Otis Taylor
with Mato Nanji
Waterfront Blues Festival
Portland, OR.
July 5, 2014

Another year of WBF recordings. Recorded from KBOO FM in Portland, OR. A great lineup again this year. I was looking forward to Greg Allman's set, but he had to pull out due to sickness. Oh well, I wouldn't have been able to share him here anyway. Seems to be much more DJ talking this year, interrupting some music. I just left it in rather than trying to edit each show. Feel free to make any changes you wish for personal use.

I may need help with some of the set list's as I don't know all the bands.

Enjoy, twofthrs

FM> H2 Zoom in wave format> Flac w/TLH> torrent (SBE's checked)


Expect the unexpected from blues singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist Otis Taylor. While his music, an amalgamation of roots styles in their rawest form, discusses heavyweight issues like murder, homelessness, tyranny, and injustice, his personal style is lighthearted. �I�m good at dark, but I�m not a particularly unhappy person,� he says. �I�d just like to make enough money to buy a Porsche.� Ann Powers of The New York Times alludes to the unexpected aspect of Taylor�s art, writing, �Gentle upon first listen, blending the austerity of delta blues with the expansiveness of free jazz, Taylor�s ancient-sounding, avant-garde �trance blues� has a dangerous pull.�

One unexpected element in Taylor�s music is the combination of musicians he selects to play with. As violinist Anne Harris�appearing with Taylor for the second time at the WBF�puts it, �He likes to find the misfits, the oddballs, the square pegs, and somehow throw everyone in the same pot and make a delicious stew of something that�s just his sound. It�s not an easy thing to do, yet he does it.�

Taylor�s special guest for this year�s WBF set is Mato Nanji (Ma-TOE Non-gee), guitarist and co-founder of the Native American blues band Indigenous. Nanji is a fiery blues guitar virtuoso in the vein of Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn, but he�s no ordinary guitar-slinger; his playing and songwriting possess a tangible spiritual depth. Born and raised on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, Nanji was greatly influenced by his father, who was both an important Native American leader and a musician with a vast collection of blues records.

As with violinist Harris, Nanji�s highly personal style somehow fits perfectly into Otis Taylor�s musical gumbo. The elements of Taylor�s music may be unexpected, but once you hear them together, they make perfect sense, enabling him to tell his spare, powerful stories. �I write songs about people remembering, bearing witness,� Taylor says. �I�ve learned that if you write about things that are important, people will listen.�

Set List
01 Ten Men Slaves
02 Blue Rain in Africa
03 Unknown
04 Lost My Horse
05 Please Come Home ???
06 Hey Joe
07 Gospel
08 Hambone
09 Rain So Hard
10 (trance)