Kate Taylor

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #129 (April/May 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Kate Taylor

A Beautiful Road

by Lahri Bond

The May 1971 issue of Circus magazine contained a series of articles under the banner "The Taylors: A Rock Dynasty." Although James Taylor, who was #1 on the charts, received most of the attention, three of his four siblings also had released albums, including Kate Taylor's debut, Sister Kate.

Kate Taylor was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Isaac and Trudy Taylor. She was a much longed-for daughter following two sons, Alex and James, and was followed by Livingston and Hugh. "I was and am the middle child, and the only girl. I wouldn't have it any other way," Kate Taylor recently observed and then let out the first of her many, mighty laughs. "It's the best positioning, I must say. Well, it's the best for me."

Shortly after the birth of Livingston, the Taylor family moved to the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, area, where father Isaac joined the UNC School of Medicine faculty in 1952. During the late 50s and early 60s, the area was at the crossroads of a wide array of American roots music, from bluegrass, country, and Appalachian music to gospel, R&B, and the blues. The radio also supplied a steady diet of early rock 'n' roll and doo-wop, as well as pop singles coming out of New York's famous Brill Building, crafted by hitmakers such as Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Then there was the East Coast folk revival, with Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and a young man named Bob Dylan, who was getting a lot of media attention. It was a musically potent time, to say the least.

[cover #129]