Otis Taylor's somber, ethereal blues: "Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs"

Otis Taylor is one of those musicians who's usually identified as a blues musician, but whose music often seems to edge away from the blues, experimenting with nuance and flavor that suggest the blues, but don't necessarily sound like "blues." Taylor has called his music "trance blues," and I think that's just about right. It's not the actual music as much as it is the mood.

While his last CD, "Recapturing the Banjo" (his first instrument as a child), took on blues forms as performed by some accomplished banjo players, and felt much like old blues, his latest is a lot different.

Even the title is different: "Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs." It's a little obscure, but Taylor has always had a tendency to move in his own direction, once giving up his music from 1977 to 1995 to run an antiques business and coach an amateur bicycling team. Since '95, he's been a musical dervish, recording albums and apearing in festivals, spinning out new musical ideas with passion and intelligence.

Taylor's musical arrangements skillfully weave layers of instruments and vocals, always behind sensitive and thoughtful lyrics. He uses unconventional instrument mixes with things like violin and cornet, sometimes changing focus part way through a song. It's an intrguing blend of instruments, vocals and lyrics, with an almost hypnotic result. It seems to be true to his self-described "trance blues."

Taylor's vocals are gruff and tender, working well with the themes here of love and loss. His daughter Cassie plays bass, sings some backup, and provides haunting solo vocals on a trio of songs.

Here's a clip of Taylor on "Looking for Some Heat":

And here's "Sunday Morning," with Cassie in an ethereal vocal turn:

 Just to give you an idea of some of the sort of unconventional story lines floating around in Taylor's lyrics, here are a few descriptions of songs that he inlcudes in the liner notes:

-- "A story about a ghost who wants his lover to join him in the afterlife."
-- "A story about a married man who kills his mistress."
-- "A married woman leaves her husband for a woman."

It all makes for an album of excellent, thoughtful, well-crafted music.

Here's a sample video of Taylor and band at the Chicago Blues Festival last year.