compared to what

Taylor Hicks has released an album of his “Early Works” - mostly songs he wrote, all ones he’d recorded on his own dime before his Idol gig. All of this music, some of which is really sweet, has long circulated on the internet and also been available as concert merch for those of us [...]

(or, who do you think you are?)
One of the more interesting music festival stories this summer, so far, was the story of Kanye West at Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo has made efforts over the past few years to bring in some artists, even mainstream artists, that you don’t typically think of in connection with these field-of-steam type [...]

It’s hard to know just what to make of it when news leaks through such random places, but if the Mullet Wrapper has it right, this is very interesting news. In a long article, mostly about Taylor Hicks in Grease, the writer points to a collaboration with Delbert McClinton on Hicks’ next album:
Taylor’s second album, [...]

The Alabama blues/soul band, Spoonful James, has started putting up some of their live gigs on archive.org, starting with a couple of Birmingham gigs from this past May: a short set at Sloss Furnaces, and a two set show at Ona’s Music Room. They were joined at the latter for several numbers by Taylor Hicks, [...]

Based on info posted at New Music Tip Sheet, the news that Vanguard Records was going to be releasing a CD of Taylor Hicks’ early works bounced happily across the internet. This sounded like interesting news, so I spent a pleasant afternoon listening to some of their catalog and downloading. (Some of the fruits [...]

A year ago today, Taylor Hicks began his first national tour. And while, the tour technically started in Jacksonville on the 21st, for me, it really started in Coral Springs a day or two later. I wasn’t there for any of the early concerts, but based on the audio around at the time, here’s where [...]

John Bell (of Widespread Panic) held his annual charity gig, Hannah’s Buddies at the House of Blues in Orlando, Florida this past weekend and Taylor Hicks joined him with vocals and harp on Bill Wither’s “Use Me”. For the last 9 years, Bell has held this event to honor his goddaughter and to raise awareness [...]

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” Martin Luther King
Mind, spirit, action. Did any 20th century thinker see as clearly as Dr. Martin Luther King how our humanity and future depended so much on all three?
Recently I read an unattributed comment that Dr. King considered music to be the [...]

Melanie Nyema, the terrific back-up singer from the spring Taylor Hicks tour, has followed her erstwhile bosses’ lead and auditioned for American Idol. Well.
Here she is, helping Hicks close out the tour with a send-up, mash-up of “Dancing Queen” and Hicks’ AI coronation anthem.

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After [...]

Taylor Hicks has been dropped from his recording contract with J Records, according to this article in the Hollywood Insider. Is this a sweet release for Hicks? Too soon to tell, too soon to even know if the report is accurate.
But you can’t open a music publication these days without seeing something on the state [...]