Otis Taylor plays in a multi-directional musical world. The brand of blues he creates works tirelessly to move society forward, yet his themes cause us to perpetually look back.
My World is Gone, released in February, is the latest offering from the Colorado-based multi-instrumentalist. The title comes from a conversation Taylor had with guitarist and collaborator Mato Nanji. Taylor notes on his website that Nanji, a native North American, uttered the phrase when referring to his people, the Nakota Nation.
However, one could look as far back as the Royal Proclamation of 1763 to find the ultimate source of Taylor’s inspiration for this recording. The Royal Proclamation, essentially, called for the settlers of North America to leave the territory west of the 13 colonies to the native peoples. This restriction became one of the issues leading to the American Revolution in 1776.
Taylor is no stranger to infusing his music with social and historical substance. Titles such as When Negroes Walked the Earth, Truth is Not Fiction and Contraband set expectations that these will not be your average 12-bar, broken-hearted blues. The social issue Taylor has chosen to unearth with My World is Gone is that of the changing face of native North America.
It is not with didactic references or historical specifics that Taylor invokes history. Allusions, like the song “Sand Creek Massacre Mourning,” refer to events of historical proportion without relying on a storyline. The symbolism of lines such as “If you send me a golden razor/I’ll cut my hair/I’ll bury it in the ground/where the buffalo used to roam,” from the title track, poetically express sentiments that embellish the theme of the disc.
(Courtesy of Telarc)
Taylor restrains the urge to become too blatant by interspersing the historical messages with the stuff of more traditionally recognizable blues. In “Huckleberry Blues” he sings “You wake up in the morning just to see if I’m still around/You tell all your friends I’m in love with you now.” “I know you’re cheatin’ on me,” from “Girlfriend’s House,” is as typical a lyric as you’d find in any blues number.
For all the subtlety in the delivery of Taylor’s message, however, one might ask wherein lies its power to inform. I think Taylor’s strongest suit, as with any good educator, lies in his ability to instil curiosity. Once you move past the infectious grooves, creatively layered horns and banjos and understated vocals, you might just be inclined, someday, to Google the Sand Creek Massacre. If you do, Taylor has done his job.
Does the Royal Proclamation of 1763 have a direct link to the February 2013 release of My World is Gone? Not really. Mind you, it was the American Revolution, set up by the proclamation, that opened the west to colonial settlement, and it was an American regiment of the Colorado Territory Militia that was responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre of members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations. Reparations for the massacre led to successive treaties that were systematically ignored by the American government, ultimately leading Mato Nanji to make the statement, “my world is gone.” Without Google, Wikipedia and the Canadian Encylopedia I wouldn’t have had any of these facts on the tip of my brain, but without My World is Gone, I wouldn’t have thought to look them up.
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