Description
LITTLE, big is a six-track CD-EP by the American singer, songwriter, and producer Terry Scott Taylor of Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies and the Lost Dogs fame, independently released on Stunt Records in July 2002. The album was recorded and mixed by Rob Watson at The Aerie in Los Angeles, California; with Terry Taylor and Watson producing for Stunt Productions.
LITTLE, big is perhaps my most personal offering yet. It is a gentle little glimpse into the Ordinary/Extraordinary “stuff” that is everyday life, and my hope is that this celebration of the wonder of the “mundane” will resonate with every listener. Those little things that we habitually fail to notice are the very things that ought to become front and center and which indeed “enlarge” us. It is in them that we often find the grace, mercy, and love of God. Great things are not so much waiting for us down the road as much as they are here and now… sometimes right under our noses. God grant us the ability to recongize them, celebrate them, delight in them, and give glory and honor to their Source.
I would like to thank Rob Watson for his unbelievably hard work, his dedication and commitment, his incanny musical intuition, and his amazing God given gifts. He is a craftsman of the first order. Above all I thank him for his dear and enduring friendship.
Blessings and thanks to Carolee Maybe whose hospitality and friendship always makes my stay in L.A. a great delight. My deepest love and thanks to JT Feavel who continues to encourage and inspire, and without whom this project would not have been made. I thank him and his precious family from the bottom of my heart.
Finally, to all those who have inspired these songs, directly and indirectly, I am eternally grateful to you. Above all, I thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has blessed me beyond imagining with the “little, bigs” in my life.
– Terry Scott Taylor.
“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.” – Luke 16:10
“Bad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with the life he is leading, with the thoughts he is thinking, with the deeds he is doing; when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger which he knows that he was meant and made to do because he is still, in spite of all the child of God.” – Phillips Brooks.
LITTLE, big, the latest solo offering by the prolific Terry Scott Taylor, is possibly his most personal project yet, with the subject of each song being someone personally close to him, each viewed through the lens of the “everyday.” While seemingly mundane, Taylor reveals his brilliance by being able to give the listener a gentle glimpse into the extraordinary that lies just behind the ordinary that we often take for granted.
As on his first two solo projects (including the timeless ‘Knowledge & Innocence‘, which should be required listening for anyone who has lost a loved one to the icy hands of death), Taylor has collaborated with Rob Watson. Thanks to Watson’s loving attention and studio wizardry, the six songs on this E.P. have an intimate yet orchestral sound, in many ways similar to the Beach Boys classic ‘Pet Sounds’, an album which Taylor holds as one of his favorites.
The title track comes the closest to capturing the Beatles feel of Knowledge & Innocence, loaded as it is with keyboards (Watson’s main instrument), ethereal background vocals, thundering timpani and orchestral spots of color. The lyrics set the theme for the album with lines like, “Goin’ home to my little house / To my little wife and not so little kids / There inside my little world / Is the love I feel / So big.” Flute, oboe and the occasional orchestral string flourish adorn the relaxed «Molly Is A Metaphor» where Taylor, with acoustic guitar in tow, uses the family cat to examine eternal love. The Beach Boys influence is extremely apparent in «Lovely Lilly Lou», a catchy tune built around a staccato piano melody and heaped with mounds of sounds like sleigh bells, wood blocks, timpani, a variety of organic keyboard sounds and a bridge replete with a 1930s feel and honky-tonk piano. The final track, «Mama’s In The Desert, Daddy’s In The Sky», is classic Terry Scott Taylor. With acoustic guitar, strings, operatic female vocals and a melancholy melody, Taylor sings of his mother, “She’s gone to talk to Daddy / And lay some flowers on his grave/ She says she knows Dad isn’t there but / It helps her to get by.” Both sorrowful and encouraging, the song brings this album of quaint and peaceful pop to a satisfying close. [Jason Hoffman, Whatzup, 2002]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/little-big-ep/564838142)
CD-EP tracklist:
01. Little, Big – 3:44
02. Molly Is A Metaphor – 3:27
03. Lovely Lilly Lou – 4:27
04. Oh, Sweet Companion – 4:18
05. Rob’s And Carolee’s – 3:33
06. Mama’s In The Desert, Daddy’s In The Sky – 3:33
Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://terryscotttaylor.bandcamp.com/album/little-big
CREDITS. Produced by Rob Watson and Terry Scott Taylor. Recorded and Mixed at The Aerie, Los Angeles, CA, by Rob Watson. Track Arrangements by Terry Scott Taylor. Orchestral and Track Arrangements by Rob Watson. All songs written by Terry Scott Taylor. Design Concept by Terry Scott Taylor. Art Direction, Layout, and Graphic Design by Brian Heydn. Photography by Amanda Feavel. Executive Producers: Eric and Jason Townsend, Randy and Lois Peters, and Rob and Candy Gray.
Musicians: Terry Scott Taylor (Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Rhythm Guitar and Lead Guitar [Acoustic], Percussion ), Rob Watson (Keyboards, Percussion, Accordion, Mandolin, Bells, Whistle, Loops). Additional musicians: Tom Strahle (Electric Guitar on track 4 and 6), Carolee Mayne (Soprano Vocals on track 6).
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