Terry Scott Taylor: Knowledge and Innocence

Terry Scott Taylor: Knowledge and Innocence:

It probably doesn't make a lot of sense to review a CD that was first released as an album some twenty(?!) years ago, and that you will never see or hear of ---but I found a copy for far less than the 78 dollars someone wants for it on Ebay.

It’s been so many years since I rubbed all the particles off my old cassette, that I forgot how simply amazing this recording is. Count this as one of the ten recordings I should take to restart civilization. (Others include Mark Heard’s Satellite Sky, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, Handel’s Messiah.) There are times the recording sounds a little demo… like a synthesizer was making up for what should have been a full band. And it is, this is something of a homemade drum maching album. But budget aside, Terry pulls out more odd textures, melodies, and moods than could be thought possible. Borrowing a title employed by English poet William Blake, TS Taylor blends themes of childhood, discovery, blue collar life, and grandfather’s camp-meeting, and a longing for heaven. Quick adjectives describing all or part of the album: Cheesy, hypnotic, grand, mystic, human, Exquisite, silly, profound,. Simply... an astonishing album with one foot firmly anchored in the next world.