‘Well, everybody plays with the cards they're dealt, everybody's gotta work it out for their self, and I wouldn't wanna be anybody else but a workin' girl,’ announces Brit Taylor on Rich Little Girls, one of the standout tracks on her recently released album, KENTUCKY BLUE. No throwaway line, it’s a truthful reflection from an artist who has experienced the highs and many lows of surviving in the cut-throat and unforgiving music industry in Nashville. Like many fellow Kentuckians beforehand, a music publishing deal soon followed her arrival in Music City. But her career soon turned sour when she became disillusioned with the controls being placed on her writing. Ditching the deal, Taylor also had to confront a broken marriage, losing her band and the prospect of also losing her house. Rather than close up shop and head back to Kentucky, she dusted herself down, regrouped and financed her independently released debut album REAL ME by hard graft and long hours cleaning houses and churches. A deluxe version of that album followed a year later in 2021 and in February of this year came the release of her David Ferguson and Sturgill Simpson co-produced album, KENTUCKY BLUE. The icing on the cake for Taylor has been an invitation to perform at The Grand Ole Opry, a further indication that her talent, combined with a steel-edged work ethic, is finally yielding the rewards she truly deserves.
Firstly, congratulations on your new record, KENTUCKY BLUE, which is my most-played album of this year so far.
Thank you so much. I'm so glad you're playing it and that you like it.
Apart from recently releasing the album, you also had a resident DJ slot on Gimme Country which I enjoyed. Is that a side project you intend to pursue in the future?
No. I was so nervous. Jimi Palacios from Gimme Country was really sweet to help me out and teach me how to do it. I'm not much of a DJ.
Loretta Lynn, Patty Loveless and Crystal Gayle are country music royalty from your home State of Kentucky. Kelsey Waldon, S.G.Goodman and Brit Taylor are the current women flying the Kentucky flag.
Yeah, I love S.G.Goodman and Kelsey Waldon. I just got to go on tour with Kelsey for a few shows and it was a lot of fun. She's really talented.
Tell me about your journey from Kentucky to Nashville.
I moved to Nashville to follow in the footsteps of Loretta Lynn and Patty Loveless. I had started writing songs myself but when I would take the lyrics out of the jewel case from the CDs I was buying from Walmart, I noticed that there were names under all the song titles. So, I quickly learned that there were songwriters that were writing the songs and that it wasn't always the artists. I thought, I really want to do that, too. I really just wanted to learn how to write great songs and get other artists to cover them and cut records for myself.
You got your publishing deal but after a while, you realised that to quote yourself: ‘You’d rather clean shitty toilets than write shitty songs any longer.’
Yeah, I think that Nashville eventually just became something that I don't think I would have moved to that town for. I probably would have stayed with my family in Kentucky if I'd known Nashville was going to change like that. I don't mind music being different and music that I don't like, because there are obviously a ton of people that do like it. But it came to a point where there was no room for anything else but a certain sound and no room for women all of a sudden and that's the thing that bothered me. I don't care if things that I don't like get played, if other people like it, that's fine, but everybody was just aiming for the same sound and it just got monotonous and really boring.
Did you ever reach rock bottom and feel like packing your bags?
Multiple times. Nashville is just a crazy town and one minute you feel like you're on top of the world and somehow simultaneously you feel like you're sinking in quicksand. The meltdowns are a daily occurrence and it's just a matter of being able to get your mind straight and really focus on the things that are happening, the things that are really important. The important thing to me right now is that I've made a record that I love, I've done it the way that I've wanted to and people are hearing it. I'm proud of that and I'm just thrilled. I know how lucky I am to have been able to do this.
Fortunately, you did brave it out.
Yeah, something said to me, stay here. At one point I made a phone call to a buddy, a long-time mentor of mine and asked if this was the time to pack my bags. He said ‘no it’s not’ and actually happened to be in town from LA that day. He said ‘let's go to lunch, I got somebody I want to introduce you.’ He introduced me to the producer Dave Ferguson that day.
