Album Review – Willy “Tea” Taylor’s “Kunckleball Prime”
Music, just like sports, is mostly a young man’s game. Most certainly there are wily veterans out there taking the field and taking the stage, but many of them made their name when they were young. It’s hard to hold onto the dream of making the big time the older you get, whether you’re trying to strike out opposing batters, or sing on the stage to strangers.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t avenues to success and accomplishment out there for older individuals who still want their taste of “The Show” as they call it in baseball. One avenue to salvaging a pitching career as a baseball player gets older is to learn the knuckleball. Not relying on speed like many other pitches, the knuckleball deceives the batter with its strange trajectory and behavior, but it can take years of experience and trial to perfect.
After struggling at the major league level, current baseball pitcher R.A. Dickey decided to switch to the knuckleball in hopes of turning his career around. As a regular pitcher, he just didn’t have the stuff to stay in the majors, so he worked at the knuckleball and clawed his way back up the ranks until in 2012 he was selected as a starter for the All-Star Game. In 2015, pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays, Dickey was one of the key players to getting the team to the American League Championship Series. At 40-years-old, he’s only one of two major league pitchers left throwing the knuckleball as his primary pitch. He’s in his “knuckleball prime.”
Willy “Tea” Taylor, a songwriter from Oakdale, California, and a member of the Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, is like that career minor league pitcher in his late 30’s who is just now coming into his knuckleball prime, and is getting his chance in the big leagues in an unconventional way. Willy is a much-revered songwriter in certain circles, whose 2011 album 4 Strings included some of the best-written songs in recent memory, but only included Willy and his four-string tenor guitar.
Now, offered a chance at the big time by the unexpected benefactor of the Blackwing Pencil Company who have launched their own record label, Taylor was matched up with a whole team of major league-caliber music personnel in the form of producer Michael Witcher (Dwight Yoakam, Dolly Parton), Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Gabe Witcher and Noam Pikelny of The Punch Brothers, Sara Watkins, Andrew Combs, and pedal steel guitarist Greg Liesz among others. Knuckleball Prime is Willy’s big shot to show the world what he’s got without any financial or logistical limitations.
Where before Willy had to rely on the sheer power of his words, Knuckleball Prime allows arrangement and instrumentation to help tell some of the story. And unlike some top flight songwriters of the past who found the process of producing their songs foreign, and the results fairly underwhelming or even counterproductive (see: Townes Van Zandt), the marriage of Willy songs and wise studio work results in a rising action of Willy’s expressions as opposed to a smothering of them.
This was the biggest test for Knuckleball Prime, because Willy Tea can do some things with four strings that many multi-piece bands can’t accomplish in multiple albums. Maybe the biggest barometer for how things would go was the song “The Very Best” which also appeared on Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit’s album Old Excuses. Though there was nothing wrong with the original version, the new version does what all great production and arrangement does: find the best attributes of a song and emphasize them. It’s the same old Willy Tea, but now the songs are allowed to blossom in a way they never would have before. The production even takes some chances, like with loud, purposefully-abrsive electric guitar in places, but it accomplishes its job of setting the proper mood.
The heart of Knuckleball Prime is a very personal one, centered very much around Willy Tea’s own life and experiences in interior California, and traveling on the road playing music. “Bull Riders & Songwriters” aches with the trials and tribulations of a traveling musician trying to make it in the world while the priorities of home life linger as guilt-riddled and ever-present reminders. “Brand New Game” doesn’t just bridge Willy’s love for baseball with his love for music, it bridges his upbringing to his adult life, and eventually the raising of his own son, and the Willy Tea spirit of always finding a reason to smile even in a world of adversity. That takes you to “You Have My Attention,” which slays the listener with the all too important message about how we choose to spend our time in the world. You also get a couple of songs in “California” and “Chickamauga” set in a historical context, yet with themes that resound still today.
