"Taylor is nonetheless his own man on his second solo outing, building
a drumless, reverb-drenched world for his bone-hard lyrics and skillful playing that perfectly reflects the dark
corners of the psyche from which his ideas emerge. Deep blues, indeed."
-Ted Drozdowski
Pulse/Tower Records
Summer 2001
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"Taylor is a Colorado bluesman whose razor-edged message of human dignity
slices to the blues idiom's very heart of darkness. In a case-hardened social-expressionist mode, Taylor offers
a merciless, brilliant minimalist deconstruction of racism, lynching ("St.
Martha's Blues", based on his own great-grandfather's end, as
told by his grandmother), poverty, illness, homelessness, and other institutionalized features of the American
social formation. Taylor stands to fill the shoes of John Lee Hooker, who passed into the spirit in 2001, together
with Leadbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Charley Patton--not to mention the forlorn denizen genius of the bedeviled
global crossroads blues himself, Robert Johnson. Ignore Taylor's searing message at your own and society's peril."
-Michael Stone
Pop
Matters
Best Music of 2001
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"This Coloradan is responsible for the most astonishing blues album released
in recent years, the incredible White African -- an eye-opening collection of harrowing songs about lynching, starvation,
alcoholism, and other happy topics. Imagine David Lynch producing John Lee Hooker and you have an idea of White
African's sound."
-Santa Fe New Mexican
August 31, 2001
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"He is to blues what Edward Munch is to paintings; socio-psychological
expressionism, bombastic, raw and brilliant."
-Frank Matheis
Blues Access Magazine
Frank's Picks Best of 2001
Summer 2001
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"**** ½ (four and a half stars) goes with: John
Lee Hooker, Richie Havens"
-Dave Good
mnblues.com
July 2001
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"Heart wrenching. Powerful. Haunting."
-Bill "blue eyed" Fountain
Southwest Blues Magazine
May 2001
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"This is the Real Blues with a capital R and a capital
B,...intense and moving..."
-Stephen T Davidson
mnblues.com
April 2001
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"Taylor has found beauty, even if it is a very savage beauty."
-Dave Marsh
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"...the sort of record Robert Johnson or Leadbelly would
make if they were around today..."
-Ottawa Citizen
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"Everything about White
African is stellar..."
-Genevieve Williams
Blues Revue
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"It ain't no rock and roll masquerading as blues...It ain't
no disc filled with blues cliche licks."
-Art Schuna
WORT Radio in Madison, Wisconsin
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"...this is the most haunting and harrowing disc..."
-John Taylor
mnblues.com
April 2001
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"...White African is, in many ways, as good as the blues gets."
-Michael Koster
Thirsty Ear
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"If this album doesn't make is to the blues top 10 for
2001 I'd be very surprised."
-Doug Gallant
The Guardian, Charlottetown, PEI
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"The album reinvents the raw honesty and simplicity borne
out of the African-American experience..."
-G. Brown
Denver Post
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"...'White African' is clearly the thinking man’s blues.
It is also absolute brilliance."
-Alec Kirkcaldy
The Wire Magazine
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"Otis Taylor plays the rural blues in the fashion of Robert
Johnson..."
-Jon Worley
Aiding and Abetting
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"No one writes music like this. NO ONE!"
-Michael Allison
THEGLOBALMUSE.COM
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"If you are ready for music capable of grabbing you by
your soul and heart put Otis Taylor in your player."
-Holler, newsletter of the Colorado Blues Society
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