JR Taylor

It was an incredible experience at the NAMM Show 2012 in Anaheim, CA, full of amazing musicians, innovative technologies and plenty of "interesting" people.

My first few steps onto the showroom floor on the first day caught me by surprise when I found myself ten feet from the legendary Stevie Wonder, playing on a keyboard built here in Austin by Infinite Response. That really set the tone for the rest of my experience which included countless more of these "walk-bys" as well as meeting and hanging out with some guys that I have played with or recorded before, including Allan Holdsworth, Virgil Donati, Derek Sherinian, and of course my friends, Todd Sucherman & Ricky Phillips from Styx.

One of my favorite moments was an impromptu jam at the Aviom booth with Johnny Haro (The Dreaming) and Ricky Phillips.
 

I think there's video somewhere, but you can't really hear much, since it was the Aviom booth after all (personal monitor mixers with headphones)! :)

Of course I got to spend some time with my friends at Carvin, who unveiled the new Legacy 3 guitar amp with the legendary Steve Vai. They continue to please with there ever-growing lineup of stellar gear. Also, my good friends at Mission Engineering have some really cool new things in the pipeline (top secret though, you'll have to keep an eye on them)! Other noteworthy pieces were a groundbreaking new amp from Yamaha and a brilliant line of sound reinforcement products from Line 6.

There are some of the highlights - there was so much more, but I have a record to get back to making! I am extremely grateful to Ricky Phillips and also the fine folks at Lectrosonics for making this whole experience possible. Here's to a great year for all of us - may we have even more wonderful things to report next year!

This was one of my favorite Christmas songs growing up, from Amy Grant's A Christmas Album (1983). At this stage in life, with two boys about my age when this song came out, its meaning is even deeper and richer. It took me a while to get this song down because I would get so emotional every time I tried to sing it. I hope it encourages you this Christmas season.

It's that busy time of year for everyone it seems. It is full of both action and waiting, giving and receiving, and probably a few other antonymic verb pairs!  Here are a few things going on around here.

1. The Hymns recording project has successfully funded via Kickstarter (thank you!)
2. Preproduction planning for said record
3. Christmas decorations
4. Christmas parties & Christmas Eve service planning
5. Christmas lists & shopping
6. End-of-year business purchases including
   1. The beautiful new microphone pictured here (which arrived today)
   2. New equipment to make video updates easier (ie more frequent)
      (not here yet)
   3. Various software updates and plugins for the new year

But truly the best parts of this season are the moments of deep reflection and the relational connections. For many it is happy and pleasant, for many it is heavy and painful. And it is so profound that all of this happens against the backdrop of advent of hope. It is this hope in the second advent of Jesus that puts all the broken pieces of joy and pain together and gives fuel for my own passion to create and help others to create music. And so may all the pieces in your life be blessed this season so that your vocation will be fueled with inspiration and purpose.

Help launch a new record!

I am very excited to invite you to support the making of my next record through Kickstarter! Kickstarter is an amazing resource for realizing creative projects by uniting people around ideas. This is a record I have wanted to make for a few years now and with your support through Kickstarter, it will become a reality.

Summers have often been significant in my life. Seven churches in six weeks, working on five records, traveling through four states, and participating in two weddings and one funeral, this summer is no exception...

Today I had the privilege of playing music along with a slew of excellent Austin musicians to benefit an organization that helps save lives by bringing clean water to communities in Africa.  I loved being a part of this event for a few reasons.  The first is that my heart stirs for the efforts of WaterNow helping bring life-giving water that we take for granted to people in need for such little cost on our part.  It was also meaningful to me that I got to meet so many musicians with a common passion not only for making music, but also for having a positive influence in our city.  Check out http://musicforthecity.org/ to read more about this organization.  So from making new friends to helping those I will never meet, this was a profound experience for me as I'm entering this new chapter.

I'm so excited!  The studio's nearly finished (just got my wall plates in today to finish the wiring - now I just need interior doors)!  I had my first session yesterday with Todd Sucherman mixing for his upcoming DVD and this room is so amazing, even the NS-10s sound good!

Now that the studio is operational, I'm looking forward to developing all these stockpiled ideas that have been anxious to get out.  So please sign up for my mailing list to receive regular updates as to what's happening in my world that might interest you.  And when you do, you'll be able to download my latest tune that I cranked out with the cameras rolling, which you can catch here.

My friend Mark Wonderlin (Mosaic Media Films) shot some footage of our Second Sunday worship event at Austin Christian Fellowship on January 9, 2011.  Most amazing is that it is all shot with one camera using footage from our rehearsal and edited to the live performance of the song during the service.  This is the first song I wrote for our church with the help of my friend Jerry Wise.  I lead an amazing team of talented musicians who volunteer their talents to serve in the church.  Hope you enjoy the video.

Waking up to snow this morning inspired me to write this music and shoot some video around my property. This is what we call "Snowed In" in Austin, Texas. Everything shuts down and people stay home. It's also very special and beautiful to us.