Eddie Taylor Jnr
Eddie Taylor Jnr was born in Chicago on the 27th March 1972 to Eddie and Vera Taylor. He comes from a long line of blues players starting with his Great-grandfather but it was his Father who was to stamp his mark on Juniors style.
Eddie Jnr’s childhood saw him surrounded by the music of the Mississippi transplants who were the Chicago blues ‘greats’ of his fathers’ era. Smokey Smothers, Willie Kent, Jimmy Reed, Floyd Jones, Jimmy Burns and Johnny B. Moore were frequent visitors to the household and regular jams with the ’Big Town Playboy’ were the order of the day.
However, this being ‘old folks music’ Eddie Jnr for a time, tried to ‘get with it’ and become a hip-hop DJ but his heart wasn’t in it and he was too old fashioned from the 'get-go'! He really preferred the sound of Lil’ Ed, Hound Dog Taylor and the ‘dead guys’ Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter and his father. So three years after his father’s death he decided to learn to play the guitar and join the blues fraternity. Completely self-taught he found singing and playing came natural to him and he quickly became proficient enough for his mother to present him with his fathers’ cherry red Gibson.
In 1991 Eddie cut a track for Wolf Records for a compilation “Young Guitar Killers - West and South Side Blues Singers” and six years later with the tribute craze in full swing he recorded as Edward Taylor ‘A Tribute to Eddie Taylor’ . Much better, however, is the 2000 offering ‘Worried About My Baby’ which shows a mature artist going somewhere.
Unfortunately his career was temporarily derailed in 2002 by a severe kidney collapse
which has left him carrying one of his brother Milton’s kidneys. However the following year Eddie was back on the bandstand of the Chicago Blues Festival playing better than ever. Since then he has become one of the mainstays of the Chicago scene and Eddie’s traditional style is in heavy demand in clubs and festivals throughout the world.
At the 2006 Lucerne Blues Festival Eddie Jnr was only given a short 15 minute slot in the Chicago All-Stars Review but during that time David Popple and I were transported back to the days of our youth when Eddie Taylor Snr’s sophisticated guitar style and understated vocals ruled supreme. He was booked for a Shakedown gig before he left the stage. In 2007 his excellent CD 'Mind Games' was released by Wolf and Eddie made his UK debut April of that year. Unfortunately his fathers famous Gibson guitar was lost by AirFrance in Paris and due to incompetence did not arrive in time for his Shakedown shows but thankfully was delivered to his home in Chicago a few days later. Since then Eddie has been a regular on the Chicago scene and has recorded a further well received Wolf album 'From The Country To The City' with Tre and Harmonica Hinds which was issued in early 2009.