ARTiST: Chip Taylor
ALBUM: Yonkers N.Y.
BiTRATE: 175kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Trainwreck / EMI
GENRE: Folk/Rock
SiZE: 113.05 megs
PLAYTiME: 1h 26min 10sec total
RiP DATE: 2010-05-06
STORE DATE: 2010-00-00
Track List: Disc #1/2
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01. Barry Go On (Put Yourself on 6:45
the Mountain)
02. Charcoal Sky 4:40
03. Gin Rummy Rules 3:00
04. Hey Jonny (Did You Feel that 2:52
Movie)
05. Without Horses 5:46
06. No Dice 4:27
07. Bastard Brothers 3:35
08. Piece Of The Sky 4:06
09. Saw Mill River Road 5:02
10. Yonkers Girls 2:45
11. Yonkers N.Y. 4:22
Track List: Disc #2/2
--------
01. Barry Go On (Put Yourself on 2:25
the Mountain)
02. Charcoal Sky 4:40
03. Gin Rummy Rules 3:00
04. Hey Jonny (Did You Feel that 2:52
Movie)
05. Without Horses 3:14
06. No Dice 4:27
07. Bastard Brothers 2:33
08. Piece Of The Sky 4:06
09. Saw Mill River Road 4:26
10. Yonkers Girls 2:45
11. Yonkers N.Y. 4:22
Release Notes:
--------
If a songwriter of some accomplishment who is also a singer predominantly known
for his work in country music was looking for a subject for a deeply personal
cycle of songs, itÆs pretty unlikely that Yonkers, New York, a small city
bordering on New York CityÆs borough of the Bronx, would be the subject. Not, of
course, unless the writer is Chip Taylor, who grew up there. With Yonkers NY,
Taylor, a veteran songwriter whose songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash,
Peggy Lee, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, the Hollies and,
of course, the Troggs (who waxed his first big hit, ôWild Thingö), has gone back
to his childhood and adolescence and come up with eleven songs filled with
warmth and humor, enlivened with spoken reminiscences and packaged with a book
of lyrics and vintage photos of the people and places that are their subjects.
In an era where revelations of childhood abuse and torment are routinely dished
out on daytime television and in best-selling memoirs, Yonkers NY stands out for
its depiction of a fairly normal childhood spent with loving parents and two
older brothers who only tormented young Jamie, as Chip was known back then, in
the ways older brothers always do. The family was different from its
grey-flannel-suit-wearing suburban neighbors only in that the elder Taylor was a
golf pro, not a businessman commuter (although he managed to convince his
youngest son for years that he was also an FBI agent), as well as a high-stakes
gambler on occasion. The songs on Yonkers NY take us into this family and into
TaylorÆs discovery of music, horses, and girls, opening these subjects up with a
skill only a master songwriter can summon. Yonkers NY is a milestone in a career
which has seen Taylor give up performing for songwriting, then take up
performing again in the 1970s, when he recorded three highly-regarded albums for
Warner Bros. When they failed to sell enough to impress the company (although
they created a cult following both in the United States and Europe which has
only grown over the years), Taylor retired to gamble full-time. In 1993, he felt
the old itch and un-retired, and in 2001 he met fiddler Carrie Rodriguez at the
South by Southwest event in Austin, Texas, initiating a creative partnership
that catapulted both to the upper ranks of Americana music and saw them perform
all over the world.
The two parted ways in 2006 so that Rodriguez could concentrate on her solo
career, but Taylor has continued, releasing Songs from a Dutch Tour in 2008,
and, now, Yonkers NY. Yonkers NY is being released by Train Wreck Records on
9/29 in a deluxe package with a 35-page book designed by Andy Taray. The book is
filled with photographs of Chip TaylorÆs family and, of course, Yonkers itself,
and also contains lyrics to all the songs, as well as TaylorÆs commentary on
them. The album will contain two discs, one of which will have the full cycle,
including TaylorÆs spoken material, in which he tells stories and shares
memories of this period of his life, the second of which will contain edited
versions, with just the songs. Throughout, Taylor is accompanied by a superb
band, consisting of John Platania, electric guitar; Greg Leisz, steel guitar,
dobro, and mandolin; Tony Mercadante, electric bass; Seth Farber, piano and
accordion; Kendel Carson, fiddle; and Tony Leone, drums.