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| January 13, 2006 Barnstable Patriot |  |
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BjfioteME
Yes
, it'strue: 28-year-old Ben Taylor is the son of super-
stars Carly Simonand JamesTaylor.Andyes,Ben Taylor
is a musician,
an island musician,
a Martha's Vineyard
musician, that is.
"Ya, I guess I do
consider myself
an islander," said
Taylor in a phone
interview while
on the tour bus
heading to Chicago
from Michigan. At
that time, Taylor
was playing the
opening act with
his sister, Sally,for
Carly Simon's latest
U.S. tour (the tour
ended Dec. 6). Ben
had already played
nine shows in seven
cities in less than a
month.
"Every family should try touring around the country
together," Taylor said about traveling with his mom and
sister. "It is a lot easier than you might think. It's easier
than all of us living together in the same house, ya know,
we all have a common purpose. We're all on tour, and we're
expected to perform at night, so it creates a kind of easy
transition from place to place.
"And it's better for the dogs, too," Taylor added, laughing.
Ben Taylor released his first album, Famous Among the
Barns, in late 2002 with the Ben Taylor Band. A Taylor-
proclaimed album of "neo-psychedelic folk funk ," Famous
Among the Barns was reviewed to great critical acclaim
across the spectrum and produced a chart-reaching single,
"Day After Day."
His latest album, Another Run Around the Sun, released
under Iris Records in November, takes a step away from
the full band concept that Taylor originally conceived for
his music, moving toward a singular, singer-songwriter ap-
proach.
The cover photo was taken at Taylor's Martha's Vineyard
home. Songs like "Think a Man Would Know" and "Nothing
I Can Do" have strong poetic prowess. Taylor gives a good
sense of what he's like as a man on the album, an accom-
plishment that he didn't
claim to have achieved
intentionally.
"I didn't intend for that
to happen. I am glad it did
though," said Taylor. "I'm
certainly not mad about it."
It's a good thing that
Taylor achieved a level of
poetry in these new tunes
after shifting to the singer-
songwriter mode. After all,
the goal of all singer-song-
writers is to stake their own
claim, their own identity. For without identity, musicians
dwindle into obscurity.
"It's definitely easier to do the one-man thing than it is to
have the group dynamic," said Taylor.
The shift from group to solo entertainer seems to have
benefited Taylor's craftsmanship two-fold. While his first
album showed an appropriate mix of instrumentation and
lyricism, there was something lacking. Another Run con-
tains a sense of creative release. This newly-found Taylor
has thrown some of the previously felt shackles to the
ground and taken another step closer to his own unique
and poetic sound.
And that sound isn't easy to come by. As the son of two of
the most recognizable singer-songwriters in the history of
the medium, becoming a musician -the singular musician
Taylor aspires to -has its difficulties. "Occasionally, there is
the double-edge sword thing to it," he allows.
Taylor is always being compared to his father James.
They look alike. Ben's guitar playing resembles that always-
prevalent James Taylor-esque acoustic finger picking, and
Ben's voice, the most similar of all the father's and son's
characteristics, could be lent to science for a project study-
ing the genetic inheritance of voice tonalities. In short, they
are the spitting image of each other.
"Our tongues roll off the top of our palates at the same
time," said Taylor jokingly, as if he'd been asked about the
similarities between his and his dad's voice so many times
that he's resorted to making up physical comparisons to
keep journalists like me scrambling.
But Taylor also realizes that his family connections are
"...a blessing. I really think it is a blessing."
"It certainly helps me when I am trying to sell albums,"
Taylor continued, "and if people come to my live shows be-
cause of my parents, then great. Then I don't have to carry
100 percent of the pressure of getting people to the shows."
His point was well taken. In a brutally competitive music
world, selling albums and selling tickets is what makes or
breaks a musician, regardless of talent. With albums like
Another Run Around the Sun, though, Taylor shouldn't have
any trouble carving his own path into the successful sphere
of the music world.
However, don't think journalists will ever stop asking Ben
about the similarities to his father. Good luck, Ben. All of us
Cape and Island folk are rooting for you!
