Marvin Taylor

I was born on a peaceful little farm near Tuskegee, Alabama. It was a quiet life until my older brother returned from college with his drum set one summer when I was about four years old... he launched into a full tilt drum solo and scared me so bad that I ran through a closed screen door. When they caught up with me I was half way across a cotton field and still running.
I guess it's hard to top a rush like that. A few short years later and I had my own set of drums, and added guitar at around age 12. Eventually I played drums in one band and guitar in another. The guitar band was The K-Otics, and they got a record deal, so I officially became a guitar player. You can see that band (and our cool Vox gear) and a lot of other bands from the 60's through the 90's at http://www.fivefeathers.com/MarvinTaylor.htm
The K-Otics recorded at Fame in Muscle Shoals with Rick Hall as our producer and Jimmy Johnson as our engineer, then in Memphis at Sun Records with Sam Phillips as our producer. We were scheduled to return to Fame, but as luck would have it, Rick was very ill at the time and suggested we let a young staff songwriter at Fame named Dan Penn produce the sessions. We learned later that it was the first session Dan ever produced, other than his own song writer's demos. But Dan wrote "I'm Your Puppet" "Dark End Of The Street" "Do Right Woman" "Sweet Inspiration" and many more, and his demos sounded better than any records I had ever heard! To this day, some forty years later, I see and hear his influences in everything I do, from my approach to songwriting, arranging songs, producing sessions, and even in my guitar playing. Nothing pleases me more than seeing the current renewed interest by the world in Dan Penn as an artist - a genuine star in the Americana Music sky!
After the K-Otics broke up, I actually played with several bands for short periods of time. One band was first called "The Hungry I" and consisted of musicians mostly from the Auburn Alabama area, including Walt Stewart, vocals and guitar, Bill Stubbefield, keyboards, Bill Baggett, bass, Mike Stough and Stacy Goss, trumpets, and me on lead guitar. This was an excellent band, and Walt Stewart was an excellent song writer. We had a chance to record at Willie Mitchell's Royal Studios in Memphis, and Willie released one of our songs on his own Hi Records label. We changed the name of the band to The Life. The song was called Snakebite. We have just learned that there is a huge interest in the song - a You Tube dedicated to it, MP3 downloads, and even some original DJ copies of the "45" disk being sold and traded on eBay! Here is the link to You Tube to hear the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4_f7iB9nGQ
One of the constant figures in that 30 year history with those very same musicians was the drummer in all those bands (Mose Jones, Out A Hand, Java Monkey) whose name is Bryan Cole. As amazing as it might be considering our considerable and sordid history together, we have only begun writing songs together in the last year. It's about time! You can hear some of our songs at http://www.fivefeathers.com/songwritingpage.htm
I have had the great pleasure and satisfaction of seeing a line of products I created gain success and popularity with musicians all over the world. "Band In The Pocket" CDs offer any musician the chance to jam with a top notch rockin' band, and all they need is their instrument and a regular CD player! From Blues to Jazz, Rock to Country, these tracks make your practice fun and improvisations soar! These great products are available at any Guitar Center store, as well as other fine music stores all over America. Check them out at http://www.fivefeathers.com
Marvin TaylorFive Feathers Music 2935 Wendy Lane Marietta, GA 30062 Tel. 678-560-0205 Toll Free 1-800-929-7026 Home of BAND IN THE POCKET Excellent Backing Tracks for Practicing Musicianswww.fivefeathers.comhttp://www.myspace.com/bandinth epocket
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