Terry Scott Taylor

After a number of years performing with local California bands and folk trios like Good Shepherd, Judge Rainbow and the Prophetic Trumpets, The Cardboard Scheme, and The Scarlet Staircase, Taylor formed Jubal's Last Band with Steve Baxter, Kenny Paxton, and Chuck Starnes in 1972. In 1974, the band recorded a demo tape together to shop around to record labels. Later that year, the band lost Paxton and Starnes, and added bassist Marty Dieckmeyer and guitarist Jerry Chamberlain to the line-up.

Sometime in the middle of 1975, Jubal's Last Band (minus Baxter) auditioned for Maranatha! Music and Calvary Chapel in hopes of signing a recording and performance contract. Another band at the meeting, led by Darrell Mansfield, had a similar name: Jubal. The two bands decided to change their names to avoid confusion. Mansfield renamed his band Gentle Faith, and Jubal's Last Band became Daniel Amos. Daniel Amos succeeded in landing a recording and performance contract, and quickly recorded their first song for the label, Taylor's "Ain't Gonna Fight It" featuring ace sessionplayer Michael Omartian (Steely Dan) on Rhodes. A full album, produced by Al Perkins, followed. Taylor and the members of Daniel Amos went on to record numerous albums and change musical styles with nearly every one of them, including the four part Alarma! Chronicles series in the 1980s.

In 1986, Taylor released his first solo album, Knowledge & Innocence, which included songs inspired by the death of his grandfather and the miscarriage of his and his wife's first child. The following year, Taylor released his second solo album, A Briefing for the Ascent, this time inspired by the loss of his grandmother. That year, Taylor also became the production director for Frontline Records and went on to produce many of the label's releases.

In the early 1990s, Taylor teamed up with Adam Again's Gene Eugene, The Choir's Derri Daugherty and The 77s' Mike Roe to form the alt-country/roots band, Lost Dogs. Although it began as a "one time" arrangement, the band soon took on a life of its own and has continued to tour and make albums to this day.

In 1996, he wrote and performed the soundtrack for Doug TenNapel's The Neverhood and Skullmonkeys.[1]

In 1997, Taylor became the head of West Coast A&R for the Killen Music Group (KMG Records), a Nashville-based record label. The following year Taylor's third solo album, John Wayne, was released at the Cornerstone Festival. In 1999, a number of artists and fans of Taylor's came together to create When Worlds Collide: A Tribute to Daniel Amos. The album contained nearly 20 songs written by Taylor and performed by other artists, including The 77s, Randy Stonehill, Phil Madeira, Starflyer59, Jimmy Abegg, Larry Norman, The Throes and others. The project was completed and released in the summer of 2000, along with Taylor's fourth solo project, the acoustic Avocado Faultline. Two years later, Taylor returned with an EP entitled, LITTLE, big.

In 2005, Taylor composed the soundtrack to another TenNapel cartoon series (this time, for the Nickelodeon network) called Catscratch. It lasted only one season with 20 episodes, and it ended its run on Nickelodeon in early 2007.

Taylor created the fictional character, Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor, who first appeared in a 1990 best of compilation by Frontline Records of music by Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies. The character was an amalgamation of televangelists along the lines of Robert Tilton, Benny Hinn and Oral Roberts and acted as the emcee for segments of his ministry's Prickly Heat Telethon of Love pledge event which appeared as interludes between songs. The character made subsequent appearances including 2003's The Prickly Heat Radio Players, and 2004's limited edition EP, The Perfectly Frank True Story of Christmas and a very brief appearance on the Lost Dogs' 2007 Christmas album, We Like to Have Christmas, on which he can be heard introducing the band as "The Lost Hogs".

Taylor produced a number of albums over the years with singer/songwriter Randy Stonehill, including Equator (which included the Stonehill concert favorite "Shut De Do"), the dreamy Wonderama, and the 2001 Children's album Uncle Stonehill's Hat, which also featured Taylor's daughter Noelle contributing her voice to the story. Throughout his entire career, Taylor has produced albums for countless bands and artists including Randy Stonehill, Riki Michele, Tom Howard, The Altar Boys, Crystal Lewis and Wild Blue Yonder, Jacob's Trouble, Scaterd Few, Deliverance, Mercy River, Starflyer 59's Leave Here a Stranger, Fine China's You Make Me Hate Music, Mortal, Poor Old Lu, Tourniquet, Rich Young Ruler, Derri Daugherty, an assortment of children's records including the MegaMouth series and the Harry Whodunit? series. He also wrote and produced a tribute to surf music entitled Surfonic Water Revival, which featured performances by Phil Keaggy, Smalltown Poets, Chuck Girard, Paul Johnson, Havalina Rail Co., Rick Altizer, Plumb, The Supertones, All Star United, Skillet, Silage, Rebecca St. James, The Insyderz, and others.

Knowledge & Innocence, released in 1986 as Terry Scott Taylor's first solo album, is an introspective album dedicated to Taylor's grandfather. Lyrically referencing the 1789 poetry collection Songs of Innocence by William Blake, references found also in Taylor's other work such as the Daniel Amos band album Fearful Symmetry.[3] "Song of Innocence", a duet with Randy Stonehill singing, in Taylor's words, a breathy "soulful and sweet" vocal, was released as a single.[4]

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Numerous people have named Taylor and Daniel Amos as an influence over the years including Jonathan Coulton.[6]

• www.TheLostDogs.com
• www.DanielAmos.com
• Terry Scott Taylor at MySpace.com
• Terry Scott Taylor at IMDb
• Rapsures