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Alabama’s favorite son continues to be in “The Right Place” since becoming the fifth-season winner of American Idol. During the last three years, Taylor Hicks has seen his debut album certified platinum, performed with the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire, The Allman Brothers and Willie Nelson, toured through Asia, penned a brisk-selling Random House memoir, and made his Broadway debut in Grease.
Currently promoting his new album, in stores March 10, 2009, the platinum-selling singer-songwriter will release The Distance with complete control of direction and ownership of his masters on his solely owned and operated, Modern Whomp Records label via Artist To Market (A2M).
Produced by Simon Climie (Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Faith Hill), and tapping the talents of guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, bassist Nathan East and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., The Distance features eleven tracks, including the first single “What’s Right Is Right.” “‘What’s Right Is Right’ is the soulful love song of the album,” says Hicks. “I think its wonderful message about love that people can relate to. The saxophone subtones as they are called, is where you can actually hear the breath from the instrumentalist before he actually plays the next note. Capturing the sound is almost like a music lesson within a Soulful love song. Subtones are a lost art in music today. These musical nuances do not limit themselves only to ‘What’s Right Is Right,’ but are heard throughout the whole album.”
Additional tracks on the record include some co-written by Hicks: “Wedding Day Blues,” notes Hicks “is a great story tune, in the vein of past singer-songwriters. A man attends an ex-lovers wedding and ends up in his own honeymoon.” “Seven Mile Breakdown,” “Woman’s Gotta Have It,” “New Found Freedom,” the country flavored “Nineteen,” which made Hicks “cry the first time I heard it. I wanted to arrange the song to where it fit my style. Such powerful imagery. It is American, Patriotic and Honest.” “I Live on a Battlefield,” “Maybe You Should,” “Once Upon a Lover of Mine,” “Keepin’ It Real,” and the title track, “The Distance.” According to Hicks, “‘The Distance’ has a world message. ‘The Distance’ is a rock song with a great message for all of us as a people. I wanted to try my hand at writing a harder edged song with a universal message, but not leaving my personal influences behind. The message is really important to me. If we all glanced at the world as a whole ‘The Distance’ between us will fade.”
In August 2008 Taylor released a reflective of his pre-Idol years, Early Works (Vanguard Records), which merged his indie albums In Your Time and Under the Radar into one collection. Along with his contribution to the forthcoming Warren Haynes Christmas Jam, recorded live in Ashville, North Carolina, his own DVD, Whomp at the Warfield (release date to be confirmed), offers fans exhilarating live performances by Taylor and his band at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco.
For now, he is excited to spend the next few months on the road promoting his new album and continuing his run as Teen Angel for the national tour of Grease. Beginning summer of 2008 in New York City, Taylor assumed the role of Teen Angel singing “Beauty School Dropout” performing eight shows a week at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. While also showcasing his harmonica skills, Taylor appreciates the opportunity as “a perfect fit for me to experience Broadway theater,” in a musical much-loved for its memorable songs. The three-month role, which began in June, continues to sell-out shows and is currently on a national tour.
Taylor was eight when his family moved from his native Birmingham to nearby Hoover and his parents divorced. Early hardship quickly led him to the warm and tender mercies of soul music. As a youth he realized he had perfect pitch, and taught himself to play guitar and a blues-wailin’ harmonica. After graduating high school in 1995, he studied business and journalism at Auburn University and shepherded the release of his first independent album, In Your Time.
His personal twist of fate came in New Orleans, at the wedding of an Auburn friend, the night before Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005. With his flight cancelled, he was given a free airplane voucher. Earlier that summer, he had considered auditioning for AI in Memphis, but the auditions were cancelled as the city became one of hubs of the Katrina relief effort. Through the summer and fall, however, auditions proceeded in eight cities across the country Taylor eventually used his voucher to travel for a Las Vegas holiday, coincidentally American Idol were auditioning in Vegas during his vacation.
By February, as the fifth season got well underway, two dozen semi-finalists had been chosen. From the start, Taylor’s material set him apart. By May 12, “Soul Patrol!” fever was everywhere as Taylor was brought to Birmingham for a weekend celebration, a concert in his honor and a personal meeting with Governor Bob Riley, who officially proclaimed Monday, May 16 as “Taylor Hicks Day.”
It was an emotionally uplifting night – May 24, 2006 – when Taylor won the fifth season of American Idol. 36.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the season finale, the year’s third-largest audience for a televised event after the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards. More than 63 million votes were cast in crowning a gritty, down-home, white R&B singer the new winner.
