Lynn Taylor and the Barflies - Where The Heart Is (2025)

The genre of music explored here has been around for decades. So, to fluff up feather’s veteran singer-songwriter, Lynn Taylor, invigorates it with his signature bruised vocal. He then surrounds it with bright instrumentation & backup singers. What’s old is new again.

“Carnival In Hell” is rooted in a Kevin Coyne tonality & an inch or two below the prickly delivery of David Surkamp (Pavlov’s Dog). Eccentric voices that have a fluid, entertaining, resounding sound. The complete opposite of Nick Drake.

The 2nd cut “Home Is Where The Heart Is” is a little more Americana-based with fiery fiddle & countrified purity. But the rootsy side of Lynn Taylor is genuinely captured on “Who Says No To Love,” where the performance is down-home with a prairie wind Neil Young tendency. Taylor’s raw vocal is sugarless yet captivating.

The songs are invested in lots of emotive involvement. Especially since the last few years have affected Mr. Taylor personally. “Donna Lee” is a poignant, quiet ballad with descriptive lyrics. On a tune like this, Taylor comes close, very close to the heartfelt narrative of Billy Falcon (“Heaven’s Highest Hill”) during his ode following the passing of his wife.

There are sentiments, assertive asides, states of mind, having contentment & being contemplative & meditative. The voice Taylor uses during “When I Think About You” is similar to the slower tunes of a Willie Nile & Taylor is exceptional.

The R&R pulse seeps into some tunes & is applied with rootsy enthusiasm mindful of Steve Earle & Dave Alvin. Quite inventive in “The Twilight Years of Florence & Ebeneezer.” Sometimes quirkiness & tenor raspiness is a good thing because through that slightly unpolished tone, experience is believable, the truth is easier to understand & nothing seems glossed over or fake.

The addition of trombone on “Feel Love Again” & “Time To Change” adds notes of individuality to the compositions, coupled with fiddle & banjo. “Muse” has a wonderfully fluent lyric with a fiddle sawing through the melody. A page ripped from Billy Falcon (LP “Pretty Blue World” 1991). Care has been taken in crafting & performing these Lynn Taylor songs – they all have presence.