Kate Taylor - Biography

Biography

Kate was born in Boston and grew up with her four brothers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where her father was Dean of the medical school at the University of North Carolina. Her mother, Trudy, was a New England native and had received training as a lyric soprano in Boston.

As a member of one of the most famous musical families in America, Taylor and her four brothers, Alex, Livingston, Hugh and James, have all enjoyed some measure of success as performing and recording artists, starting in the late 1960s. Kate, Livingston and James are still recording and have active touring careers; Hugh owns the Outermost Inn on Martha's Vineyard; Alex is deceased. James Taylor's career has been particularly successful.

Taylor formed her first band at age 15 and had her first record deal with Atlantic Records four years later. Produced by her manager at the time, Peter Asher, her debut album Sister Kate was released in 1971. Her second album, the 1978 self-titled Kate Taylor, was produced by her brother James and Lew Hahn on Columbia Records. It was well received, and produced another charting hit, "It's in His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)", done as a duet with James. It peaked at 49 on the Billboard charts.

The following year Taylor released It's in There, produced by Barry Beckett at the famed Muscle Shoals studios. The label did not promote the album well and it did not achieve its expected success. After this release Taylor took a break from the music industry to raise her two young daughters, Elizabeth and Aretha. She continued to perform and contribute to various projects, including an appearance on the Mark Heard tribute album Orphans of God and as a back-up singer for various other artists.

In 2003 she released Beautiful Road, a particularly personal album, dedicated to her manager and husband, Charlie Witham, who fell ill while she was recording the album and died shortly before its release. It received high praise, including 3 stars from Rolling Stone magazine, who called it "a heartfelt folk rock gem."

In 2003, Taylor resumed her touring career and now plays regularly in New York City, New England and the South. She was a featured performer at the 2008 Newport Folk Festival in Newport, RI.

In 2005, Taylor released her first live album, Kate Taylor Live at The Cutting Room, a recording of a live concert made the previous year.

In July 2009, Kate Taylor released her first album of all original songs, entitled "Fair Time!" and in September 2009 Kate and Film Truth productions released a documentary DVD called "Tunes from the Tipi and Other Songs from Home." The film traces the Taylor family's and Kate's musical history and journey from Chapel Hill to Martha's Vineyard.