Dudley Taft leans into his rock roots and expresses himself with an edge without sacrificing his signature blues style on his new album Simple Life. Today Taft joins forces with Folk n’ Rock to premiere his new video for “Give Me A Song.” See it here: https://folknrock.com/news/exclusive-premiere-dudley-taft-give-me-a-song
“Give Me A Song” is available today at all digital outlets: https://lnk.to/dtgivemeasong
The first single off the new album, “Give Me A Song,” kicks in with a hummable riff, a thick groove, and an infectious chorus. Taft explains “Give Me a Song” is about the elation of finding the right girl after the disaster of being with the wrong girl!”
Simple Life out on September 6 journeys through a collection of twelve tracks infused with rock n’ roll riffs and sonic textures. The album title track espouses the benefits of unplugging. Written on a trip to the Bahamas “Simple Life” captures the essence of the record. “I was down in the Bahamas, and I thought, ‘Man, this is awesome’,” he recalls. “We get no reception unless we climb up on a hill, it felt nice. Managing your digital self and this accelerated news cycle can get to be too much. I’m a city dude. I love visiting and living in cities, but at some point, your mind has an allergic reaction and you need to decompress. That’s what this album is about.”
Elsewhere, the distorted swells of “Pouring Down” and “Shine” conjure signature spirits Seattle with a fresh fire. The latter might even be “the happiest grunge song ever,” he laughs. Everything concludes with an organic jam on “Back to You.” It examines, “where you fuck up your relationship and you want to get back to your happy place.”
On Simple Life, the question isn’t whether life’s glass is half-full or half-empty; the point is to drink it all in deeply. This is music that celebrates life’s triumphs despite its necessary pains and setbacks. These songs remind us we owe it to ourselves to keep it simple and fill our glass with love, laughs, and loud music.
“I’m enjoying the Simple Life right,” says Taft. “It’s probably my most honest record. I freed myself from all of those self-imposed structures and allowed the music to happen.”
Taft went from co-founding Space Antelope alongside future Phish icon Trey Anastasio in high school to attend Berklee College of Music to founding Seattle staple Sweet Water. He joined Second Coming in 1997 and recorded the group’s seminal self-titled debut, which yielded the Top 10 hit “Vintage Eyes” and “Soft.” 2008 saw him kick off a successful solo career highlighted by a prolific string of releases: Left for Dead [2011], Deep Deep Blue [2013], Screaming in the Wind [2014] Skin and Bones [2015], and Summer Rain [2017]. In between canvasing the United States on tour, he enamored audiences across Europe. His impressive playing and intimate songcraft resounded around the globe with the European Blues Society nominating him for “Best Guitarist” in 2017.
