Brit Taylor

Blending classic country sounds with the bluegrass from her home state of Kentucky, Brit Taylor forges a distinctive style on her first two albums, both recorded in collaboration with heavy hitters in 21st century roots rock. Real Me, her 2020 debut, featured several collaborations with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, while 2023′s Kentucky Blue was co-produced by Sturgill Simpson, another Kentucky native who helped her define an idiosyncratic space existing between the lush contours of the Nashville sound and progressive bluegrass Brit Taylor began performing music while she was a child growing up in Hindman, a small town in east Kentucky, singing with the Kentucky Opry Junior Pros, a revue that specialized in splashy entertainment. Taylor found herself gravitating toward harder country music, taking inspiration from anyone from Loretta Lynn to Patty Loveless. Initially a piano player, Taylor took up the guitar once a vocal coach said she’d have to play the instrument if she wanted to sing country music. When she was 17 in 2007, she moved to Murfreesboro, where she studied the music business at Middle Tennessee State University. With her Recording Industry degree in hand, Taylor formed a band called Triple Run. Taylor seemed to be making headway — she landed a publishing contract and she made a home with her husband on a farm on the outskirts of Nashville — until she suffered an annus horribilis in 2017. The band broke up, as did her marriage, she lost her publishing deal, and her home was taken away. She regrouped by launching a house-cleaning business, using the profits to bankroll her debut album, Real Me. The genesis of Real Me lay in a collaboration with Dan Auerbach, who encouraged the singer/songwriter to pursue the classic country styles that inspired her to make music. Working with producer Dave Brainard, who helmed Brandy Clark’s 12 Stories, Brit Taylor completed Real Me, which featured five songs co-written by Auerbach. Upon its release in 2020, Real Me garnered good press, generating enough buzz to warrant a deluxe version of the album in 2021. Throughout 2022, Taylor released a series of singles from the sessions she held with producers Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson for her second album. At the end of the year, she released “Lonely on Christmas,” a seasonal single recorded with Mike & The Moonpies. Shortly afterward, her Simpson and Ferguson-produced Kentucky Blue was released on Thirty Tigers in February 2023. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine