Toronto-based singer-songwriter Julian Taylor has been part of the musical fabric and landscape in Canada for two decades. Taylor enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2020, when his second solo acoustic album, ‘The Ridge’ earned more than five million plays on Spotify and earned him two JUNO award nominations amongst various other recognition.
We first saw Julian play at the Americana Music Association Music Week and Conference in Hackney and he has just concluded his own UK tour which included two performances at The Long Road Festival in Lutterworth where we had the opportunity to chat with him about the event and new music that is on the way.
For his performance at the festival and for the dates on his UK tour, Taylor was joined on stage by three incredibly talented ladies from this side of the Atlantic: Michelle Stodart, Raevennen Husbands and Sian Monaghan. “I met Raevennen first and that was the weekend of Americana UK in the winter of 2023 when I came here to showcase. They were all in the house band and when I ran into her at the afterparty, we just hung out, talked and we had a good time. She came to my show at Green Note and I said I would love to come back but it’s just too crazy for me to bring my band over here, so she said let me talk to the girls and see if they would be into it. She talked to Michelle, Sian and Sian’s partner Hayley as well, then it just sort of clicked.”
The event in Hackney which we had talked about, had Julian playing as part of a showcase for Canadian artists which took place at the Moth Club during Americana Music Week. “It was great, a lot of my friends like Tara MacLean, William Prince, Mikhail Laxton and Whitehorse were on that bill.” Of the acts that Julian mentioned, we spoke to Melissa and Luke from Whitehorse during the event last year, then William Prince is someone who I have had the pleasure of talking to on multiple occasions and apart from being an incredible guy is someone that has a lot of stories with a lot of depth and meaning, which I feel is very similar to being at one of Julian’s shows. I brought particular reference to the power of Julian’s song ‘Seeds’ and the poignancy of the line “They tried to bury us, but they didn't know we were seeds.”
‘Seeds’ was a song from his 2022 ‘Beyond the Reservoir’ album, whilst we now anticipate the next musical chapter and his forthcoming album ‘Pathways’ which is due for release on September 27th. The first taste of the record has already been shared with the title track available now and featuring the fantastic Alison Russell. “Alison and I have been friends for a little while now, we’re dear friends and I think she’s absolutely fantastic. She brings so much so much soul, so much heart and so much empathy to everything that she does. We were just chatting about it and I played her the song then I think her exact words were it’s immaculate and I want to sing on it, then that was pretty much how it happened.”
We also touched upon the festival at Stanford Hall with this being his first visit to The Long Road. “I like it here, I checked out the main stage (Rhinestone) which was great and I checked out a couple of bands over on the stage where we played earlier (Interstate) this morning. Everybody is telling me great things about The Front Porch stage where we are playing later, I was chatting with Baylen (Leonard) just now and he had told me that he designed it based on his childhood place down in Tennessee so I’m looking forward to playing that.” Taylor’s musical career has spanned thirty years, yet strangely last year was the first time that he had been over to the UK to play shows although he finished up by offering that it is something that he wishes to continue. “I really don’t know why it took so long. Now that I have been here I see such a wonderful vibe and energy here with a real appreciation for what I do. I think that maybe had I known earlier, the opportunity that existed here that I would have but I guess you get stuck in your own bubble sometimes. It’s a very attentive audience here and it’s very focused, that energy and that connection with people, that communication that happens is pretty special. From what I know now, as long as UK audiences would like to have me back, I will be back.”
The new single “Pathways” featuring Alison Russell from Julian Taylor is out now and available HERE. The song is also the title track of Julian’s upcoming album due for release on September 27th which you can find more details about on his WEBSITE or on INSTAGRAMFACEBOOK and TIKTOK. The Long Road Festival will return in 2025 to Stanford Hall in Leicestershire over the weekend of August 22nd to 24th where the initial release of weekend early bird tickets are on sale now over on their WEBSITE and you can be the first to know all updates ahead of next year’s event by checking out their socials on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.