Terry Scott Taylor

Item: Glimpses of Grace
Author: Michial Farmer

Glimpses of Grace

(1999)

Reviewed by Michial Farmer

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Amazon Music Spotify YouTube Music

Label KMG RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth1999

folk rock singer-songwriter

Although it's been said many times, I repeat it again here: Terry Taylor is a legend. Or at least he should be. Throughout his career with Daniel Amos, the Swirling Eddies and Lost Dogs, he's had to deal with critical acclaim coupled with a complete lack of commercial success. Last October brought the release of a DA greatest hits album, Our Personal Favorite World Famous Hits, and KMG has now introduced a sequel: Glimpses of Grace: The Best of Terry Scott Taylor.

As the title suggests this disc doesn't contain songs from DA or Swirling Eddies records, but rather from Taylor's three solo records: Knowledge and Innocence, A Briefing for the Ascent and last year's John Wayne, along with a few oddities thrown in from other recordings. All in all, there are eighteen tracks, which are fairly equally distributed from the three albums.

From Knowledge and Innocence, we get "Song of Innocence," "Ever After," "(Out of) The Wildwood," "One More Time" and "Light Princess." A Briefing for the Ascent is represented by the title track, "Beyond the Wall of Sleep," and "Wood Between the Worlds." John Wayne offers "Chicken Crosses the Road," "Mr. Flutter," "Ten Gallon Hat," and "You Lay Down." The bonus tracks include "Only One," Taylor's version of the song he wrote for Wild Blue Yonder which was previously available on the hard-to-find Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor's Miracle Faith Telethon of Love album; "Will Have to do for Now," from Brow Beat: Unplugged Alternative; "Into the Deep" from Surfonic Water Revival; and "Glorious Dregs" and "With the Tired Eyes of Faith," the two tracks found at the end of The Berry Vest of the Swirling Eddies compilation. Also included as a hidden track is Taylor's obnoxious concert closer for Cornerstone 1998, "With a Knapsack on My Back" (I think that's the title).

The appearance of the four John Wayne tracks irks me. Although it was an excellent album, it was only released last August and is still readily available. This space could have easily been used for outtakes from previous albums, or even some noticeably missing songs (such as "Changeless" from Briefing... or "Here He Comes, Second Time" from K&I). Some, however, would argue that the John Wayne tracks make Glimpses of Grace complete as a collection of Taylor's solo material.

The liner notes include a short essay by Devlin Donaldson about Taylor's
career that offers some special insight into what makes a Terry Taylor solo album different from a Daniel Amos or Swirling Eddies album. Also included are some nice pictures of Taylor over the years, and something not generally associated with greatest hits packages--lyrics. KMG might have better used this space for something of more interest to the rabid fan, such as extensive liner notes for each song.

Glimpses of Grace is not a "bad" album, per se. How could it be, chock-full of trademark Taylor songs? Yet, something appears to be missing. And it's not that the tracks included don't show how artistic and creative Taylor really is, but the addition of a few other tracks, such as "Dancing on Light" or "Waiting," could have brought this out better.

2.5 tocks