Nolan Taylor Is Tailor-Made for Hope and Heartache

You hear that? That’s not just a formatting issue, that’s me speechless. Nolan Taylor performed at The Hamilton Live on  Friday, March 15, under the velvet lights and among a sold out crowd of cowboys and city folk.

The evening began with Clarke Sexton, Clarke with an “e” as he made sure to clarify for the audience, opening for Taylor. Reminiscent of his Kentucky kinfolk, Chris Stapeton, his vocals will turn the lights out and lay you on a pillow. Like a trickling river, Sexton’s sensual and soulful performance created its own ambiance. Bringing back slow dancing at honky tonks, Clarke Sexton gets it right. Playing tracks like “Help” and “Oil Springs” from his 2020 album Journal Entry, he kept the crowd cheerfully stunned. He closed out his set with a cover of Stapleton’s “Sometimes I Cry” leaving the audience crying out for more.

A busy night for Sexton, he also played guitar for his longtime friend, Nolan Taylor. When getting the crowd prepped for Taylor he asked if they were ready, and with a shy cheer, he commented “That’s weak as piss, let’s try that again.” That’s the kind of tough tenderness for his friend that comes through in his music. 

The lights outlined Nolan Taylor as he stepped onto stage with his four other bandmates. A projection of a melancholic watercolor landscape, the cover art for his latest single “Cincinnati Heart”, was the backdrop during the performance. Juxtaposed on the image was a cardinal, a nod to Taylor’s track “Wicked Ways” when he writes “Mmm I wanna be that cardinal in your dogwood tree”. Taylor’s masterful storytelling starts there. Interweaving all the parts of his life into his work without forcing it on you. The cohesion and simplicity in his storytelling feels real and painful, the way he felt it as he belts it out.

We feel badly for Taylor because he can’t hear his music for the first time like we were so fortunate to have experienced last week. He doesn’t just sing his songs, he feels them, which compels us to do the same. Too often today musicians are merely entertainers selling tickets and dancing for dollars. Nolan Taylor reminds us what we forgot to remember: emotion hurts but it feels so good. 

Before he bared his soul with his self-healing tune “Darkness”, Taylor explained the impetus for the track, a recurring theme throughout the night. He shared with the audience his struggles with suicidal thoughts and depression and how a single moment at the cusp changed his life when he picked up his rarely played electric guitar and wrote the song in a single sitting while his girlfriend was in the other room. In the second verse he apologizes to her for the unfathomable, “And honey I'm so sorry/If you ever find me cold and stiff/Cut me down, just hold me.” While mental illness and artists’ struggles with real world issues has become more common in music and art today, it’s Taylor’s openness in and out of his music that resonates. 

With even a cursory search of “Darkness” online, you will come across his viral discussions about the song’s genesis and, in that, you too will feel that sting when he tears up as he shares about his darkest thoughts and how he’s been prioritizing his healing since then. 

He finished out the night with his viral track “68”, a scathing letter to his mother about growing up poor and at the whim of her mental health and addiction issues. Watching him access his childhood and find a way out in real time, he elicited the joy of summiting a mountain and then the rush of immediately base jumping off of it when he finally exclaims “I’m done now/ and I’m through with you.”

As of September of 2023, Taylor is officially an Atlantic Records artist, and he’s hitting the ground running with the release of his EP Life & Love and his Cincinnatti Heart Tour going through the end of June. Continuing his festival circuit appearances after last year’s success at the Dreamy Draw Music Festival in Arizona, Taylor will perform at festivals across Kentucky, Texas, and Oregon this summer. 

With a relaxed, self-deprecating, and witty banter, akin to Tyler Childers’ Kentucky cadence, Taylor engaged with the audience honestly and humbly, sharing his journey to The Voice and how his rejection and an inspired song to his girlfriend “500”, who was 500 miles away, finally motivated him to pursue music full time.

Nolan Taylor is not just a singer/songwriter. He’s like a snake charmer, cautiously and courageously luring out of us through his lilt and lyrics what we have numbed with the rush of our everyday and what we forgot to feel. If your hair doesn’t stand on your neck and your stomach doesn’t drop, you aren’t listening. As he continues to shine, we’re listening–and thawing–every step of the way. Shoot him a text: his phone number is on his website in case you want to chat. 

If you do not feel like texting or calling Nolan, we can suggest the next best thing - make sure to see him when he comes to your area as soon as you can.  (Link to Taylor's full tour.)