Avocado Faultline

Description

Avocado Faultline is the fourth solo album by the American singer, songwriter, and producer Terry Scott Taylor of Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies and the Lost Dogs fame, released on Silent Planet Records in July 2000. The album was recorded by Phil Madeira at The Green Room in Huntington Beach and at The Mission in San Francisco, California; with Madeira and Terry Taylor producing. Mixed by Madeira at The Mission. Mastered by Buddy Miller. Featuring cover artwork painted by Jimmy Abegg of Vector fame.

Terry Scott Taylor is a master of genre-jumping. He can mimick 60’s surf rock, smooth it out and make jangle-pop songs that stick in your head longer than a Budweiser commercial, then get country enough to tour with Willie Nelson. ‘Avocado Faultline’ finds Taylor opting for the country sound most of the time, complete with smirking drawl, mandolins, steel guitars, and a sprawling attitude worthy of a drive down an old dusty road. The high musical quality found is no surprise when one considers Terry’s band for the record; it is made up of some great musicians including Jimmy Abegg, Phil Madeira, and Steve Hindalong (The Choir). Terry’s sense of humor is on display more than ever as well; some of the more serious songs like «Startin’ Monday» and «Papa Danced on Olivara Street» are injected with his wry sarcasm and smiling wit, while other songs are just hilarious («Pie Hole» made me laugh out loud).

One of the funnier songs, «Pretend I’m Elvis (For Just One Night)», finds Terry joined by his brothers in the Lost Dogs: Derri Daugherty, Mike Roe, and the late Gene Eugene. The romantic, loving side of Taylor shows in tracks such as «Built Her a Cloud» and «Angels Must Smile Like That» and of course, Terry drops in a few sad ones to make us want to cry. Most of the album is pretty slow and laid back, relaxing for the listener’s spirit but perfect for the sharp mind. ‘Avocado Faultline’ is somewhat of a concept album (complete with great liner notes), the songs built around Los Angeles and Orange County (where Taylor grew up and resides), giving the album’s hearers all the more incentive to listen up. Not that it’s hard to do… this is a collection of songs very easy to listen to, something both I and my grandfather would sit around and dig. Terry Scott Taylor has brought yet another wonderful album into the music world, milder than much of his previous work but still unmistakeably him and therefore, worth every penny. [Joel Thomas, VagrantCafe, 2000]

On his last solo outing, the 1998 Beatles-meet-the-90s masterpiece John Wayne, Daniel Amos frontman Terry Taylor took shots at spiritually bankrupt Orange County, as well as topics ranging from the Christian music industry to personal hypocrisy. This year’s Avocado Faultline covers many of the same topics, but instead of talking from an outsider’s perspective, Taylor has chosen to get inside the heads of his characters in a Flannery O’Connor-esque fashion.

For example, in the heartbreaking «Pretend I’m Elvis (For Just One Night)», a track originally written for the Lost Dogs‘ never-released album The Green Room Serenade Part 2, Taylor writes from the perspective of a lonely barfly attempting to pick up a woman:

You’re a little long in the tooth, babe
Me, I’m puffy and under the weather
But the drunker I get, that band gets tight
And honey, you’re lookin’ better

So here’s to dim lights in dingy bars
To the alcohol haze and the smoke
And the chance to reinvent ourselves
Hey baby, let’s go for broke

In other songs, Taylor speaks from the perspective of a parent who has lost a beloved child («The Afternoon»), a misogynist (the hilarious «Pie Hole»), and a man who has just seen a heavenly messenger («Angels Must Smile Like That»). In fact, he role-plays so much in Avocado Faultline, that he felt it necessary to put a disclaimer in the lengthy liner notes:

“It’s important to draw a distinction here between the drunken lout in «Elvis» as opposed to the actualities of my life. I wouldn’t bother to do so, were it not for the fact that some people out there are perhaps a little thick and quick to vent some kind of knee-jerk condemnation and self-righteousness when they hear such a song. «Pretend» is fiction. I am not this person.”

