Bluesman Otis Taylor fearlessly and unapologetically breaches the hard topics of race relations and social injustices with vivid and poignant storytelling based in truth and history delivered with a poet’s soul and a haunting voice. Accomplished in multiple instruments including guitar, banjo, harmonica and cello, his stark instrumentation and gut-wrenching delivery has riveted the blues world and raised a fair number of eyebrows. Since his origins as a talking blues “minimalist” in the style of John Lee Hooker, Otis has blazed new trails with brilliant songwriting grounded in a blues-based center but awash with Appalachian country overtones and a moody psychedelic rock he calls “trance-blues.” Otis has earned six nominations in the Blues Foundation’s W.C. Handy Blues Awards, including “Best Acoustic Artist” and “Best Contemporary Blues Album,” and won “Best New Artist Debut” in 2001. He has been praised by Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Washington Post and NPR, among others. He was awarded “Best Blues Entertainer” in 2004 by Living Blues Reader’s Poll, named “Blues Album of the Year” twice by the Downbeat Critics Poll, and received Blues Music Awards nominations for “Best Instrumentalist” in the banjo category. As Guitar Player magazine declares, “Otis Taylor is arguably the most relevant blues artist of our time.”
Otis Taylor Band
Saturday July 28th, 2018
Doors: 7:30 p.m.
Show: 8:00 p.m.
Early Bird (ends 7/21) $20