Leaving at Dawn (Remastered) Allan Taylor

• 1Winter03:53
• 2The Almost Man06:31
• 3Back Home to You04:42
• 4Provence03:45
• 5Firefly06:07
• 6Lay Soft on Your Pillow04:05
• 7New York in the Seventies06:09
• 8The Last of the Priveteers05:42
• 9Leaving at Dawn04:19
• 10It Could Have Been03:36
• 11Make Another Turn05:07
• 12Red on Green03:45
• Total Runtime57:41

Info for Leaving at Dawn (Remastered)

After Allan Taylor´s latest solo album on Stockfisch presenting Allan as solo performer with his voice and guitar, he releases the album Leaving At Dawn on which his new songs are supported by many studio musicians with instruments as well as with vocals: Ian Melrose (git.), Chris Leslie (violin & viola), Hans-Jörg Maucksch (bass), Hrólfur Vagnsson (acc.) - to name just four of them.

The twelve tracks on this album are a mature singer’s retrospective covering moments, places and stories of biographical, personal and historical nature. A troubadour’s love songs, intimate memories of family life, echoes of sweet rebellion in the year of 68 – Taylor has thoroughly enjoyed the lightness of being while it was still not unbearable. Later he transcended those memories of New York and Amsterdam and Brighton Beach and through his art made them valid and lasting for ever.

That young man once left his home in the footsteps of the beat poets – wanting to be a wandering minstrel. That he became this kind of artist is proof enough of Allan Taylor’s successfully doing what he once promised to his father. He has most certainly not become an "almost man". In his existence as a man and as a poet he has grown into a mature personality taking his share from life courageously, generously passing on the gift.

"The style may hark back to the classic Win Or Lose or Lines but, whilst their youthful passion is largely replaced on Leaving At Dawn by nostalgic recollection, Taylor, with the incorrigible romanticism which so endears him to his loyal following, isn’t about to go gentle into that good night without at least one more try: ‘Everyone’s a fool for love, I guess we never learn/Looking for a new romance as we make another turn’. No, Dr Taylor, I guess we never do - but there’s nothing you can prescribe for the human condition." (Dave Tuxford, livingtradition.co.uk)

Allan Taylor, vocals, guitar
Ian Melrose, guitar, low whistle, tremolo guitar, dobro
Lea Morris, harmony vocals
Martin Moro, guitar, electric guitar, mandola
Chris Leslie, fiddle, viola
Christian Struck, english horn
Hrólfur Vagnsson, accordion
Siard de Jong, mandolin
Peter Funk, dobro
Udo Weihrauch, banjo
Hans-Jörg Maucksch, fretless bass
Beo Brockhausen, flute, indian harmonium, hang, percussion, bowed psaltery, hulusi

Digitally remastered

Allan Taylor
is one of the last of the traveling troubadours who came through the social and artistic revolution of the nineteen sixties and carved out a career as a solo singer-songwriter. Born in Brighton, England in 1945 he experienced the Beatnik times, the Skiffle days, the Mods and Rockers and the early Hippy days, all played out on Brighton Beach. At the age of twenty one he left home and became part of the vibrant folk music of London, playing all of the major folk clubs of the time (for example, the famous Troubadour Club) and then to Greenwich Village, New York, playing legendary clubs such as Gerde’s, The Gaslight, The Bitter End, The Mercer Arts Center. He embraced the issues, images and emotions of his time and used these experiences as the basis of his songs. Signed to the international record company United Artists and recording in London, Nashville and Los Angeles his albums were released world-wide. By the mid-seventies he returned to Europe to live and then started on the second part of his career, having now established his modus operandi – collecting the stories for his songs in the bars and cafes of Europe and throughout the rest of the world.

For more than forty-five years Allan Taylor has travelled the world performing at festivals, concert halls and clubs. He is considered to be one of the foremost singer-songwriters and guitarists in his genre, with more than one hundred recorded versions of his songs by Artists in ten different languages. One song in particular, “It’s good to see you” was a hit in many countries, and to date, there are eighty cover versions of this song. Looking back as well as forward, few people can convey with such eloquence their life experiences. His songs are written from a lifetime of traveling; always the observer passing through, each song is a vignette of life, like a story told over a drink in a bar. He writes his songs in cafes, bars and hotel rooms throughout the world, songs for the lost and lonely, for the unsung heroes of life, for those marginalized by society – they all find a place in his songs. Each song has an integrity that tells you it comes from something real; characters come to life as people you know and places become as familiar as if you had been there.

Allan is considered to be one of the music scene’s great guitarists, creating during his stage performance a distinctive rich and mellow sound, and with a voice that speaks of a life-time of travel he can make each song a vignette of life, like a story told over a drink in a bar. His songs have an integrity that tell you they come from something real, where characters come to life as people you know and places become as familiar as if you had been there. When this happens, you know it’s an Allan Taylor concert.

Allan Taylor is also a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy and Music, having written his thesis for the Queen’s University of Belfast.

Booklet for Leaving at Dawn (Remastered)