“KILLER, SOULFUL, MAGICAL” (CHUCK PROPHET) NEW MEMPHIS COLORWAYS’ ‘THE MUSIC STANDS’ FEATURED ON ROCK PAGE OF APPLE MUSIC, OUT TODAY

Memphis multi-instrumentalist Paul Taylor’s new album under the nom-de-plume New Memphis Colorways ‘The Music Stands’ debuted today and was immediately placed on the front rock page of Apple Music. ‘The Music Stands’ has also earned the admiration of peers Luther Dickinson (of North Mississippi Allstars), Chuck Prophet, Cory Branan, and his stepdad, Richard Orange of cult band Zuider Zee. Light in the Attic Records recently reissued Zuider Zee’s lost masterpiece ‘Zeenith,’ of which Rolling Stone called “as if Yes had made the Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ with David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ sidekick, Mick Ronson, on guitars. It’s the kind of rock-critic catnip that should have made Zuider Zee a cult sensation.” Taylor had another mentor in the legendary Jim Dickinson (Big Star, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan). The album was recorded at Crosstown Sound, at the Dickinson brothers’ studio Zebra Ranch, and at a secret studio in the former home of southern writer Shelby Foote.

Here’s what we’re hearing and reading:

“Paul has really come into his own here. Although the songs are deceptively simple, there’s a world inside each track. These little musical creations are killer. They will creep up on you. They'll reach out and grab you. It’s all very soulful. And a little magical too. Kinda proggy. Kind of indie. And utterly impossible to describe. I dig it.”

-Chuck Prophet

"In this newest work, one finds the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach of the ’70s alive and well, and definitely kicking... While it's easy to lay claim to the territory first mapped out by Big Star, Zuider Zee, or the Hot Dogs back in the day, the proof comes as soon as the proverbial needle drops. (Someone please put this out on vinyl!) 'Impossible Goals' revs up like the Clash, then hits you with unexpected riffs and the kind of unaffected, straight-arrow singing you might have thought was extinct. One astounding feat is the way Taylor's voice has hints of Alex Chilton, even as his songwriting has more echoes of Chris Bell. And yet the music also could sit comfortably next to much later touchstones, like the Posies, in all its unexpected harmonic and rhythmic turns."

-Alex Greene, The Memphis Flyer, January 29, 2020

“A true son of Memphis music, Paul Taylor’s songwriting singing, production and musicality all share the same freedom, adhering to no boundaries and transcending to a state of pure music. With one ear to the streets of modern Memphis music and the other on the teachings of Memphis music, Paul Taylor grabs hold of both tradition and modernism in a loving embrace and a triumphant lyrical philosophy.”

-Luther Dickinson

“Paul’s out of his damn mind. He conjures more original musical ideas in 12 bars that most musicians do with entire albums. ‘The Music Stands’ finds him, as always, accessing strangenesses and welding the unexpected with a singular vision.”

-Cory Branan