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Tut Taylor

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Tut Taylor
Birth nameRobert Arthur Taylor Sr.
Born(1923-11-20)November 20, 1923
Milledgeville, Georgia, United States
DiedApril 9, 2015(2015-04-09) (aged 91)
North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, United States
Genresbluegrass, Americana, folk
OccupationMusician
Instrument(s)Dobro, mandolin, banjo

Robert Arthur "Tut" Taylor Sr. (November 20, 1923 – April 9, 2015) was an American bluegrass musician.

Taylor played banjo and mandolin as a child, and began playing dobro at age 14, learning to use the instrument with a distinctive flat-picking style. Taylor was a member of The Folkswingers in the 1960s, who released three albums; he recorded his debut solo effort in 1964. Later in the 1960s, he played with the Dixie Gentlemen and in John Hartford's Aereo-Plain band.

Taylor became a local Nashville, Tennessee fixture. In 1970, he co-founded the instrument shop GTR there, soon after releasing another solo album. He also co-founded the Old Time Pickin' Parlor, a Nashville venue noted for performances of old-time music, as well as Tut Taylor's General Store.[1]

In a March, 1992 interview, Neil Young reported having bought Hank Williams' Martin D-28 Guitar from Tut Taylor.[2]

At the Grammy Awards of 1995, he was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for his work on The Great Dobro Sessions with Jerry Douglas.[3]

Taylor recorded hundreds of reels of tape documenting and preserving bluegrass music, from "kitchen recordings" to live concerts, as well as serving as a recording engineer for studio albums. He donated about 500 reels to the Steam Powered Preservation Society, which has digitized many of them and made them available for streaming or downloading.[4]

Taylor died on April 9, 2015.[5]

Discography

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  • 12-String Dobro World Pacific 1816, 1963
  • Dobro Country (with Clarence & Roland White), World Pacific, 1964
  • Blues & Bluegrass With Dixie Gentlemen, Tune 1001, 1966
  • Aereo-Plain, Warner Bros, 1971, Reissued by Rounder, 1997
  • Friar Tut, Rounder 0011, 1972
  • No Name Album, Flying Fish HDS704, 1974
  • The HDS Sessions, HDS 701, 1975
  • The Old Post Office, Flying Fish 008, 1975
  • Norman Blake/Tut Taylor/Sam Bush/Butch Robins/Vassar Clements/David Holland/Jethro Burns (1976)
  • Dobrolic Plectral Society, Takoma C1050, 1976
  • The Great Dobro Sessions, Sugar Hill, 1994
  • Flat Pickin' The Kitchen, Tutlee TL1001, 1997
  • Flash Flood, Tutlee TL1002, 1998
  • Steam Powered Aereo-Takes, Rounder, ROUN0480, 2002
  • Tut and Clarence Flatpicking, Tutlee TL1003, 2003
  • Shacktown Road (2007) (with Norman Blake and Nancy Blake)
  • Oozing the Blues - Barker and Taylor, 2008 (with Steve Barker and Lorrie Barker)

References

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  1. ^ Biography, Allmusic.com
  2. ^ Gulla, Bob (2009). Guitar Gods: The 25 Players who Made Rock History. ABC-CLIO. p. 243. ISBN 0313358060.
  3. ^ Grammy Awards, Allmusic.com
  4. ^ "Tut Taylor, The man who gave the flatpick a new voice". Retrieved October 10, 2016. All during this time Tut was recording other albums in the studio (see discography) as well as just about everything else he was involved in, including late night kitchen jam sessions. His personal tape archives from these years number in the hundreds of tapes going back past the time of the first two dobro albums and include many well known musicians. ... Ever wonder what Tut did with all the reel-to-reel recordings he has made through the years? Just visit the fine folks at the Steam Powered Preservation Society to find out!
  5. ^ "'Dobro Man' Tut Taylor dies". Tennessean.com. 1923-11-20. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
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