Otis Taylor

Otis Taylor is an American Blues singer and guitarist. He is a multi-instrumentalist whose talents include the guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, and vocals. In 2001, he was awarded a fellowship to the Sundance Film Composers Laboratory.

Taylor was born in Chicago and moved at a young age to Denver, Colorado, where he grew up. He originally grew up playing the banjo, but his father wanted him to be a Jazz musician. Upon hearing that the banjo was almost exclusively used for white bluegrass instrument in part through the derogatory black-face minstrel shows of the 19th century, Taylor dropped the banjo and began to focus solely on the guitar and harmonica. He played music professionally both in Europe and the United States in a variety of blues-oriented bands, including Zephyr, until 1977, when he left the music industry for other pursuits, including becoming an antique dealer.

Taylor returned to music in 1995, and as of 2015, has released 14 blues albums. His music tends to focus on the hard realities of life, especially relating to the black community. Some common themes in his music are murder, racism, poverty and the need for redemption. To date, Taylor has 12 Blues Music Awards nominations while White African was named ‘Best Artist Debut’.

Taylor’s 2015 album Hey Joe Opus/Red Meat was editor’s choice for album of the year in Blues Music Magazine and Premier Guitar Magazine. It was named “Album of the Year” by Blues411 and #2 by Twangville, and one of the top 30 albums of the year by The Blues magazine (UK).Down Beat gave it 4 and half stars and listed it as one of their top 100 albums of the year.