It was in 2003 that Taylor decided make a go of it as a full time singer-songwriter. A month later, she found herself in a studio in Bristol recording her first single with Massive Attack guitarist Angelo Bruschini. The track was called Blowing This Candle Out and went on to win Best Song in the International Songwriter Of The Year competition, and landed Jane her first major gig at London’s famous Ronnie Scotts. Taylor’s 2005 debut album hit BBC national radio when Johnnie Walker decided to play the opening track from an album entitled Montpelier that he found on his desk, because he liked the cover (a charcoal sketch of her street which Jane had doodled herself). The response from the listeners was enormous, highly unusual for an ‘unknown’ and Johnnie Walker played the track over 15 times, despite it not actually being on the play list and invited Jane into the studio to perform a live session on the show. Taylor’s first album ‘Montpelier’ had been made on a shoe-string, in a barn, with all manufacturing costs financed by pre-selling the album to her dedicated fan base (which she’d home grown from the city of Bristol). Jane, producer Bill Lovelady and her band recorded the album in just nine days in a freezing October (this was a real barn, not a conversion!). Once it was made she just posted it to BBC Radio 2 and crossed her fingers. Because of the response to the airplay, Taylor was invited into the BBC to perform a live session on the show. From there she went on to support Jools Holland, Bill Wyman, Seth Lakeman, Paul Buchanan, Andy Fairweather Low and Paulo Nutini. She secured a distribution deal, had Fall on Me played on MTV, and toured the UK and Germany, spreading the word and connecting her music to even more ears. Two years later, Taylor released her second album, Compass which was financially backed by two huge fans of her music whom Jane now refers to as The Angels! Jane had never met her benefactors before, but they are now very good friends indeed! She made the album with Mercury nominated producer Colin Elliot (famous for his work on the Richard Hawley albums) in Sheffield’s much loved Yellow Arch Studios. The album features the Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band (who performed in the film Brassed Off), a gospel choir made up of some of the finest songwriters and musicians in Bristol and Bath, a very special rhythm track featuring everything from a rustling bin to the cellists impression of the sound of a dolphin, and beautiful classical and quirky string arrangements from her resident band Robin Davies, Bethany Porter and Feargus Heatherington. Tracks from Compass received BBC Radio 2 airplay. The album won an award for Best Album in the Folk / Singer-Songwriter category in the 2010 Independent Music Awards www.JaneTaylor.co.uk |
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