the wonderful, wonderful cat
Drummer Felix Pollard leaves the Taylor Hicks Band tonight.
For most of us, our first view of Pollard in action (first view of a few other tour band members, too: Loren Gold, Brian Gallagher and Melanie Nyema), our first view of what the the album and live show might be like.
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=kW_heaoJUKQ]
and just because we care:
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=WlhyPeXcNmA]
Thanks, Felix. Let us all know what you’re up to.
categories: music
posted by what at 03:35 pm
Leaves the band? That sounds so emphatic.
Done with this tour, right?
We don’t know beyond that…do we?
Felix will be missed.
I guess I’m thinking that the Taylor Hicks Band is an unspecified entity after the tour is over. If some or all of these guys come together again later, that would be fantastic, but I don’t think of it as a band on a break now, more like individual contractors whose contracts are over. But what do I know?
With the way they’ve grown together in a relatively short time, it would be a crime not to have them all back for next tour to see and hear even more of what they could achieve together. The entire tour band kicked serious ass. I’d like to see them record with Taylor. Hoping contracts and schedules will mesh again next year. Felix D-Kat will be missed, along with Al Carty, Josh Smith, Brian Gallagher and Loren Gold.
well, there never was an actual “Taylor Hicks Band” because the group as we knew it was assembled by a third party.
the drummer definitely brought energy to the show. I also liked Melanie Nyema’s backing vocals. the sax player was pretty tight too. Carty, as talented as he is, I always felt was merely a bass for hire. the guitar player can rip with the best of them. and that’s all i have to say about the tour band put together on behalf of Taylor Hicks.
Whenever I could peel my eyes off of Taylor during a show (hard to do,) I loved watching Felix. He brought a great energy to the stage. He has an incredible talent, and he was just plain ol’ fun to watch. I hope we’ll see him again with Taylor sometime in the future.
Spoons (or anyone else) - what was the process for picking the tour band? I know there were auditions, and naturally it wouldn’t be all Hicks’ decision (I’m assuming Loren Gold was a huge part of it) - are you saying Hicks wasn’t even in on the decisions? That would surprise me.
In any case, they came together well and if the music fits next time around, I’d like to see at least some of them back together. It takes awhile, even for seasoned musicians, to develop a rapport that lets the music really breathe. Knowing who you’re with already is big step.
There was the TH BAND, now known as LMBO, there was the AI/Reh.com band, there was the TV promo band, there was the spring tour band, and the summer tour band. My favorite is this summer tour group. It would be great to have them do some recording together;, I’d especially like to have a couple of blues tunes co-written by Taylor & Josh. JMO, but, I have to disagree with Spoons about Boogie Carty on bass. Bon voyage Felix - gonna miss that beautiful smile and the beat.
What and Spoons, Hicks was most definitely an integral part of the audition process that culminated in his tour band. My understanding is that once Loren Gold, as music director, had conducted some preliminary audition rounds, Hicks had the ultimate say on who would make the final cut to tour with him. This was Hicks’ band. He hand-picked them.
Felix Pollard was party of the Promo (see the Christmas Special from Rockefeller Center); and along with Loren Gold and Brian Gallagher (sax) part of the band that accompanied Taylor on the AOL sessions recordings and the subsequent appearances on TV. However, once Taylor assembled HIS band for the concert tours, the other instrumentalists were gone. I’ve read that Taylor held auditions and hand picked the band.
the notion that Hicks picked his own band is akin heading out to a soup&salad buffet and “hand picking” your own food. Loren picked the restaurant, Taylor wasn’t opposed to it and the choices made themselves obvious once they got in line with a tray and hot plate in their hands. If you want to call that “hand-picked,” no biggie. But the fact that there were no major change-overs once Loren Gold was placed at the helm and the fact that it doesn’t appear Taylor will hit the recording studios with this ensemble tells me this wasn’t ever his band. Once the checks stop coming, these guys are out. By “third party,” I was referring to whichever entity put Loren Gold in charge. Maybe Taylor was the (figure)head but Loren was the neck that turned the head whichever direction he saw fit, not in a manipulative way but obviously in the best interest of what Loren perceived to be quality musicianship and group cohesiveness.
I’m just really reluctant to call it the THB. But here’s hoping Taylor Hicks and his Super Friends can meet down the road and be a band true to his eponym. Or perhaps I have different standards on what consists of an eponymous band.
I’ll give it to you on using “Taylor Hicks Band” when it’s contract players, and I never did understand what the difference between “hand-picked” and just “picked” was.
But I don’t agree with “no major changes”. Smith and Carty have a completely different sound than David Wood and that other bass player (man, that’s embarassing that I can’t remember that guys name). Totally different. So whether Gold put out the call for blues guitarists, or whether Hicks tapped his own connections, who knows. Maybe at this point it’s a small point. So I guess I’m in between, in my usual ignorant state. I wouldn’t call the band hand-picked, but I wouldn’t call it put together on his behalf, either. Not without knowing particulars, anyway.
hmmmm. Usually I like nit-picking semantic differences, but now I just want to quit. Must be time for the break.
Well, Spoons, if nothing else I now know the defintion of eponymous. Online dictionaries are wonderful things.
I suppose this isn’t relevant, since he does tend to say all kinds of things… but at one point in the tour, Hicks did say “This is the band I’ve always wanted.” Was it Detroit? or St. Charles? Some show I was actually at…
And he introduced them at least once as “the Taylor Hicks Band”.
But of course they are each of them contract musicians who need to go where the money is. I suspect the “acoustic gigs” will be more Brian Less, maybe Jon Cook, but not so much Loren or Josh or Brian G… or even TH all on his lonesome. We’ll see…
bluesme - I also recall Taylor saying that - or reading that - and I think more than once. That was one kick-ass, professional band he had and they only got better as time went on. Even though they will no doubt glad to be off the road for a while, I suspect they might be feeling a bit sentimental right now. Such is the world of free-lancing. I sure would love to see all these these guys back together with Taylor again. I have read that Josh will be at the Millersville concert.
Has anyone got a clue who will be playing with Taylor at the Nov 2, 2007, Silver Star Casino show in Philadelphia, MS? I was so hoping to see Loren, Josh, Felix and Brian again!
Here’s a cool website that features Felix.. it’s his cymbal mfgr.
They have several videos from Taylor’s show in Nashville back in March. My son was on there checking out a drummer he likes and ran into this…
http://www.meinlcymbals.com/Felix+D-Kat+Pollard/videos
but at one point in the tour, Hicks did say “This is the band I’ve always wanted.”
bluesme, I’m not sure this answers your q but along the same lines, I do recall Taylor stating in his intro to CTW on several stops something along the lines of, “…this is an old jazz standard and I’ve always wanted to play it and I finally got a band to play and it’s called, ‘Compared to What’”
At the Cutting Room show Jeff Lopez told me he helped Taylor make the final decision on Brian G. Maybe Loren found them but I’m sure Taylor had the last word.
Felix is amazing. The more I watch him in videos of the shows, the more little flourishes I catch. And the Newport News show was definitely off without him. Runaround was a disaster. I wish him well and hope he and Taylor work together again.
This is an old thread, but I’m behind the times, what can I say? Taylor has said in the past it was always tough to keep a band together, so I think it’s just par for the course that they each go their own way. One can only hope they do all meet up again (for our sakes!), because yes, at the risk of overstating the obvious, it was indeed one kick-ass combination.