Tut Taylor

A musician's musician, Tut Taylor never achieved widespread popularity, but was highly respected and emulated by his peers. He was born in Milledgeville, Georgia and started out playing banjo as a child before learning mandolin. His lifelong passion for the dobro began at age 14, when he heard Brother Bashful Oswald play. After writing to Roy Acuff to learn the name of the instrument, he bought one and taught himself to play it using the same flat-picking style he used on his mandolin. In the early '60s, Taylor, Glen Campbell and the Dillards teamed up to form the Folkswingers, and through 1964 released three albums, including 12 String Dobro! Taylor made his debut solo album Dobro Country in 1964. In the late '60s, he joined the Dixie Gentlemen, and in 1969, he and fiddler Vassar Clements became the core of John Hartford's backup band. In 1970, Taylor co-founded GTR, a noted instrument shop in Nashville, and recorded with such artists as David Bromberg. He didn't record another solo album until 1972's Friar Tut; he and Randy Wood then teamed up with Ginger Boatwright and Norman Blake to created the popular nightclub and music store the Old Time Pickin' Parlor, which became a favorite haunt of the Nashville elite. The following year, he appeared on the album Hank Wilson's Back. Taylor released another solo effort in 1975, The Old Post Office, followed in 1976 by Dobrolic Plectoral Society. From the rest of the decade until his retirement, he also ran Tut Taylor's General Store in Nashville.