Gary James' Interview With
Kate Taylor



It was almost predestined that Kate Taylor would have a career in music. Her brothers, James, Alex and Livingston were all singers and musicians. And so Kate was part of a band at fifteen, signed her first record deal at nineteen with Atlantic Records, and had as manager/producer, Peter Asher. Not bad for someone so young to achieve all that. We spoke to Kate Taylor about her music and her life.

Q - Kate, correct me if I'm wrong, but your last CD was released in 2007?

A - That's right. It's called "Fair Time!"

Q - If it's true what several people have told me, that there is no longer a record business, how would you promote any new material?

A - The paradigm has definitely changed since what I consider was a golden era of recorded music that was in gear when I was coming up. In those days, record companies were in a unique position. When they signed an artist or band they would help to develop them. They would sign them for a number of albums and would support tours that went through a network of venues and radio. It was a beautifully orchestrated situation. The challenge for an act was you had to deliver the goods and go through the gatekeepers; folks like Ahmet Ertegun, Clive Davis, Joe Smith. The guys who ran these record companies were the king makers. Today it's basically flipped around on its end. Now, there are essentially no gatekeepers and the support structures are gone. Anybody can make a record in their living room and I have done that. The infrastructure for promotion as it had been is no longer there. Artists can now reach their audiences through the benefits of the internet with YouTube and Facebook and other platforms. My hope is that, though the business of music delivery has evolved, recording and making the songs available will never end. We create and it's wonderful to have a record of those creations and it's important that the music be able to reach it's audience. I say this as a music fan as well as a singer and songwriter.

Q - Are you still singing? Are you still recording?

A - I am! I love my opportunities to sing. This weekend I will be appearing a fund raiser benefit for a friend. Then I'm off for an appearance with my niece Sally and my brother Livingston at another fund raiser for a family member who is working on a wonderful film project. I've been doing some shows in a vocal trio here at home. A few weeks ago I did a house concert with Jonathan Edwards. He and I both did a set of our own tunes and we did a few numbers together. That was fun! I piece it together as I can and I appreciate every moment, every opportunity to perform. And so, yes, I am indeed singing and playing and I plan to do more recording. Stay tuned!

Q - You started your first band at fifteen?

A - That's right.

Q - What kind of a band was that?

A - There were two configurations I was in. One was a couple of gals I sang with. We called ourselves Peter, Paul and Mounds, and we sang folk songs together. I also had a rock band in junior high. The first song we performed was "Do You Wanna Dance?" I was in another band later on in high school at one school and then another. I hadn't occurred to me then that singing and performing would be my career. It was just lots of fun. My brothers were singing and playing at that time as well and were writing songs. It felt like a natural path to walk. Our generation was communicating with itself through the music. Brothers Livingston, James, and Alex had unfolding careers in music. When we were kids in high school back in the '60's, Alex and James had a band and they played sock hops and frat parties. They wrote songs. They recorded those songs and took the 45's to WKIX, the big AM radio station in Raleigh, and these singles got played on air. Well, that showed me that anything was possible. Here are these kids making records, taking them down to the radio station and they're getting spun. That was huge.

Q - So simple back in those days, wasn't it?

A - Pretty darn sweet, Gary. Things have changed. We were lucky.

Q - Whatever lucky means.

A - Lucky was not only that the five of us were making music, producing music and promoting it, but also we were lucky as music fans. There was a ton of great music out there. The delivery system was finely tuned. You could follow a band, find out what was happening with them when you read the next album jacket. Radio was on it. It was a great era.

Q - Your father had quite an impressive job. He was the Dean of the medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. What did he think of his children entering show biz? The music business? The entertainment business?