Speaking of the liner notes, those of Avocado Faultline are easily the most in-depth and classy of any Terry Taylor-related album. The thirteen-page booklet, in addition to the standard lyric sheet, a brief essay by Terry Taylor on the subjects of Los Angeles, songwriting and the record, as well as full colour pictures of the various sites and places mentioned in the songs Terry Taylor fans will likely give Silent Planet some extra brownie points.

Avocado Faultline is, for the most part, finger-picked acoustic country music, with the rather strange (but still appropriate) additions of mellotrons, accordions and chimes, as well as the more typical country instruments like pedal steel and Hammond B-3. It’s worthwhile to note that fellow Silent Planet artist Phil Madeira, who definitely proves his versatility, played most of the auxiliary instruments. Taylor has stated that the album would not be what it was without Madeira’s musicianship and creative input, and he’s certainly right on that account. There’s a little bit of rock thrown in on «Built Her a Cloud», the only track to feature an electric guitar prominently, a slight jazz feel to «Angels Must Smile Like That», and a Dixieland outro reminiscent of Taylor’s video game side project Neverhood Songs at the end of «Pie Hole». But the majority of these songs are straight-up country music. This may not please fans of DA‘s rockier material, but it should appeal to admirers of the Lost Dogs, as well as fans of old-school country artists like Hank Williams and Willie Nelson.

The Spirit of Avocado Faultline is classic Terry Taylor: funny, heartbreaking and convicting, all at the same time. If Silent Planet Records plays their cards right, then it will gain Taylor some new fans while still delighting longtime listeners. [Michial Farmer, The Phantom Tollbooth, 7/20/2000]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/avocado-faultline/570591938)

CD tracklist:

01. Cowboys With Engines – 2:36
02. Startin’ Monday – 2:32
03. Capistrano Beach – 4:43
04. Pie Hole – 5:05
05. The Afternoon – 3:27
06. Built Her A Cloud – 2:30
07. Angels Must Smile Like That – 2:58
08. With What I Should Have Said – 3:34
09. Pretend I’m Elvis (For Just One Night) – 4:22
10. Papa Danced On Olvera Street – 4:06
11. Kind Word – 3:50

Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://terryscotttaylor.bandcamp.com/album/avocado-faultline

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CREDITS. Produced by Phil Madeira and Terry Taylor. Recorded by Phil Madeira at The Green Room and The Mission. Terry Taylor’s Background Vocals recorded by Chris Colbert. Mixed by Phil Madeira at The Mission. Mastered by Buddy Miller at Dogtown Studio. Design by David G. Danglis. Layout by David G. Danglis. Painting and Photography by Jimmy Abegg.

Musicians: Terry Taylor (Lead and Harmony Vocals, Acoustic Guitar), Phil Madeira (Bass, Mando-guitar, Electric Guitar, Pedal Steel Guitar, Organ, Synthesizer, Mellotron/Chamberlain Strings and Flutes, Accordion, Chimes, Drum and Sample Loops), Jimmy Abegg (Acoustic Guitar – tracks: 3,10), Chris Donohue (Twelve-string Guitar on track 6), Derri Daugherty (Guitar on track 9), Michael Roe (Lead Guitar and Bass on track 9), Greg Kellogg (Pedal Steel Guitar on track 9), Steve Hindalong (Bongos, Bells, All manner of Percussion, Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Cymbals), Christer Jannson (Drums – tracks: 1,7,10), Burleigh Drummond (Drums on track 9), Charlie Morgan (Drums on track 6), Dennis Holt (Drums on track 11). Backing Vocals: Marc Byrd (track 4), Phil Madeira (track 4), Riki Michele (track 4), Steve Hindalong (track 4). Harmony Vocals: Phil Madeira (track 10), Riki Michele (track 11), Terry Taylor. Vocals: Derri Daugherty (track 9), Gene Eugene (track 9).