Blake Taylor and Jonathan Reynolds have played music all over the world—Blake in New York, Boston and England, and Jonathan in Knoxville and West Africa.
The two were introduced by Blake’s father-in-law who was also Jonathan’s boss, because, as Blake puts it, “He wanted a relatively safe outlet for his son-in-law.” And that that according Taylor, “May or may not have been a wise choice, but it’s definitely worked out for me.”
The duo has been wailing blues around Cincinnati since early 2001 and were nominated for a Cincinnati Entertainment Award for Best Blues in 2003. The band’s latest album “Times Right” is available on Wonderdog Records, and you can catch them this Friday at the Mill Race Banqueting Center’s Fall Beer Tasting.
How did you get into Blues as opposed to other types of music?
Well, the truth is that I’ve been playing classical music since about the time I was four or five years old, between piano and, believe it or not, I have quite a long history of classical voice training. And then when I was in high school, a friend of the family was a player back in New York, so he was a harmonica player, [name] he was a friend of the family and he put a few harmonicas in my hand and a few tapes in my hand, and it kind of took off from there.
So you taught yourself harmonica?
I’ve had one lesson my entire life and that was three years ago with Jason Ricci, who’s just about the hottest player out there right now. I was able to sit down with him one afternoon, but other than that I’m completely self-taught and I’ve been playing, I guess, since about 1987.
Given your extensive experience in music, how does playing harmonica compare to other instruments?
It’s actually useful to think—I started off playing the piano and then I transfer, in my head at least, a lot of the same theory and ideas to whatever instrument that I am playing. I don’t play too many other instruments well, but just take harmonica, for example. That has helped to sort of think of things, as far as intervals are concerned and picking out melodies and lines, very much in my mind I am doing it on a piano, even though I am playing it on a different instrument. So, that’s helped quite a bit. In fact, there are a lot of people who play this instrument and don’t approach it that way, but it works for me.
You’ve lived and moved around quite a bit while continuing to play music, do you have any interesting stories of your travels?
I have a lot of good stories—most of them are not good for a family-friendly newspaper, but…Well, one of my—I had a great moment back when I was travelling around Europe and I was actually stranded in Paris for a day. And I wound up joining some street musicians on the Left Bank and ended up spending a good part of the afternoon just playing for enough money for cheap wine to get through the whole afternoon. It was a heck of an experience. Neither of us could communicate through English, but we certainly could communicate through music. And that was a lot of fun. Jonathan probably has a heck of lot more stories because he travelled around with a guitar and a desert-racing automobile throughout West Africa. He probably has way better stories than I do, but we don’t have him here right now.
Since you guys play regularly at Arnolds and are playing the upcoming Beer Festival, what’s your favorite beer?
I would say, I’m gonna go with the local favorite. Christian Moerlein Over the Rhine Ale on tap at Arnolds is my current favorite.
Despite having lived in England?
Well, that depends. If we’re at the Black Horse in Ilkley, Yorkshire, I’m going to be ordering Theakston’s XB [for extra bitter], but if we’re here in Cincinnati I’m going with the OTR. My favorite bottled beer would be probably anything from Great Lakes Brewery. As far as I am concerned, it’s about the most consistently good brewery that I can think of right now.
Final question, who are some of your musical influences?
For harmonic, I would say, Paul Butterfield, James Cotton and Jason Ricci. For music in general, oh God, Beethoven, Bob Marley, Jerry Garcia, Thom Yorke.
Covering all the corners!
My iPod is a vast and wonderful place.
