love damage by pickin’ and drinkin’.
“Decatur Street” may have the most laid back second line backbeat on record- it’s fonky and bluesy country with a slight psychedelic buzz.
The title cut has a smidgen of Marc Bolan in it, a whispery, staggering, jangly melody that keeps threatening to and eventually does break out into a ragged approximation of Stones’ Exile on Main Street territory before folding in on itself and fading quietly away.
BarFly is an unique record that’ll keep you busy peeling back the layers for a long time, an itch you’ll enjoy scratching.
