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Johnny J Blair - The Strange Tale of Taylor Matthew Jordan (rough demo)

from Samuel Bowen & Johnny J Blair THE SKY CRIES (special edition EP) by Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large"

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about

Everyone has a Mystery Cowboy story. Maybe it’s not always called that, but reach into your misty memories and you’ll recall that intriguing person who affected you, captured your attention, and moved in the shadows of your life at key and unexpected points, then disappeared into an unreachable place.

The wind was blowing hard around the 23 Club the night I met this particular Mystery Cowboy. It was like a scene from the movie “The Petrified Forest,” as if Duke Mantee would come busting in. Instead, in walked a weathered but sturdy looking elder I would come to know as Taylor Matthew Jordan. For weeks he’d been slipping in and out of my shows at the 23, listening quietly in a dark corner, making me think of Strider if he groomed himself like Waylon Jennings.

Bourbon and blood spilled on the stage of the 23 Club in the wild, old days when Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Hank Williams were in their prime and took the stage there. It all folded into the canyon village of Brisbane, where people lived hard, worked hard, and played hard, just a mile below the San Francisco city line.

The rough wood structure of the 23 Club still echoes the melodies of a time before the Telecaster was a 'vintage' guitar, but the clientele today is slightly more genteel than in the 1950s heyday--when the slogan was “music at 9, fights at 10.” Meanwhile, the 23 atmosphere stays Americana (emphasizing alt-country and rockabilly). This was the perfect place for me to meet Mr. Jordan.

I was just wrapping up my last set when I heard big boots strolling up to the stage. I turned and looked into eyes that seemed both haunted and at peace. He introduced himself, complimented me on my singing and playing, then handed me a notebook and a small box of old reel-to-reel tapes. He spoke in an accent that could’ve come from anywhere between Deadwood to Tupelo, “It would be my great pleasure if you could go through my songs and record them. Take the publishing and everything. All I want is for them to be done proper, and you’re the man.”

Taking a seat on the edge of the stage, I opened the box, letting loose the musk of sunbaked California sage and that familiar dust of recording tapes. Then I flipped through the notebook with dozens of songs. I had questions, but when I raised my head to talk to Mr. Jordan, he was gone. No one saw him leave.

To this day, I haven’t heard from Mr. Jordan. The few who know of him say he lived self-sufficiently before dying in one of the shrouded canyons around Brisbane where banditos hid in the 19th century. Others told me he’s a mentally disturbed “prospector” rambling around the mountain looking for a lost gold mine. Gleaning from his own notes, he was a rising rockabilly star from the late 1950s who, right when he was breaking into the big time, inexplicably walked away from it all and vanished.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting here with his notebook of amazing songs: Sweet songs that make you think of heaven, sad songs that absorb your pain, songs to make you dance, cry, pray, reflect, celebrate…too good to sit unsung. So I’m going to work on these songs in days to come, starting with this biographical tale of Mr. Jordan.--JJB

lyrics

THE STRANGE TALE OF TAYLOR MATTHEW JORDAN

He was a good lookin’ rockabilly singing man
Who took a long and strange detour
Yet anyone who heard him sing his songs
Called out for more and more
He made ladies swoon
And grown men cry
Old folks called him
The apple of God’s eye
Everybody wonders
Why he has no fame
Taylor Matthew Jordan
was his name

He rose out of the Black Hills
No parents, not much school
They said his head was in the clouds
But he was nobody’s fool
He had a free spirit
Riding on a runaway train
When people’d run from cloudburst
He’d go dancing in the rain
Singing songs Listening for God
Dancing on Laughing long

CHORUS ONE:
He could’ve been a country superstar
Or a rock’n’roll wunderkind
But Taylor Matthew Jordan
Had his own place to find

His music took him from east to west
With a band that played with skill and flair
From ballroom to honky tonk, festivals and fairs
He was touching people everywhere
His sweet songs could send you into rapture
His sad songs soaked up all of your pain
But he had something that showbiz couldn’t capture
Taylor Matthew Jordan was his name

Hollywood and glamor girls came a knocking
So did kingpins and big record labels
But none of that appealed to Taylor’s soul
What happened next is stuff of fables
One night after a really great concert
He told his band he’d seen the light
With his notebook, his masters, and his guitar
He vanished into the desert night
A mystery spread across the nation
The police combed the Western states
Some guessed he’d been abducted or got lost in the sand
But they never found a body or a trace

CHORUS TWO:
He could’ve been the next Elvis
Or the next Bob Dylan too
But Taylor Matthew Jordan
Had other things to do

Years went by, and people move on
But the fans couldn’t forget his sound
Stories of sightings and echoes of his voice
Gave hope that that he was still around
There were rumors he recluded to the Black Hills
Or a beach in Mexico
Or was that him with a family in Bakersfield?
Or was he pumping gas in Tupelo?
He was a good lookin’ rockabilly singing man
On a long and strange detour
Yet anyone who heard him sing his songs
Called out for more and more

Copyright 2012 Taylor Matthew Jordan, publishing pending

credits

from Samuel Bowen & Johnny J Blair THE SKY CRIES (special edition EP), released June 12, 2012
Johnny J Blair: guitar & vocal.
Recorded by Scott Weiser at Studio 4d8, Brisbane CA 2012.

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Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large" San Francisco, California

"Johnny is a virtuoso"--Brian Wilson
"Pop music with a conscience.”--Goldmine
“the Harry Houdini of rock and roll.”-- Spotlight. Listen to Johnny's fast-paced mix of old school soul, psychedelia, punk/new wave, & classic pop/rock. Singer-songwriter in his own right, he was also a sideman for Davy Jones and The Monkees + performed with David Cassidy, Al Stewart, Buddy & Julie Miller, & others. ... more

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