About me

Joe Taylor grew up in the South-West of England, and has travelled the world with his talent as a guitarist, and singer songwriter. Aside from a mysterious story of great grandfather who played the piano in silent movies, and taking classical guitar lessons in school, his musical influences were mainly self-taught from absorbing the recorded works of Jimi Hendrix, Dylan, Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Radiohead, Jeff and Tim Buckley.

As a teenager he started a band with schoolmates Adam Newton (Bass) and Sam Nadel (Drums). The young musicians were initially mentored by Jazz piano maestro Jason Rebello (Sting, Jeff Beck), and what began with blues, rock and funk covers, became a fully orginal group utilising Joe as the songwriter, leading to a big recording contract at age 19. Several labels wanted to sign the band (called ‘BlackBud’), and the deal was made with Independiente (Travis, Paul Weller, Tinariwen) turning down an offer from Warner Bros. They recorded 3 EPs and 2 albums (Working with highly respected producers Youth, David Bottrill & Mike Crossey), several music videos, toured all over the UK, Europe and USA, performed at festivals such as Glastonbury, T in the Park, Hyde Park Calling.  Songs such as ‘Heartbeat’ gained the support of Radio 1’s Zane Lowe and Jo Wiley. The track ‘Barefoot Dancing’ featured on the Universal movie ‘The Skeleton Key’. Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin came to a London show and met the band backstage. The fans of BlackBud loved the free spirit improvisation and jamming, well crafted songs, and high level of musicianship.

Joe continued as a professional artist after Blackbud, and diversified into other musical genres, which included producing and collaborating with several other artists, becoming a flamenco guitarist living in Seville Spain, and Israel. He has always been creating original songs, and over time he created a solo project, which has also now evolved into a band with David Dagmi (Idan Raichel Project) and bassist Oz Yehieli. The group have a deeply shared love of many genres, giving them a versatilility and dynamic sound, British with a Middle Eastern Mediterranean flavour.

In addition, Joe has worked with the Jerusalem East West Orchestra, Live Music Now (music therapy), TED conference and Beyond Foundation

The intention with his music as a writer, singer and performer is to enchant and bring joy, and to explore the soul connection and emotional transmission with his lyrics, vocals and guitar work

Joe has released new music under his own label ‘Alama Records’, and plans to continue the path of this fascinating musical journey.