A - I think he and our mom were intrigued by it all. They were proud of their children and the music they were making, and then there was the nature of the successes of their children's musical careers, and the ability to make a living off of the music. Any trepidation or hesitancy that Dad might have had about encouraging us to follow this path was allayed by the successes. I had recorded my first album, "Sister Kate" in Los Angeles with Peter Asher producing. Dad came to town as I was putting the band together for a tour. He and I were driving somewhere on a freeway and Dad said, "Kate, what would you like to see happen with this career you're embarking on?" I said, tongue in cheek, "Well Dad, after growing up with four brothers, I'd like that when I'm in a car and I start to sing and somebody leans over and turns on the radio, that it be me on the radio." He said, "Okay" and leaned over and turned on the radio, and it was me on the radio. I think he saw there was magic in his kids and there was magic in their music and in this path. The parents had been very encouraging about musical study. If we wanted to learn an instrument they were very supportive of that. There was a lot of music in the house. We went to concerts. We were encouraged to go hear all kinds of music. They'd take us to New York where we would go to plays and musicals. They made the arts a large part of our lives. And here we are.

Q - Did they ever take you to a Rock 'n' Roll concert?

A - I remember James Brown came to Chapel Hill and played in Memorial Hall. I was encouraged to go, but I don't remember if either of my parents actually came along.

Q - James Brown was more of an R&B artist. Do you remember seeing a Rock 'n' Roll performer?

A - When we were kids we spent the summers in New England and settled into summers on Martha's Vineyard early on. When we were teenagers the popular music of the day included folk music. There were a couple of coffee houses on the Vineyard where this music was presented. We could go hear Jim Kweskin's Jug Band, Tom Rush, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Josh White, The Charles River Valley Boys, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Jose Feliciano. That music shaped our early lives, but also, growing up in Chapel Hill, a university town, there were many different types of musical acts that came through playing at the fraternities and in the University's venues, acts like James Brown, Ray Charles. On the television there were country music shows like Porter Wagoner's show and Lester Flatt and Earle Scruggs' show. On radio, we heard the Grand Ole Opry and there were bluegrass and white gospel and black gospel. It was a deeply rich musical environment. I think we were informed and moved by this wide range of musical styles. I can't remember what my first Rock 'n' Roll show was. It might have been in Boston at the Boston Tea Party. I saw a show there with The Who.

Q - At nineteen, you signed with Atlantic Records. Was that as a solo artist or were you part of a group?

A - I was a solo artist.

Q - Your first manager/producer was Peter Asher. That's pretty impressive, Kate.

A - I'll tell you what, Gary. That was amazing. Peter is an extraordinary producer and musician. He has a great mind for the managerial duties of a career as well. He's an exceptional person and yes, it was pretty phenomenal for me. James had introduced me to him. And it turns out that lately I've been working with him again, doing some shows with him.

Q - When you say you're doing shows with him, are you saying he's still singing?

A - Yes, he is. He's been presenting a memoirs show. It's fabulous and very interesting. He's just recently written a book, he's got a show on The Beatles Channel (on Sirius XM) and he tells all his fabulous first hand stories. He's a wonderful raconteur and he's got incredible photographs and film that he shares in his live shows. His finger was on the pulse of our generation's music and he had a big recording career with Peter and Gordon. He went on to become a producer and A&R man at Apple Records when they were first starting up. When he decided to go out on his own he moved to Los Angeles and invited me to come make a record. It was a great time to be in L.A. 1969, 1970, 1971. There were many incredible musicians there just on the cusp of being extraordinarily productive and successful. I was and am thrilled and grateful to have had the great good fortune to land in the middle of all that.

Q - Since you were in Los Angeles in 1969, 1970, 1971, did you by chance ever meet Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix or Jim Morrison?

A - No. When did Janis die, 1971?

Q - 1970. October 4th, 1970.

A - And Jimi died soon around then as well?

Q - September 18th , 1970.

A - No, I did not meet them but I believe James might have known Jimi Hendrix as they played in New York in the late '60s in the same circles. He might have met Janis, I don't know. By the time I was in Southern California, I think Janis was living in the San Francisco area.

Q - Since your brother was signed to Apple Records, did he ever introduce you to The Beatles?

