There Was a Time Allan Taylor

• 1 Chimes at Midnight 04:56
• 2 For Those We Knew 03:50
• 3 Down the Years I Travelled 04:52
• 4 For What It's Worth 04:40
• 5 The Merlin Café 06:00
• 6 Provence 04:21
• 7 There Was a Time 04:25
• 8 Joseph 05:50
• 9 Win or Lose 04:29
• 10 Winter 05:11
• 11 Red on Green 03:45
• 12 The Beggar 04:09
• Total Runtime 56:28

Info for There Was a Time

After the overwhelming success of Stockfisch's recording with Chinese singer Song Zuying and the China Philharmonic Orchestra (2016 Grammy nomination) Stockfisch Records again produced a special project including a symphony orchestra: We speak about the 2016 production with the grand seigneur of songwriting: Allan Taylor!

Back-story: Allan had played on the FOLKEST festival every two or three years, usually on the stage in the Piazza Castello of Spilimbergo, a delightful small town near the North Italian city of Udine. The plan arose, that Valter Sivilotti, an Italian composer, arranger and conductor, would make arrangements of a selection of Allan's songs and conduct the orchestra for the concert. This concert took place in July, 2013.

When Günter Pauler of Stockfisch Records heard the demo live-recordings he enthusiastically suggested to produce a recording: Allan together with a symphony orchestra! Pauler hired the "Göttinger Symphonie Orchester" with their agile conductor Christoph-Mathias Mueller; Valter Sivilotti and Allan Taylor joined the recordings in Göttingen, and a very successful session was performed.

"What you hear on this recording is the product of great technical and artistic expertise on the part of Stockfisch Records. I wrote some of these songs many years ago, but I hope you enjoy the experience of hearing them in an orchestral setting. Certainly, Valter Sivilotti’s empathy with my songs has created some wonderful settings, and it was a privilege to work with such a creative and empathetic musician." (Allan Taylor)

"The 12 songs are drawn from over 30 years, but this is no mere chronological overview or “greatest hits”; instead the songs form an implied narrative, rendered continuous by the arrangements which not only accompany the songs but also bind them together. “Now the roads have come together and led me to this place”: there is no shoehorning and one is left to fill out the story from impressions, descriptions, lyrical snapshots of people, places and events from a life on the road.

The songs – it goes without saying – are all strong. The arrangements more than do them justice, highlighting nuances and introducing musical references. Allan, who admits uncertainty at tackling a new approach to performing, delivers some of the most powerful and most authoritative performances of his career. An utterly satisfying album – entirely classy and instantly classic." (Nigel Schofield, www.livingtradition.co.uk)

Allan Taylor, vocals, guitar
Lutz Moller, piano
Hans-Jorg Maucksch, fretless bass
Gottinger Symphonie Orchester
Christoph-Mathias Mueller, conductor

Allan Taylor
is one of the last of the traveling troubadours who came through the social and artistic revolution of the nineteen sixties and carved out a career as a solo singer-songwriter. Born in Brighton, England in 1945 he experienced the Beatnik times, the Skiffle days, the Mods and Rockers and the early Hippy days, all played out on Brighton Beach. At the age of twenty one he left home and became part of the vibrant folk music of London, playing all of the major folk clubs of the time (for example, the famous Troubadour Club) and then to Greenwich Village, New York, playing legendary clubs such as Gerde’s, The Gaslight, The Bitter End, The Mercer Arts Center. He embraced the issues, images and emotions of his time and used these experiences as the basis of his songs. Signed to the international record company United Artists and recording in London, Nashville and Los Angeles his albums were released world-wide. By the mid-seventies he returned to Europe to live and then started on the second part of his career, having now established his modus operandi – collecting the stories for his songs in the bars and cafes of Europe and throughout the rest of the world.

For more than forty-five years Allan Taylor has travelled the world performing at festivals, concert halls and clubs. He is considered to be one of the foremost singer-songwriters and guitarists in his genre, with more than one hundred recorded versions of his songs by Artists in ten different languages. One song in particular, “It’s good to see you” was a hit in many countries, and to date, there are eighty cover versions of this song. Looking back as well as forward, few people can convey with such eloquence their life experiences. His songs are written from a lifetime of traveling; always the observer passing through, each song is a vignette of life, like a story told over a drink in a bar. He writes his songs in cafes, bars and hotel rooms throughout the world, songs for the lost and lonely, for the unsung heroes of life, for those marginalized by society – they all find a place in his songs. Each song has an integrity that tells you it comes from something real; characters come to life as people you know and places become as familiar as if you had been there.

Allan is considered to be one of the music scene’s great guitarists, creating during his stage performance a distinctive rich and mellow sound, and with a voice that speaks of a life-time of travel he can make each song a vignette of life, like a story told over a drink in a bar. His songs have an integrity that tell you they come from something real, where characters come to life as people you know and places become as familiar as if you had been there. When this happens, you know it’s an Allan Taylor concert.

Allan Taylor is also a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy and Music, having written his thesis for the Queen’s University of Belfast.

This album contains no booklet.