By Brett Leigh Dicks
Jackson Taylor’s songs harken back to days of old and not just because he is following in the tradition of musical fore fathers like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash. He sings about the world as he has experienced it, and that experience has been unlike any other. He was raised in northern California by his father and spent most of his childhood meandering from town to town picking crops. As people and places came and went, few things were constants in Taylor’s life. But one thing that was, was music. After being introduced to classic singer-songwriters like Billy Joe Shaver and Waylon Jennings by his father, Taylor soon explored his own musical calling. He played in various rock and roll bands and even served time in an Elvis Presley tribute. While this musical education served him well, ultimately he felt the need to follow his heart and that led him back to where it all started to the musicof his childhood. This month, Jackson Taylor and Los Sinners are bringing their old school outlaw country yearnings to the Maverick Saloon. While he is certainly no stranger to these parts, it will be the first time he has performed in Santa Barbara, and this outlaw is determined it won’t be the last.
You grew up in northern California, but you now reside in Austin. What kind of perception do folks in Texas have of country music here in California?
I don’t know if they’re aware that there is a country music scene out there in California. There are a lot of people going back and forth between Austin and Los Angeles. But I don’t know if you would call them ‘country’ as opposed to ‘Americana’ or that type of style.
The term ‘country’ covers a wide spectrum these days, doesn’t it?
Country music has so many genre now and ironically, the stuff coming out of Nashville, well, you can’t really call that country music anymore. What we do is definitely in that 1970s outlaw country vein. You know, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash, that kind of stuff. There aren’t that many people truly doing that kind of stuff anymore, so we have to go it alone most of the time.
Outlaw Country – what does that mean to you?
It has kind of become a dirty word now, especially in Nashville. A lot of guys have tried to recoin the phrase and call themselves outlaw this or outlaw that. But when Waylon Jennings was doing it, there was a whole other set of music going on in Nashville, and he decided that he was going to do the music he wanted to do and do it his way. That was what being an outlaw was all about. Of course, they all had their legal problems – like musicians from any genre do – but none of these guys was out robbing banks or trains. But now, the modern outlaw guys have really ruined it because they’re in Nashville cranking out the same Nashville garbage that everyone else is, but they’re trying to differentiate themselves by calling themselves outlaw. For the few guys that are still doing it like us, and who are still trying to keep the genre alive, that’s not very cool.
You were based in Nashville for a while. What was that experience like?
I had a writing deal. I was there to write songs for other people and when I got there, it became apparently very quickly that I had no control over what I was meant to do. They were going to tell me what kind of song it needed to be, what it needed to be about, how long it was going to be, and the market I was writing it for. I met some great people and some very amazing songwriters there, and I treasured the opportunity, but I knew almost immediately that it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my music or my life
You had a very nomadic upbringing. You traveled around with your father picking crops. How important was music to you while growing up?
Both music and literature were incredibly important to me, and that’s thanks to my dad. The thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that I was one of the last people, especially at my age, who grew up in that “Grapes of Wrath” style up bringing. Most people had only heard about that lifestyle from their grandparents, but I really did that. I bounced around from Northern California to Oregon to Washington State picking crops - whatever was in season – just to stay alive. It was just my dad and me, and he read a lot of great literature to me and he also played me a lot of great music. People like Billy Joe Shaver, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and that’s really what got me through those early days.
What then led to you becoming a musician?
Singing – I have always sung. I never really thought about it, it just started happening when I was a kid. I was singing George Michael songs and rap and hip hop stuff and it just kind of progressed. I then played in rock bands and I did Elvis tributes. I’ve done all sorts of stuff, but then I realized, probably in my late 20s or early 30s, that the first music I was ever really exposed to was what I really wanted to do with my own music. That’s what got me here.
You’re based in Texas, a state with a great tradition of songwriting. What is it about Texas that has produced so many influential songwriters and musicians?
I think the great thing about Texas is its diversity. I don’t think you can say there’s one typical Texas style or influence as there are so many different things. There are people like Pat Green who is what I would call real Texas country, and that’s what they’re singing about. Everything’s Texas this and Texas that. Then you’ve got guys that are more college oriented, the Casey Donahew type of guys who are singing about their experiences. And then, there are people like me who aren’t in college and didn’t grow up in Texas and have a more therapeutic style of songwriting. But, the great thing about Texas is that whatever style these guys are doing, they’re honest with themselves. Pat Green sings about Texas because that’s what he loves. Casey Donahew sings stories about what he grew up with. Everyone sings about what they know, and I think that’s the main difference between here and Nashville. Out there, they do a lot of pandering. It’s all small town, football games, tractors, tailgating and shooting guns, and a lot of those guys grew up in Michigan.
How do you find being a musician and living in Austin?
Austin is a lot of things. I think sometimes it’s misunderstood and sometimes marketed as something that it’s not. Austin is a great place to live – one of the best places to live in the world. As far as it being a music town, well, people on the outside looking in would see SxSW and all these venues and it’s all music, but to a point. It’s definitely not a Nashville. It’s definitely not LA. And it’s definitely not New York. It’s not a global music town like those cities are. What it is, though, is a town that’s getting a lot of imports. People are moving here because it’s the hot up and coming music place, kind of like Seattle was in the 1990s. It’s a great place to start a band and to meet great people. But as far as the bigger names go, not a lot of those guys play here. It’s not a good town for the bigger artists to play because there is so much music on all the time. You’re also not going to walk into a venue on 6th Street on a Tuesday night and hear some mind blowing player like you would on Broadway in Nashville. Austin is up and coming, though.
What will it be like branching out into new territory on this tour? I believe a lot of your destinations are places you have never played before?
This will be a great tour. This will be our first time in most of the towns we’re playing in Arizona and Nevada and California. It’s going to be a new experience every night. We would really love to get out to the West Coast more, so the whole point of this tour is come out as a three man band, with me, my lead player, and our drummer, and do a kind of Elvis Presley 1968 comeback thing where were all sit around on chairs playing the songs. It’s going to give people a chance to hear the songs for what they really are and how they were written. Then, hopefully, next time when we come back it will with the full band and we will light up some pyro and do all that kind of good stuff.
Jackson Taylor and Los Sinner play the Maverick Saloon on Tuesday, December 8th.
