Terry Scott Taylor

Terry Scott Taylor (born May 24, 1950) is an American songwriter, record producer, writer and founding member of the bands Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies (credited as Camarillo Eddy).

Taylor is also a member of the roots and alternative music group, Lost Dogs.

He is currently based in San Jose, California, U.S.

Taylor is highly regarded for his songwriting skills.

These often include allusions to and reworkings of material ranging from Elizabethan poets to modern authors.

Foremost among Taylor's influences is William Blake.

The Daniel Amos album title Fearful Symmetry was drawn from Blake's poem "The Tyger," and numerous songs across The Alarma! Chronicles series of albums have Blake-inspired references.

Some other poets who have influenced Taylor's work are T. S. Eliot and Christina Rossetti.

Eliot's poetry inspired the song "Hollow Man" from the Doppelgänger album.

"Where Dreams Come True" from Taylor's solo album, A Briefing for the Ascent, draws heavily from Rosetti's poem "Echo".

The songs crafted during this phase of Taylor's career marked a shift toward "Americana" and, in some ways, a return to the country music sound of Daniel Amos in the early 1970s.

The primary vehicle for this phase of Taylor's songwriting career is the Lost Dogs, with a number of noteworthy solo projects.

After a number of years performing with local California bands and folk trios like Good Shepherd, Judge Rainbow and the Prophetic Trumpets, The Cardboard Scheme, and The Scarlet Staircase, Taylor formed Jubal's Last Band with Steve Baxter, Kenny Paxton, and Chuck Starnes in 1972.

In 1974, the band recorded a demo tape together to shop around to record labels.

Later that year, the band lost Paxton and Starnes, and added bassist Marty Dieckmeyer and guitarist Jerry Chamberlain to the line-up.

Sometime in the middle of 1975, Jubal's Last Band (minus Baxter) auditioned for Maranatha! Music and Calvary Chapel in hopes of signing a recording and performance contract.

Another band at the meeting, led by Darrell Mansfield, had a similar name: Jubal.

The two bands decided to change their names to avoid confusion.

Mansfield renamed his band Gentle Faith, and Jubal's Last Band became Daniel Amos.

Daniel Amos succeeded in landing a recording and performance contract, and quickly recorded their first song for the label, Taylor's "Ain't Gonna Fight It" featuring ace sessionplayer Michael Omartian (Steely Dan) on Rhodes.

A full album, produced by Al Perkins, followed.

The inspiration for many Daniel Amos and Taylor songs from the mid-1980s can be found in the book Behold, This Dreamer: Of Reverie, Night, Sleep, Dream, Love-Dreams, Nightmare, Death. This book, compiled by Walter De La Mare and published in 1939, contains poems and essays that appear in Taylor's songwriting.

De la Mare is thanked in the liner notes of the final installment of The Alarma! Chronicles, Fearful Symmetry.

References to contemporary authors also appear in Taylor's songs.

One example is the song "Shape of Air" from the LP Darn Floor-Big Bite.

The song explores the mystical musings of Annie Dillard found in her Pulitzer prize-winning book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

The album is also heavily inspired by the works of Czesław Miłosz.

This is especially evident in songs like "The Unattainable Earth" (which was named after one of Miłosz' books), "Safety Net", "Pictures of the Gone World", "Divine Instant", and "Half Light, Epoch, and Phase".

Taylor and the members of Daniel Amos went on to record numerous albums and change musical styles with nearly every one of them, including the four part Alarma! Chronicles series in the 1980s.

In 1986, Taylor released his first solo album, Knowledge & Innocence, which included songs inspired by the death of his grandfather and the miscarriage of his and his wife's first child.

The following year, Taylor released his second solo album, A Briefing for the Ascent, this time inspired by the loss of his grandmother.

That year, Taylor also became the production director for Frontline Records and went on to produce many of the label's releases.

During the 1990s and into the new millennium, Taylor's songwriting for the Lost Dogs and on other projects turned away from more esoteric themes.

In the early 1990s, Taylor teamed up with Adam Again's Gene Eugene, The Choir's Derri Daugherty and The 77s' Mike Roe to form the alt-country/roots band, Lost Dogs.

Although it began as a "one time" arrangement, the band soon took on a life of its own and has continued to tour and make albums to this day.

The Lost Dogs began in 1991 as a one-time collaboration between vocalists and songwriters from four different bands at the behest of their label at that time.

Taylor, Gene Eugene (of Adam Again), Derri Daugherty (of The Choir), and Michael Roe (of The 77s) have released several eclectic albums of traditional American music (country, folk, blues, rock) over the last decade.

In 1996, he wrote and performed the soundtrack for Doug TenNapel's The Neverhood and Skullmonkeys.

In 1997, Taylor became the head of West Coast A&R for the Killen Music Group (KMG Records), a Nashville-based record label.

On Taylor's 1998 release, John Wayne, he credits more influences; Flannery O'Connor, Dennis Prager and Frederick Buechner.