Award-winning, Toronto-based, Americana/folk singer-songwriter Julian Taylor, who is returning to the UK next month, has released a brand-new single, ‘Ain’t Life Strange‘ (July 10), a track that Julian shares, “explores the idea of going back in time or at least wanting to go back in time to fix things before they become too broken.”
‘Ain’t Life Strange’ is the third single from Taylor’s forthcoming album, Pathways, which will be released September 27, 2024 on the Howling Turtle, Inc. label. The album follows on the heels of his most recent solo LPs, 2020’s highly acclaimed, award-winning album, The Ridge (which garnered Taylor’s anointing as Solo Artist of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards) and 2022’s equally lauded album, Beyond the Reservoir (nominated for two Juno Awards and three Canadian Folk Music Awards), as well as his 2023 career retrospective release, Anthology Vol. 1.
Photo credit: Robert Georgeff
Even when he’s recording and touring, Taylor remains busy with his long-running, weekly, three-hour radio show, “Julian Taylor’s Jukebox,” which is distributed by Native Voice One (NV1), the Native public radio distribution service which links over 200 stations across North America to Native radio programming, from reservation and village-based stations to top-market urban radio stations. The radio show is a genre-defying musical journey, focusing on BIPOC and independent artists like Taylor himself. The concept for “Julian Taylor’s Jukebox” came from the Rowe AMI vintage jukebox in Taylor’s home, inviting listeners to hear what he would play for them if they were hanging out with him in his living room.
Taylor plans to tour in support of his new music, with confirmed tour dates in Canada and Europe, and will also hit the UK next month including festival appearances at The Long Road and the British Country Music Festival. With a live show that always wows audiences, Taylor caught the attention of Jeremy Vine of BBC Radio 2 last year at his show in London, who proclaimed that Taylor is “an incredible, profound, thoughtful, musical genius” on the social media platform X. Fans can follow Taylor on social media and his website for announcements of additional tour dates.
Julian Taylor UK Tour Dates:
August 22 – Shoreham-By-Sea, UK | Ropetackle Arts Centre
August 24 – Lutterworth, UK | The Long Road Festival
August 25 – London, UK | Water Rats
August 28 – Liverpool, UK | The Music Room
August 29 – Shrewsbury, UK | Shrewsbury Abbey
August 30 – Blackpool, UK | The British Country Music Festival
August 31 – Gainsborough, UK | Kirton In Lindsey Diamond Jubilee Town Hall
September 1 – Barnoldswick, UK | Barnoldswick Music & Arts Centre
ABOUT JULIAN TAYLOR:
Toronto-based singer-songwriter Julian Taylor has been part of the musical fabric and landscape in Canada for two decades. Taylor enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2020, when his second solo acoustic album, The Ridge, earned more than five million plays on Spotify, praise from press worldwide, and airplay from America to Australia to the U.K. Loaded with soulful Americana and country twang, the album was produced by Taylor himself and Saam Hashemi, and was recorded at The Woodshed in Toronto. In addition to winning Taylor Solo Artist of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, The Ridge was also nominated for: two Juno Awards (Contemporary Folk Album of The Year, Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year), the Polaris Prize Long List, a Summer Solstice Indigenous Award (Contemporary Folk Album of the Year), a Canadian Music Week INDIES Award (Indigenous Artist of the Year), and an additional Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination in the English Songwriter of the Year category. The nominations and awards kept coming in 2022, with Taylor winning best male artist in the International Acoustic Music Awards and scoring five Native American Music Award nominations. In 2023, Taylor received a nomination in the Country Music Association of Ontario Awards in the Roots Artist of the Year category, and a further nomination for a Juno Award in the Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year category.
Taylor is a major label veteran, Toronto music scene staple, and musical chameleon. His versatility as a songwriter is signature; one minute he’s onstage playing with his band spilling out electrified rhythm and blues glory, and the next he’s featured at a folk festival delivering a captivating solo singer-songwriter set. Formerly associated with the band Staggered Crossing, he has continued to record and perform as a solo artist and has released 12 studio albums since 2001. With his songs being placed in such TV shows as “Haven,” “Private Eyes,” “Kim’s Convenience,” “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” and “Elementary,” his versatility as a songwriter is signature. He has had four albums on the long list of the Polaris Prize in Canada and has charted on several Canadian and Indigenous Music Charts. Two songs from The Ridge album, the title track ‘The Ridge’, and ‘Human Race’, went to #1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown, while the Julian Taylor Band song ‘Back Again’ hit #3 on the same chart.
Taylor is as explosive and captivating a live performer as you’ll ever see. Taylor has toured Canada and the U.S. countless times, sharing the stage with the likes of Serena Ryder, Blue Rodeo, William Prince, AHI, Rodney Crowell, Keb’ Mo’, and has performed at the Festival d’Été de Quebec, the Mariposa Folk Festival, Ottawa BluesFest, and more. Taylor was extremely honored to perform at not one but two Olympic Games, in Salt Lake City and Vancouver.