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Q
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t
e
COURTESY CMFA
COME UP AND SEE ME SOMETIME
- Cape artist John Grilio's vibrant
"Carmen" issues a colorful invitation
to all Cape Codders to visit the Cape
Cod Museum of Art in Dennis at no
charge Jan. 21 through Feb. 12.
The occasion is a celebration ol the
museum's 25th
anniversary, and the
treats include works from the last
quarter-century selected by museum
director Elizabeth Ives Hunter from
the collection; portraits by Paul
Schulenburg of Provincetown painters;
and a decades-spanning retrospective
of Grilio's works. The museum just
off Route 6A is open Tuesday through
Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., and
Thursdays until 8:30 p.m.
I
ii
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H
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A
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Wellfleet theater
company schedules
play readings at Willy's
By John Watters
arts@barnstablepatriot.com
NEW CYCLE OF PLAYS - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater co-artistic director Jeff
Zinn willoffer a different spin at Willy's Gym in Eastham. WHAT'S off-season White
Box Theater is in the spinning room there.
If you like to keep tabs on up-
and-coming playwrights and their
works, the Wellfleet Harbor Actors
Theater says,no sweat.Head down
to the White Box Theater at Willy's
Gym in Eastham this winter for
the second year of WHAT (§ Willy's
winter reading series.
It's an enjoyable evening of din-
ing topped off with perform ances
by professional actors and locals of
the kind of works the avant garde
regional theater has offered for
more than 20 years at its harborside
playhouse.
"For years, we used to have in-
formal play readings at people 's
houses so we could listen to pro-
spective pieces we were consider-
ing performing during our summer
season,"saidJeff Zinn,the theater's
co-artistic director."But this allows
us to get feedback on alarger scale.
It'snot just our friends and families
giving us their opinion; it's our pa-
trons andthe public,whichexposes
us to amuch larger audience. It can
really solidify our thoughts on some
things, and it can also change our
mind completely."
Last year, WHAT was consider-
ing Sam Shepard's play The God
of Hell as a possible project for the
summer season.
"In having it read in this setting,
we found it felt a little thin," Zinn
said. "Granted , in most Shepard
plays there is always a lot of spec-
tacle that you can't flesh out in a
reading. Shepard ,s works always
have alittlebit of smoke and mirrors
that adds emotion and intensity
to his staged work, but we felt the
reading revealed it to be more of a
sketch than a full play."
This year, Zinn and company
have six plays ready for your and
their ears. They include Splitting
Inf inity, a Gold Medal winner of
the Pinter Prize for Drama, by West
Coast playwright Jamie Pachino.
Then there 's On An Average Day,
byJohn Kolvenbach,which recently
premiered in London's West End
starring Kyle MacLachlan and
Woody Harrelson.
A World with Snow by Jack
Canfora will star veteran actor
Austin Pendleton , whose credits
include Catch 22, Christmas with
the Kranks , and Finding Nemo.
Jobey and Kathen ae was written by
Greg Kotis, a former Nauset High
School student who charged on to
the professional theater scene with
his hilarious and offbeat musical
Urinetown.
The Escape of the Artist' s Chil-
dren by emerging black playwright
CONTINUED ON PAGE C:9
Lean and mean WHAThits
the gym to stay in shape
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
TROUPE COLORS - The Out Youth Theater Troupe
presents True Colors Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at The
Provincetown Theater as part of Art for Peace,a
celebration of the life and legacy of Martin Luther King.
The show is described as "an honest portrait of the lives
of GLBTQ (gay, lesbian,bisexual,transgendered, and
questioning) youth," and will be followed on Sunday
at 3 p.m. by a free workshop for those 18 and under.
Other events include an "Artpeace at the Schoolhouse:
For Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King" art exhibit at
the Schoolhouse Gallery Jan. 14 to 16 and 20 to 22. A
reception at the gallery from 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 15 will be
followed from 6:30 to 7 p.m. by a silent meditation for
peace.
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