The liner notes accompanying Terry Taylor's new album Avocado Faultline are extensive and to be honest, I'm thrilled about that simple fact. Of course, I buy CD's for the music they contain but as a book lover at heart, I feel a bit cheated when they are only accompanied by a one page insert with scant information and no artwork. For me, the liner notes are part of the entire experience a CD offers. I'd venture a guess that Taylor himself feels the same way. For example, the recent re-release of Daniel Amos's The Alarma Chronicles included a 169 page book. And if you recall the original release of the four albums that comprise The Alarma Chronicles, you'll remember the mini-novel Taylor wrote to accompany them. Though he doesn't entertain similar literary notions with the liner notes for Avocado Faultline, the insert does include some great artwork and Taylor's explanation/apology for his recent work.
Most of what Taylor says in his "explanation" won't surprise his fans; he indicates he is not the characters he portrays in his music. I agree. Consider Daniel Amos's last album, told from the perspective of the 65-year-old Bud Akendorf; or the Swirling Eddies, the "other" band Daniel Amos sometimes becomes; or the ironic distance implicit within Taylor's incisive wit. However, despite the layers that separate Taylor from his characters and his music, he has always communicated sincerity and personality. An idealist devoted to personal and social commentary, he demonstrates a profound sympathy for the people he portrays and the things on which he comments. Avocado Faultline portrays characters with whom we feel connections despite (or maybe due to) their faults.
For those looking for the alternative rock of Daniel Amos or a direct musical follow-up to Taylor's John Wayne, this album may come as a surprise. Avocado Faultline draws on country and folk music traditions and in some ways, serves as a companion piece to the Lost Dogs' Gift Horse (entirely written by Taylor). However, the musical tenor of this album serves very well the work Taylor sets at hand: profound, story-driven sketches as well as songs filled with Taylor's vibrant images. Several treat comically wide-spread neurotic habits such as "Startin Monday" (which details a laundry list of good things to start doing soon) and "With What I Should Have Said" (which describes a life filled with comebacks cleverly devised but devised too late). The acoustic arrangements not only allow the lyrics to be featured prominently but also accentuate the general tone of the songs (humor and mock-seriousness, respectively).
The characters created within these songs seem likely to exist only as a joke, to deconstruct their own integrity with their preposterous desires (as in "Pretend I'm Elvis (For Just One Night)"). Over and over on Avocado Faultline, Taylor defies that easy way out and creates fully developed characters. Many are conventional "losers," but the dignity Taylor gives them demonstrates his soft spot for them all. Specifically, this is demonstrated by the man who wanted to build his loved one a castle but only "Built Her a Cloud." Even more wistful is the character in "Capistrano Beach," who recognizes his dead end and need for redemption and feels helpless:
Oh fly on you mixed up swallows,
this is not the stop
that God planned
You are over San Juan's
crippled sister
and it's best you do not land
Sing your song to Junipero Serra
Ask him why we were left
in the breach
Could have used
a good missionary
here in Capistrano beach
Here, Taylor demonstrates his ability to use familiar images (a bird's freedom) and motifs (the need for hope and healing) in wonderfully irregular and poignant ways. Again, distinctive moods are created by the arrangements; the "tear-in-my-beer" association with country music's guitar and accordion serve these songs well. As well as recognizing Taylor's songwriting, I must also credit his players: Phil Madeira, Steve Hindalong (both masterful), and an all-star list of guest players (Jimmy A, Derri Daugherty, and Mike Roe, among others).
Taylor offers a distinctly personal take on life with his Father's Day memory called "Papa Danced on Olvera Street." Avocado Faultline is dedicated to his father and this focus may or may not explain the themes and sound of the album. Regardless, it serves not only as a recognition of family ties but our common links as human beings living in this fallen world. The opening song "Cowboys with Engines" describes the violence to which we've become too accustomed and the closing song "Kind Word" hopes for something more through kindness to others:
I know it isn't much
but a blade of grass
can crack the pavement
And if enough of us
would go against the grain
in time we'd be a green field
dressed in God's own
finest raiment
soakin up the sunshine
and laughing in the rain
A closing song equal in power to "You Lay Down," featured on Taylor's last solo effort, "Kind Word" is a statement of hope. Whether it is Taylor or a character of his own creation singing these words is irrelevant. This song fills me with a fervent desire for God's will to be done on earth as it is in
heaven.
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Other coverage for this album
Bandoppler 2000Reviewed by Chris EsteyIt still amazes me when I run into Christian alternative music fans unaware of Terry Taylor. Terry was the leader of original CCM band Daniel Amos, which in its earliest days started off Beatlesque pop, then played sometimes sardonic apocalyptic C&W in the 70s (their most mainstream-accepted period), and then transformed into a seminal, inarguably high quality alternative rock band from around…The Phantom Tollbooth 2000Reviewed by Michial FarmerOn his last solo outing, the 1998 Beatles-meet-the-90s masterpiece John Wayne, Daniel Amos frontman Terry Taylor took shots at spiritually bankrupt Orange County, as well as topics ranging from the Christian music industry to personal hypocrisy. This year's Avocado Faultline covers many of the same topics, but instead of talking from an outsider's perspective, Taylor has chosen to get inside the…Similar sounding releases
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