Taylor McCall’s first memory of music comes from his grandfather’s guitar that was stashed under the bed. “The smell of its age I can still remember to this day.”
Appropriately, it’s his grandfather’s voice that opens Taylor’s striking debut album, Black Powder Soul. Crooning an old slave gospel, it is not just an homage to his late grandfather, but a foreshadowing of what’s to come. Black Powder Soul is the product of Taylor’s winding musical journey that began in earnest at age 7, when his parents first gifted him a guitar of his own. Equal parts miraculous and tragic, the guitar was delivered at the very moment his childhood home in South Carolina -- self built by his enigmatic father -- burnt to the ground in a heartbreaking accident.“ Taylor dove head first into mastering the instrument, completely self-taught. At 17 the songs that he put together for his debut EPs were testament to his talent as both musician and songwriter: with “Jericho Rose”, “Quartermaster” and “Waccamaw Drive” being captivating tracks garnering his 26 million plays to date in his top 10.
Throughout his life, the only thing that has rivaled his obsession with music is the pull Taylor feels toward the outdoors and fishing. During his days in the mountains and streams of South Carolina, Taylor learned to fly fish from his father and then, as he so often does, found his own path… After high school, he needed a change of scenery, which led him out west and enrolling at Montana State University. During school, he bought a drift boat and was intending on becoming a fishing guide, but the pull toward music called him back home. He sold his drift boat, packed up and moved back to South Carolina, renewing his dream of pursuing music full time and, eventually, leading to realization of Black Powder Soul. “Who is the man on the cover? Who is not the man on the cover? It’s me, it's the Devil, it’s God, it’s you, it’s anyone. It just depends on your viewpoint. The deeper you go the more connected you become.”
“My favorite track is ‘Hell’s Half Acre’. I just absolutely love that take, it was the first or second take, like most of them honestly. In the studio, it was just so much fun to play -- it’s like a movie. You can feel it speed up and slow down. The song just flows in and out of tempo like it’s alive and breathing. What was so great was that it was as if someone was dreaming about being a magician and then becoming one and the same night. The first album, to me, felt like what I’d been dreaming about for years. To me it felt like my grandpa's voice being pressed on vinyl was the thing that made it feel so complete. When my grandpa was recording, he never would have known that he would end up on vinyl. From God to the Devil, from birth to death.”
2023 has been a new chapter in Taylor’s life - producing and recording his next album.