Have you felt pressurised to go down the commercial pop/country crossover that is the mainstay of country music radio in America?
Not anymore. In my early 20s, I really felt pressured to do that, because when I got to Nashville Spotify wasn't a big thing, and releasing your own music wasn't really a possibility. Around 2015 and 2016 I figured out that the power was kind of back in the artist’s hands and out of the label’s hands, because all of a sudden, there was nobody there to say no. It's still hard, there are lots of excuses you can make not to record your own music because it's very expensive. It's a lot of work and terrifying because it doesn't pay you back immediately, if ever. It’s a big risk and a big investment to believe in yourself. But I knew that I had to do it because I wasn’t finding that big record label that was going to do it for me.
You self-released your debut album REAL ME in 2020. It was written at a time when you were dealing with a number of personal problems including a broken marriage. What were your expectations for the album?
I didn't really have a lot of expectations for it. I just knew that I moved here to release music that I loved and I made a record that I loved, and I was going to release it, whatever happened. My main goal was just to be in control of my own career and the music that I write, how I want to release it, and how I want to introduce myself to the world. My main goal was just to be authentic in who I am and see what happens from there.
KENTUCKY BLUE has been released three years after REAL ME. Are you working towards a three-year cycle for releasing records?
I always want to release records and I feel like I can never get them out soon enough. We actually finished tracking Kentucky Blue back in 2021 and then everything kind of slowed down. We were trying to find the right time for the release when you’ve got all these other album releases coming out. We stalled for a year but I think that everything happens for a reason. It came out exactly when it was supposed to and now I'm itching to make another one already.
Stuart Duncan’s fiddle playing is all over KENTUCKY BLUE. It kicks in within seconds of the opening track Cabin in the Woods. It instantly reminded me of Tyler Childer’s wonderful album COUNTRY SQUIRE and very much a Kentucky statement on your behalf.
Yeah, I love Tyler’s record. Stuart Duncan is the man, he's the go-to guy. He’s just so great and I grew up on Patty Loveless and Ricky Skaggs, songs with fiddle all over them. I just wanted to get back to my roots and some of the stuff that I love. I really love that retro sound and I wanted to combine all the things that I love, some of that retro pop country from the 50s 60s 70s, and then some of the Appalachian bluegrass vibes too.
The combination of David Ferguson and Sturgill Simpson producing was also a master stroke. Sturgill tends to be quite experimental with his own recordings. Was he totally committed to the musical direction that you wanted for the album?
I think that's what makes Sturgill such a great producer. He is experimental on his own stuff. If he wants to make a country record, he’ll make one and if he wants to make a rock record, he'll make a rock record. I was very clear that I wanted to make a country record and that's why he and David Ferguson worked so well together. They knew exactly what my record needed to be. I don't know if there's any way you could even make those songs anything other than what they are. They're just written that way, they might sound a little silly if we had put some crazy beats or rock and roll guitar on them. It just wouldn’t really fit the lyrical content or the feel of the songs.
The track Rich Little Girls on the album sounds like it was written from real-life experience for you.
Oh yeah, when I was putting out that first record, I was cleaning churches in the middle of the night and getting up early in the morning to write a song and then going back to clean something else. It was just a really frustrating time. But it was also a big blessing to have that work because that's how I paid for my record. That song, Rich Little Girls, is my life in a nutshell. I think if it were in the 90s Patty Loveless would have recorded that song.
You appear to be pointing a finger at Nashville on the song No Cowboys.
I was with my husband and we were on our way to Music Row to write a song with our buddy Nick Autry early one day. We passed this pickup zone for a pedal tavern downtown and there was one of those pedal taverns full of bachelorettes and they were already drunk and hollering. I just looked to my husband and I said, ‘I hope they didn't come to this town looking for cowboys because there ain ‘t none left.’ Adam started laughing and said, ‘Honey, I think that's the song we're supposed to write today.’ So, we wrote it and it quickly became one of my favourites.
