11/14/11 – Tasha’s Holiday Track “Merry Christmas Baby” Is Here

Tasha’s original holiday single “Merry Christmas Baby” from her album TAYLORMADE is here. TAYLORMADE is filled with remembrances and ‘Merry Christmas Baby’ is one of those songs on the album that has taken on a life of its own and now is really more evocative of my parents than about me,” Tasha explains.

Tasha’s music is infused with the spirit of her legendary father and other standouts on TAYLORMADE include a funky duet by “Taylor and Taylor” – daughter and father – reprising Johnnie Taylor’s first million-selling Stax Records hit, “Who’s Making Love,” and her singles “Queen” and “I Got Love.”  Tasha has been tagged as a New! Artist to Watch by Clear Channel and has been featured on House of Blues Radio with Elwood Blues.

Watch the video for “Merry Christmas Baby” here

9/2/11 – This Monday 9/5/11: Tasha Taylor To Perform at the KJLH Black Music & Arts Festival

Tasha Taylor will perform live at the KJLH Black Music & Arts Festival on Labor Day Monday, September 5th at 3pm. The show is $5 at the gate or free before 11:30am. Festival proceeds are dedicated to supporting the Marcus Garvey Schools with funds to help create a music program for under-served urban youth. For more information visit http://www.kjlhradio.com/radiofree/events/view/2963/date/2011-09-05.html.

8/31/11 – Taylormade Now Available At Dusty Groove & Streetlight Records

8/8/11 – Check out Howard Dukes’ review of Taylormade on SoulTracks.com. Album is available now at iTunes http://bit.ly/kFHKtr and the single “Queen” is available as a free August download exclusively at SoulTracks.com.

7/4/11 – Los Angeles, CA: Tasha Taylor will perform at 4pm on the KJLH stage at the 9th annual LA City 4th of July Celebration at Exposition Park. This is a free event. For more information visit: http://www.expositionpark.org/fourth-july-fireworks-extravaganza.

7/7/11 – Jackson, MS: Tune in and watch Tasha Taylor perform live on Fox 40 & Friends Morning Show. Tasha will be live at 7:45 am central time. For more information visit www.my601.com and don’t worry if you are not a Jackson local once we get video from the show we will post Tasha’s performance right here.

6/14/11: It’s official, Tasha Taylor’s debut album Taylormade in stores now!

Taylormade features 13 tracks, including Tasha’s brand radio new single “Queen“-  which is already getting airplay here in LA. The album is available at iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby and AmazonMp3 and the single can be downloaded for purchase at iTunes and AmazonMp3. Be sure to check out the official “Queen” music video here and become a fan of Tasha Taylor Music on Facebook!

LA fans and friends, Tasha Taylor will perform at Harvelles every Tuesday in June as part of her month-long Soul Tuesdays residency. On, June 15th, she did a set at Seven Grand to celebrate her CD release. Be sure to sign up for the mailing list to keep up with the latest!

Sound Check: SOULTRAIN.COM Interview-Tasha Taylor – TAYLORMADE
posted in Culture at Oct 22, 2010 / by: Quia Querisma/ Senior Editor SoulTrain.com

Tasha Taylor The scion of one of Soul Train’s favorite Soul Men is making way for her sound to be heard. Tasha Taylor, daughter of Johnnie Taylor has been tasked with the chore of carrying the torch of the man whose hits include “Disco Lady”, while defining herself as an individual. What better way to walk the line than to take another of his most popular songs, put your own spin on it, but make the video a duet? Tasha’s rendition of “Who’s Making Love” takes an already grooving, bluesy jam and throws her own soul-seasoning into the mix. Not a single ounce of flavor is lost as her powerful voice resonates over the synths and horns.

Tasha, her brother and her mother spent years on the road with Johnnie, but later settled in Dallas, Texas to enjoy a more conventional childhood. Though Johnnie only had an 8th grade education himself, he took pride in the fact that he was able to send his children to a posh private school where their creative interests could be fostered. With a musician as a dad and mother who was a former model and actress, showbiz beckoned the Taylor kids. Keeping music close to her heart, Tasha studied theater throughout school, becoming a President’s Scholar.

Her hard work and passion paid off in the form of two albums, 2005’s Revival and this year’s effort, Taylormade. Tasha was waiting to take delivery of the first run of Taylormade the day of our interview–an exciting day for any indie artist. Add into the mix that her first run on Broadway kicks off in early 2011 and you’ve got a woman who’s ready to show the world how talented she really is.

SoulTrain.com: What was it like growing up as a child of a Soul music icon?

