As a songwriter, Taylor has hit the charts in five decades now. He wrote .Wild Thing,. one of the primary songs of the rock.n.roll canon since it was a #1 hit for The Troggs in 1966. His song .Angel of the Morning. has been a hit for Merilee Rush, Juice Newton and most recently Shaggy, whose chart-topping version earned Taylor the status of having the longest span of #1 hits in music history. As No Depression magazine noted, .Maybe somebody else has had cuts by Jimi Hendrix, Frank Sinatra and Willie Nelson, but it.s got to be a pretty elite club.. Taylor has also been a spectacularly successful professional gambler, as well as a recording artist and producer of such acts as the young James Taylor (no relation) and pop superstar Neil Diamond. He was an integral part of the bustling New York pop songwriting scene in its 1960s Brill Building heyday, one of the pioneers of the progressive country style that was the grandfather of today.s alternative country movement, and is today a respected elder statesman of the singer-songwriter scene.

But for Taylor, what.s next has always been more important than the past. And with his release on Lone Star Records, Let.s Leave This Town, Taylor creates some of the most exciting and impressive music of his life. It also introduced a stunning new talent in fiddler and now singer Carrie Rodriguez.

When Taylor first saw Rodriguez play at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX in 2001, he was not only wowed by the brilliance he heard in her playing, but also sensed a magical presence. He invited her to join him on some subsequent shows in Texas, and then a tour of Europe. During that tour, he invited Rodriguez, who had never sung lead before, to step up to the microphone and sing. The audiences went wild. Inspired by her way with a song, Taylor teamed up with Rodriguez to create a dynamic duet album. They have since recorded a second.