Truth Is Not Fiction Otis Taylor

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CD

  • Release Date: 06/24/2003
  • Sales Rank: 49,796
  • Label: TELARC
  • UPC: 089408358722

Listener Rating: (1 ratings)

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  • Overview
  • Tracks
  • Editorial Reviews
  • Customer Reviews
  • Details & Credits
Track List
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Truth Is Not Fiction

1LISTENRosa, Rosa 3:32
2LISTENKitchen Towel 4:26
3LISTENComb Your Brown Hair 3:32
4LISTENBabies Don't Lie 3:56
5LISTENBe My Frankenstein 4:46
6LISTENHouse of the Crosses 4:05
7LISTENPast Times 4:13
8LISTENShakie's Gone 3:38
9LISTENBe My Witness 4:27
10LISTENNasty Letter 5:08
11LISTENWalk on Water 5:45
12LISTENBaby, Please Don't Go 2:43

About this Artist

Editorial Reviews

Otis Taylor can make people nervous. His take on the blues is defiant, angry, aggressive, and confrontational, owing as much to Peter Tosh as Charley Patton. Although he carries the dust of 1920s country blues in his mostly acoustic songs, his railings against social injustices are thoroughly contemporary. Taylor is an often pedantic songwriter, but he pulls it off by sheer bravado and conviction, and like a driver who blows through a stop sign, he's sure about where he's going. Truth Is Not Fiction follows the template of his previous three albums, with no drums (the rhythm comes from the sheer propulsion of Taylor's guitar, banjo, and mandolin playing) and a sort of Appalachian griot approach to things. One of the highlights is the strange Russian blues (complete with cello) of "House of the Crosses," a perfect example of Taylor's mix of rustic themes with cosmopolitan purposes. The full speed ahead rhythm banjo on "Babies Don't Lie" drills into your head like a freight train, and the ante is upped with double-barrelled banjos in both channels on "Shakie's Gone," making Taylor sound at times like Richie Havens on steroids. The album closer, a gut-bucket cover of the Big Joe Williams classic "Baby, Please Don't Go," seems oddly stuck in low gear, but overall Truth Is Not Fiction works well. Given his agenda, Taylor isn't for everyone, but he brings a fresh approach and a welcome shot in the ass to contemporary blues. Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

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  • Ratings: 1Reviews: 1

Truth Is Not Fictionby Anonymous

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August 17, 2003: Otis Taylor takes his anger and pain and turns it into transcendent art. Whether honoring Rosa Parks or keeping alive the Stagalee myth of a murdering father, Taylor never fliches from the truth of the African-American experience. In doing so, he and his near-perefect band mates (led by Eddie Turner, who will blow you away), this album is as good as John Lee Hooker's Don't Look Back. My wife and I heard them live in a small cafe in Rosendale; he played a ten minute trance blues number not yet recorded that is the best blues song I've herad in years. (Plus his beautiful daughter's got a voice near heaven!)