MONICA TAYLOR BIOGRAPHY
Monica Taylor... a Red Dirt Farm Girl
*Greg Johnson, owner of The Blue Door (OKC)
"Jimmy Lafave has called her the Red Dirt Diva, and Bob Childers would welcome her on stage as the Cimarron Songbird... she loves and knows the songs of Red Dirt music... and the songwriters are her family."
*From Cross Canadian Ragweed's album 'Carney' to Tom Skinner, Bob Childers, Greg Jacobs, and Randy Pease ... and so many more Red Dirt recordings... you'll find Monica's harmonies... but where Monica really shines is her own songwriting.
*Her latest recording project is to be a summer of 2009 release, and her second solo album. It will once again have Don Morris on bass and harmonies and Jared Tyler on dobro, guitar, and harmonies... Kenny White will add guitar and mandolin.
Monica's vocals are often compared to Emmylou Harris, who has certainly been a great influence. Monica's raw, rootsy distictive sounds of mountain and bluegrass melodies will pull you into each of her self-penned tunes. Her ode to Dolly Parton's "Jolene" is "My Daddy's Shotgun" ... her civil war love song "The Ocoee River"... train songs "I've Got Me" (The Yukon Song), "Kansas City Southern," and a "Hobo's Farewell."
"Hello, Goodbye... I'm Gone" was introduced by Garrison Keillor on his NPR radio show "A Prarie Home Companion" as a 'lovely, sweet sad song'... "The Distance" and "My Little Diner Gig" have been received in Texas and Oklahoma as two of Taylor's best songs.
*Monica was raised near Perkins, OK - just south of Stillwater- the home of Red Dirt music. Hers was a rodeo and a farming family... who loved bluegrass and western swing music. For ten years Monica travelled across the southern part of America as part of The Farm Couple... with her dear friend Patrick Williams. The songs they wrote and performed gained them great regional followings- and respect from some of folk music's favorite artists.
*Monica has been a regular at The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival for many years, and has travelled the folk venues and concert circuit for 10 years... but she is a Payne county girl and the love she has for her Red Dirt family is as strong as the Cimarron river that flows nearby her home. Her voice and personality has a freshness to it... like the Oklahoma sun rising over the plains.
www.monicataylormusic.com