Tasha Taylor: Ooh, good question. It was very cool in a lot of ways and it was challenging in a lot of ways. You know my dad was on the road all the time so it definitely affected our family unit. And then both my brother and I are musician/singer/songwriters so it is just kind of interesting how each of us had a different relationship with my dad and his music when we each got involved in the road show at different levels as we got older. But as kids it was me, my mom, my dad, and my brother kind of traveling around as a family and that was really cool but also really hard for my mom. At a certain point we decided to stay home and he went on the road and that became an interesting dynamic for our family. But he’s my biggest hero; I mean musically I listen to him more than anyone else. It was always, singing was always a job until I was like 11 or 12 I started listening to his music like what’s the big deal? What does he do again?

SoulTrain.com: That was actually my next question, because growing up your like okay, yeah that’s my mom, that’s my dad, whatever, shrug. But I was going to ask at what point did it register that he was kind of a big deal?

Tasha Taylor: Like around 11 or 12, I guess. It lead to an understanding that he was a big deal, but more what is his music, what is he doing and what do I think about it? [I thought] let me actually take some of it and do some research and begin studying his stuff. Immediately I found things that I loved and it was newer stuff and then I started getting into the blues stuff that was like way before my time, that I didn’t know about that I really, really love. Mostly the oldest stuff is my favorite stuff of his–of my dad’s. At about 13 or 14 I started writing songs and I started listening to him probably right before that–musically at least, I never listened to the advisement that he gave me because he’s my dad, what does he know? (Laughs) I mean that’s not totally true…

SoulTrain.com: I mean once you get old enough, you appreciate what your parents have to say, before that its like “yeah, yeah, yeah.”

Tasha Taylor: Noise just going in one ear and out the other one. Everyone can relate to that.

SoulTrain.com: You weren’t really pressured to go into show business but what was it that attracted you to it anyway?

Tasha Taylor: You know, I was a daddy’s girl so I don’t know; my parents didn’t pressure us at all. My mom she had aspirations in becoming a model and an actress. She did a lot of that stuff and ended up being a real estate agent. But she did a lot of that stuff in her 20s and 30s, like owned a record shop and hung out with musicians. My parents met in LA that’s kind of like being in the same sort of scene. So we always had agents when we were kids. We did commercial stuff, we did print stuff, we always did some kind of classes. It was never a pressuring thing and we were both pretty hammy kids from growing up on the road, it was pretty clear that we were all about it. I think that when your dad is a singer it can go one of two ways, you can hate him or you could love him for a number of different reasons. From Ray Charles to Johnnie Taylor to James Brown, I mean papa was a rolling stone. There are always these similarities that soul men have in their family life, in their personal life, like sacrifices they make that usually affect the kids. So my mom for sure wasn’t pushing either of us to get on the tour bus with my dad because she didn’t want, there was a lot of stuff she wanted to protect us from that my dad might have just been really used to. So it didn’t really mean we necessarily needed to be protected from it, it was just life, life on the road kind of thing. But I think we both had that desire and for me once I really started getting into my dad’s music and his voice and how good he was, I mean not to mention just standing on the side of the stage was the best education I could ever get. Just the showmanship you know, I just, I wanted to be like him. Music was the one thing that I could really excel at when I was growing up; it was kind of my go to thing. Just sort of felt natural and made sense, no pressure. If anything there was a lot of support. I could always come home and sit down at the piano and play my songs for my dad and he would chill out and close his eyes and listen. We would talk about the business and what he’d gone through. “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” what he used to always tell me. “Rome wasn’t built in a day Tasha, get that record deal.” Gotta build that foundation you know. I don’t know I think its just in my blood, in my brother’s blood. I look at it as carrying on the family business, this is just what you do. He worked so hard, he deserves for his story to continue you know?
Revival
Buy Revival on iTunes

SoulTrain.com: Yes I do. So music is obviously a given but what attracted you to theater?

Tasha Taylor: You know I started off singing in musical theater. I went to private school, and one of those extracurricular activities was my outlet. And the musical, the theater department at my school, Greenhill School in Dallas, Texas. Back at Greenhill, theater was a big deal, and it was a good outlet for music and they did cool shows. So when it was time to go to college I was like, well I want to sing so do I even want to go to college, do I want to go down this road? But I felt like, not everybody has the opportunity to go so you at least have to go. And one of my sort of things that I was excelling at the time was theater, and I had a really good theater teacher at the time who’s sort of a mentor got me involved in as a Presidential Scholar as an actor. I auditioned for this Presidential Scholar thing that I ended up going further in than I realized and at the time. It was time to apply to schools and it just seemed that the natural thing to do was to go to school and study acting because I didn’t want anybody to tell me how to sing. I didn’t wanna go and study with the stuffies, I wanted to be able to belt out my soul and my dad didn’t go to school so I wanted to be able to keep sort of a raw edge. I didn’t want to study music in college and I kind of regret that but you know.