You brought Matt Combs on board to oversee the strings on a number of tracks, giving them that classic 60s Countrypolitan sound.
Oh, yeah, definitely that Bobbie Gentry sound. Matt Combs was my first call for the Christmas song, Lonely On Christmas. I released it with Mike Harmeier from Mike and The Moonpies and my husband and I produced it. I sent Matt a few Bobbie Gentry references for that song – I even sent those references to Nick Autry who mixed the song because that was the sound that I wanted. I love that sound on Glen Campbell and Bobby Gentry records and it's a challenge to really try to blend that with the Appalachian things that I love. I think Sturgill and Ferg did a really good job of blending it all together on the album.
There were some heavy hitters in the studio alongside Matt Combs and Stuart Duncan. Dave Roe, Myles Miller, Russ Paul and Mark Howard all contributed. Was it a collective decision to get these players on board?
Yes, we all had people in mind and then we just kind of threw all the names in the hat and decided together.
How important was having the support of the Thirty Tigers label for the album?
Thirty Tigers is a dream. When I put out my first record I would have loved for them to have put it out but I didn't really have a way into them as I didn't know anybody over there. When David Ferguson said he’d produce my record he said he’d ask Sturgill to co-produce. I just said ‘I can't afford you guys, I have no money after I put that record out last year and will be paying for it for the next 30 years.’ I was like, ‘I can't pay for it. I don't know what to do.’ And Ferg told me not to worry and that we’ll figure it out. Next thing Sturgill got on the phone with Thirty Tigers and told me we're all just going to figure this out together. Thirty Tigers have been a dream to work with, so supportive and real cheerleaders for the record. I always tell everybody at my shows that there are so many people in Nashville that will make you big promises and I mean, huge promises. ‘I want to make you a star.’ I think that they mean well and obviously want to do those things, especially when they've invested in you, or signed you to a publishing deal, or signed you to do this or that. They want that stuff to happen and make these big grand promises with the best of intentions but they can't do shit about them. Sturgill and Ferg and Thirty Tigers can.
The album’s front cover has Loretta Lynn era 70s all over it. Your costume, the rocking chair, the guitar, and even the dog on the front porch reflect that dynamic. Was that your intention?
Yeah, I wanted it to be very Appalachian very Loretta, but a little darker than Loretta. I wanted it to be almost a little scary, like a kind of Appalachian witch woman. That's what I told the photographer and the stylist and they nailed it. The number one rule was that my dog was going on the cover, so he’s there. His name is Whiskey, he’s my baby.
There appears to be a growing audience and appreciation for authentic country music amongst younger people in recent years.
Oh, definitely. I think that the more traditional style of country with this fresh new twist is growing and I think it's unstoppable.
Your album launch was at The Basement in Nashville last month. How did that go?
It went great. I was so afraid that nobody would come. I was so tempted to just play it for free but my agent was like ‘No, you need me to charge for tickets, let people buy tickets, then you'll be able to pay your band and you won't be so stressed out.’ I was afraid that we'd have twenty or thirty people there, but we sold the place out. I feel like I have a really good support system in town. I'm really involved in the song writing community and I feel very lucky to have a lot of friends that show up for me and I show up for them. There's a community of really awesome people in town right now.
What plans have you got in hand to tour the album in the short term?
We’re doing a run at the end of March and one in April with Brent Cobb. I'm so thrilled, I've been such a big fan of Brent ever since he had that Lee Ann Womack song come out, Shot On A Rainy Day.
Any plans to get over to us in Europe?
I hope so, I have actually never been to Europe. I cannot wait. I'm just itching to get over there.
You also have a booking to perform for the first time at The Grand Ole Opry
Yeah, it’s a dream come true. It’s the one thing that I've dreamed about forever. I know most girls grow up dreaming about white dresses and getting married and walking down the aisle. I’ve just always dreamed about singing on the Opry stage.
Interview by Declan Culliton