| The first video from his new release "Yonkers N.Y." In his nostalgic new video, "Charcoal Sky," esteemed singer-songwriter Chip Taylor reminisces about placing nickels on the rails as a kid and listening to his father chat with the conductors. Taylor sets numerous family stories to music on a new album, Yonkers NY, with one of the two discs bolstered with personal anecdotes. Taylor is most recognized for writing "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning" -- which couldn't be more different -- but throughout his brilliant career he's also placed songs with the likes of Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra and Dusty Springfield. There's also a terrific new Chip Taylor anthology on Ace Records, with dozens of vintage artists offering their own renditions of his work, in case you're in the mood for memories too. Produced by ADC Film www.ADCFilm.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/10/AR2009121001351.html
Washington Post
December 11, 2009
Record review: Chip Taylor's 'Yonkers, NY'
CHIP TAYLOR
"Yonkers, NY"
Kindred spirits: Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings
Show: With Kendel Carson and Jon Voight Sunday at the Birchmere. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. 703-549-7500. http://www.birchmere.com.
Until a feature-length film on singer-songwriter Chip Taylor's improbable life comes along, "Yonkers, NY," his latest release, will do nicely. Here we find the veteran tunesmith moving between song and anecdote, reminiscing about his childhood in the New York City suburbs, a time shared with siblings who'd go on to make quite a name for themselves, including actor Jon Voight. Taylor's father, a golf pro who convinced his children that he was an FBI agent "bound for glory," also plays a role in these curiously entertaining tales. Interspersed are reminders of Taylor's budding fascination with music and composing; "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning" were among his early hits.
Apparently Taylor wrote the songs on the alt-country "Yonkers" within a week or so, yet they're full of humor and affection, rendered in an unvarnished, mostly conversational tone. The best of the lot stick close to home, as when Taylor quietly recalls a cherished family memory on "Charcoal Sky" or pays tribute to his early rock influences on "Hey Jonny." No lyric, however, is more telling than the opening verse on "Saw Mill River Road": "Way down in Macon they were singing the blues/But back home in Yonkers we had nothing to choose -- no country, no race records, just some old white fluff stuff/And for some of us boys, it just wasn't good enough."
-- Mike Joyce
http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2009/12/chip-taylor-yonkers-ny.php
Washington Post Express
December 10, 2009
Musical Memoirs of N.Y.: Singer-Songwriter Chip Taylor Looks Back in 'Yonkers, NY'
CHIP TAYLOR GREW UP in Yonkers, New York, listening to early rock 'n' roll on the radio and sparring with his brothers. More than 50 years later, the famed singer-songwriter, who is best known for writing "Angel of the Morning," has written a musical autobiography on "Yonkers, NY," which recounts stories about his father, a golf pro who convinced his sons he was a G-man, and his brothers, actor Jon Voight and volcanologist Barry Voight.
» EXPRESS: Where did you get the idea to do an autobiographical CD?
» TAYLOR: I wasn't trying to do a retrospective work. When I wake up in the morning, I always have my guitar next to me, and I would just pick it up and write. I think the first song that came was "Charcoal Sky," and once I found myself there, that's where I stayed for a couple of days.
» EXPRESS: Did you write from memory?
» TAYLOR: These are all beautiful memories for me, so I didn't need to check with anybody else. "Barry Go On" has always been a funny story, when Barry got me to run away from home with him when I was 6. I have vivid memories of that day. And "Charcoal Sky" is about being at the train station with Dad on his day off. I have a very vivid memory of that, but my brothers don't remember it all. He used to talk to the conductors, and I remember the train would be pulling out and the conductor would have to run about 50 yards to catch the caboose. It's almost a slow-motion memory for me.
» EXPRESS: With all its gamblers and mob guys, Yonkers seems to be a character as real as your father or your brothers.
» TAYLOR: There's a dark side to it, but I liked the dark side, almost like Damon Runyon stuff. When you're around it, you don't think these guys are bad folks. There were a lot of nice people, like the mafia guy singing opera in my backyard on "Without Horses." He was a nice guy, whatever else he did.
» EXPRESS: Do you get back to Yonkers very often? Has it changed?
» TAYLOR: I go there often. Yonkers made it Chip Taylor Day when my album was released, and it was wonderful going back there and talking to the mayor and all those folks. It has changed, and they've tried to upscale it a bit, but the heart of Yonkers is Yonkers, you know. I think it still has the same heart, no matter how you change the facade.
» Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria; with Jon Voight, Kendel Carson; Sun., Dec. 13, 7:30 p.m.; $35; 703-549-7500, Birchmere.com.
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/122009/12102009/512096
Fredricksburg Free Lance-Star
December 10, 2009
>> 'WILD THING' COMPOSER AND CHAMPION POKER PLAYER CELEBRATES HIS FAMOUS BROTHERS
Chip Taylor ascribes his family's success to a solid upbringing.
BY JONAS BEALS
Chip Taylor's father was an immigrant kid from the wrong side of the tracks. As Taylor tells it, his father used to sneak onto a local golf course when he was little. He learned the game and made a career as a golf pro.
"My dad would wake me and my brothers up in the morning and say, 'Boys, the world is your oyster,'" Taylor said. "Mom and Dad were encouraging us to hop our own fences."
It worked. Taylor's oldest brother, Barry Voight, is a renowned geologist and volcanologist; Jon Voight is an Oscar-nominated actor; and Chip Taylor, the youngest, is the songwriter responsible for "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning," among many other hits.
The whole thing sounds like the epilogue of a feel-good novel, but truth can match fiction on occasion.
Or the difference can be hard to detect. On the first track of his latest album, "Yonkers, NY," Taylor admits that he grew up believing his dad was a CIA agent, thanks to the stories he used to tell his sons.
As a songwriter, Taylor has assumed his father's storytelling mantle, stringing listeners along an autobiographical arc too heartfelt and pure to be questioned.
Vignettes touch on mundane events that eventually defined the lives of one American family. Taylor describes sitting on the periphery on his father's gin rummy games--a formative moment for Taylor, who temporarily left the music business in the 1970s to become a full-time professional gambler.
"Hey Johnny (Did You Feel That Movie)" catches the moment that might have inspired two lives--when he and brother Jon saw "Blackboard Jungle" as kids. Jon may have been focused on Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier, but Taylor got a full dose of Bill Haley.
On "Bastard Brothers," Taylor ribs his siblings for precipitating a turning point in his life--when they managed to convince their mother to replace young Chip's noisy violin with a more subtle ukulele.
It's comforting, particularly in the holiday season, to think of Taylor's latest album as a sort of Jean Shepherd-ian tale of idealized suburban upbringing. Taylor stops mid-song on occasion to tell a story rather than sing it, unearthing gauzy childhood tales reminiscent of "A Christmas Story."
The format--mixing music with straight storytelling--is a cinematic way to present an album. There are even "guest" appearances by Johnny Cash and Bill Haley, played by Taylor, thanks to snippets of "Big River" and "Rock Around the Clock."
The spoken interludes serve the songs well--adding context without bogging things down. The oratory breakdown in the middle of "Barry Go On (Put Yourself On The Mountain)" clears up any misconceptions--the song is about his brother Barry, not our current president.
The format gives listeners a chance to understand Taylor's songwriting process.
"When I wrote the songs, I was thinking of little stories," he said. "I'm a stream-of-consciousness writer."
This particular "Yonkers" stream is thick with family memories. These are intimate slices of a life that Taylor shows great care and respect for, embellished with the folksy tones of country and rockabilly that Taylor connected with when he was young.
"My whole life has been guided by physical sensations--my body getting chills," he said.
Taylor recalled a moment that isn't mentioned on the album, but fits the theme. It was when his parents took him to the theater and he heard "My Wild Irish Rose."
"My whole life changed when I heard that orchestra play," he said. "It was the sound of the music--I felt it in my body. I was almost crying. I didn't want it to end. It was like when I had my first dance with a girl at 12 years old and I didn't want to get her perfume off my wrist.
"When I write songs, I feel it. It's a real, physical sensation."
Not all of us are songwriters, but most of us can recognize and remember moments of stunning emotional impact. It's falling in love, and it can happen with music or brothers as often as it does with boyfriends or girlfriends. Taylor brings those moments to life in his stories by polishing important memories that might have lost some of their shine.
"When you grow up in Yonkers, it's a wonderful thing," Taylor said. "Mom and Dad were from poor families. Most of the folks in Yonkers were poor. It was not a glamorous life. It was like we were the Brooklyn Dodgers, not the Yankees. We were the underdogs." www.airplaydirect.com/chiptaylor |