SoulTrain.com: I mean truthfully I can understand feeling that way. You grow up living the practice and so you know you don’t wanna get there and all of a sudden their like no, you’re doing it wrong. You’re singing to hard, or something like that.

Tasha Taylor: Yeah, you got it. That’s exactly what was going on. In high school that’s exactly what my choir teachers were saying, don’t use your chest voice, use your head voice. I was like what? I’ma be singin’ soul music, what are y’all talkin’ about?

SoulTrain.com: Yeah no head voice at all, it needs to come from your feet!

Tasha Taylor: Yes, exactly. So yeah I was just down to explore something else that was like my next natural thing that was creative it was performance. Performing is something that I love. So whether it was musical theater where you could do everything or its being on the road and just touring and singing or acting. I mean television acting, I do a lot of independent films, it’s a different thing because its not your thing. As an artist the thing that’s hardest is dealing with the criticisms and trying to get things right for other people and how they see you, how you see yourself. With that being you kind of have to give it up. Its humbling, its not your words and there are specific people who have placed specific roles to make you look and give a certain feel to a scene. I mean its just a whole different side of my brain so I appreciate being able to shift gears and go into it but I feel so much more controlled when I’m acting than when I’m on the stage singing. You know, it’s a whole different thing.

SoulTrain.com: So tell us about “Unchain My Heart”, your Broadway show.

Tasha Taylor: “Unchain My Heart” is the most exciting thing that’s coming up, other than the record. It’s the Ray Charles musical its being produced by Stuart Benjamin who produced the movie “Ray”. I will be playing Margie Hendrix who is one of the Raylettes that was portrayed by Regina King in the movie. I’m in sort of a love triangle with Ray, his wife, and another Raylette and it’s a really great singing role. I’ve got a couple great solo numbers. There’s ton of great choreography. We did a group sales presentation a few months back for all the marketing people who were doing group sales for the play. It was like at BB King’s, in Times Square and we got standing ovation from these suits that never react, they don’t respond to anything because they’ve seen everything but, I mean Ray Charles music is Soul music! What excites me about this project is that it does plug into where I come from and its gonna be more modern and hip and soulful than anything that is going on Broadway now which will be kind of groundbreaking. They aren’t going to water it down; they are going to keep it real organic. And I think that his music transcends color, race, sex, age, whatever. I think there’s something really universal about his music. So you know I think its like a bigger cause, its like something bigger than you where you participate in something that’s gonna inspire and uplift people. And be something that’s not a bunch of whatever, gimmick but really smart. I’m really excited about it and I’ve never performed on Broadway so this is a turning point in my career. I think it will be a really cool thing. I think it will really be a special thing and I think it will have a really long life. Ray Charles and my father were friends, and they came from the same generation of music. You know that chitterling circuit that starts from the church and ends up crossing over, whatever that means. You know what I mean? But I just think that those guys are pioneers and I think they’re Soul music pioneers. I think they deserve this. Its American history.

SoulTrain.com: Can you tell me the theme behind Taylormade?

Tasha Taylor: I started writing songs a while back and kind of was just in the space of needing just to get it all out. Just dabbling with the idea of being a second-generation and trying to keep this legacy going and what that means and kind of where that stops and where that begins for me as an artist. And I think that this record really is sort of an opportunity to be like, okay this is a tribute to where I come from and a tribute to where–a catharsis, to where I am. And everything in between because I think these songs were birthed out of dealing with a lot of loss, like losing my dad and walking away from Epic records right around the same time. I got a big record deal right when my dad passed away, like all in the same month so you know it was just like, lets zoom out here… There is a bigger picture and what is the bigger picture? Everything crumbles away so you can be more self-sufficient and I think this record is about that. It’s sort of dedicated to my family and where I come from and everything culminates up until this day, this very day. And I think the next record will be something else. I feel like this is closure for me. And Taylormade, the name didn’t come until the concept was completed. But there’s sort of a concept there that my dad has woven through the record, it just made sense to kind of, you know American made, I’m Taylor made. My dad used to always say, “Just remember you’re a Taylor, you’re tough.” This is my, “I heard you. I’m carrying the torch, lets keep it moving.” A lot of it has been inspired by my family.

Check out the videos for “Somebody” and “Who’s Making Love”.