A - When I went to visit James while he was working in London he took me to the Apple studios. As we were heading up the stairwell to see Peter, it just so happened that Ringo was coming down the stairs, and James introduced me to him there. A few years later I met George. A few years later I was ten feet from John. (laughs) That was it. That's my Beatle in person exposure.

Q - Did you have time to say hello to John Lennon?

A - I waved at John Lennon. Does that count? It was in '75. I was about eight months pregnant and I was on a public telephone on the sidewalk. A car pulled into a parking space nearby, and this very handsome fella got out of the car and I'm like, "This is John Lennon!" and I waved to him. He waved back! It occurred to me that Yoko was also as pregnant as I was at that time. I hoped maybe he noted this particular thing.

Q - How about Ringo and George? Did you get to talk to either one of them?

A - I believe it was a simple hello with Ringo on the staircase. I did get to meet him again a few years ago when we both attended the Kennedy Center Honors. James was receiving the Kennedy Center Honor Award as were the Eagles at the same time. Ringo's wife's sister is married to Joe Walsh and they were there. I had a chance to talk to him a little bit . What a lovely guy. And, I did meet George once. We chatted on an airplane.

Q - What was that like?

A - Well, I'll tell you, I was pretty much speechless.

Q - As most people would be. When you meet someone as famous as George Harrison, what goes through your mind?

A - Here's someone who has meant so much to so many, including me, where do you begin?

Q - How did you introduce yourself?

A - The stewardess came up to me in the airplane and said, "There's someone up in the lounge who wants to meet you." In those days there were planes with a spiral staircase that would take you up to a lounge in first class. I said, "OK." and as we were going up there she said, "It's George Harrison." He wanted to tell me he really appreciated a performance he'd seem me do on television.

Q - That's very nice of him.

A - So nice Gary! Can you believe that? I can barely believe it, but I do because it happened! By the time I got to where George was, I was indeed speechless and my heart was racing. It just so happens that he was also somewhat stunned because he had just witnessed out the window a near miss between the plane we were in and a plane that had crossed in front of us. I hadn't seen it, but he had. A plane crossed right in front of us. It totally freaked him out, as you might expect. We sat there in a our stunned silences, though he did get to tell me he'd liked my performance on the tv.

Q - Where was the plane flying from?

A - L.A. to the East Coast.

Q - So, that was a long flight.

A - It was a long flight. I went back to my seat and I didn't see him again until years later when I saw him backstage at a Bob Dylan concert.

Q - I take it you didn't have the opportunity to speak with him then?

A - Sadly, no.

Q - Seven years passed between your first and second album. Why so long?

A - Five years. I got home from my first tour and I visited with friends in their tepee. I realized that I really needed more time in a situation like that; I needed grounding. I bought canvas and hand stitched my tepee. I harvested trees for my poles in Maine, brought them home and stripped the bark from them. I lived for a few of the next summers in the tepee, having a normal, baby-beatnik kind of life. Brother James came into my tepee yard one day and told me he was changing record labels, the new label had offered him an opportunity to produce someone and did I want to make a record? I said yes of course. We made my second record , "Kate Taylor", in New York for Columbia Records. I toured for that album and then went to Muscle Shoals, Alabama and to make my third record there with the Muscle Shoals Sound rhythm section.

Q - I guess hotel living caught up with you.

A - I knew that I needed time with my feet on the ground. I had had my first daughter. And yes, I am very grateful for that time. I had made that record with James, toured, made the third record at Muscle Shoals and then had my second daughter. It was then that I realized it was not possible to do the kind of touring I had been doing and I spent the following years raising the kids. In the mid '90's we knew it was time to make a new record. The new paradigm had begun and we could roll the recording gear right into the living room. We gathered the band of musicians we'd been working with when opportunities had arisen, and started a new record. We finished that album, "Beautiful Road" and released it in '02. And I have gotten back to my touring and live performing. It's been fun and I love it! I greatly appreciate the opportunities I have had and I learn a great deal every time. I love my beautiful audiences.

Official Website: www.KateTaylor.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.