Knuckleball Prime is an excellent songwriters album, maybe one of the tops of 2015. But I would be dishonest if I did not say that I thought the songs from Willy might be a little weaker that on previous efforts. Songs like “Hummingbird” and “Life Is Beautiful” from 4 Strings, or “One Yard” and “Everywhere Now” from Thrift Store’s No Excuses could probably trump most, maybe all of Knuckleball Prime‘s selections. But producer Michael Witcher really understood how to take this material, find the melody and make the chorus rise to where a wider ear will latch on to what Willy Tea is trying to say, which is a virtue his previous albums may have not have included.
1 3/4 of 2 Guns Up (8/10)
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October 26, 2015 @ 6:56 pm
Trigger, thanks for your great insight. I can’t wait to give this version of “The Very Best” a spin, along with the rest of the album. Very excited!
October 26, 2015 @ 7:52 pm
I’ve never really listened to this guy, so I need some more time to let the music sink in before I could render a comment on it, but I love the concept of “knuckleball prime.” It’s a quirky album title that has an actual meaning behind it.
Oh, and nice Grimey’s t-shirt on the keyboard player. 🙂
October 27, 2015 @ 12:57 am
My god that song sounds absolutely beautiful.
October 27, 2015 @ 5:48 am
Thank you.
October 27, 2015 @ 7:22 am
Based on that clip, really looking forward to that. In my knuckleball prime myself.
October 27, 2015 @ 7:30 am
Been looking forward to this one. I dont always agree with your criteria for 1 3/4 gun albums verses 2. I learned the hard way not to buy “2 gun” albums indescriminately but i still appreciate a source of perspective on products that already have my attention. Thanks trig.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:18 am
Sometimes I’ll rate an album “Two Guns Up” but put qualifiers on it about stylistic pitfalls that may not appeal to everyone. I’m not sure if that’s what you’re talking about, but I always thing folks should at least listen to samples and try to get a sense if it is something they’d be into before purchasing.
October 27, 2015 @ 7:47 am
4 Strings is on Google Play but Knuckleball Prime isn’t. Guess I’ll have to buy from his website. meh…
October 27, 2015 @ 9:19 am
This album appears to have very limited digital distribution at the moment across all platforms. Not sure if that will change in the future.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:53 am
The site wasn’t difficult to buy from. Only thing is gmail sent the link to my spam folder so….watch for that.
October 27, 2015 @ 1:34 pm
Good to know, thanks!
October 27, 2015 @ 8:43 am
It’s Interesting that even though he seems to be a person who is really connected to his home/friends/family in California, he is compelled to hit the road for his music.
For me, as well as being well sung, with great melodies lyrics and so on, his songs and music communicate much feeling.
One more yard is one of my favourite tunes of the last ten years.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:48 am
I recall first time I heard him he was singing “Cattlemen” from 4 Strings and I was absolutely stunned by how good he is. Thanks for keeping his music out there.
October 27, 2015 @ 5:26 pm
This clip is just lovely and definitely piques my interest in the full album.
October 27, 2015 @ 10:05 pm
I never heard of Willie until I went to the Bandit Town event in Austin this past March. It was late night, and the friendly bearded man asked me for a cigarette. Quickly, we realized we had a lot to talk about, as we were both passionate about music, whiskey, and baseball. I thought he was joking when he told me that he was going to be trying out for the Milwaukee Brewers. In fact, I blatantly doubted him. Politely and confidently, he laid out his reasoning as to why he believed in his abilities. I’m not sure I’ve ever met a more genuine and likeable person. Knuckleballing and musical accomplishments aside, I can’t think of one other person that I’d put money on having a successful life journey.
October 28, 2015 @ 7:14 am
Trigger, do you have any idea what opened these doors for Taylor?
Oakdale isn’t much more than a pause on the road into Yosemite. It does have a strong rural culture, but I did not figure it was a growing country music scene. Maybe I should not be surprised due to some factors, but it still is a bit of a shock.
October 28, 2015 @ 9:29 am
In certain circles, Willy is really well-known as a songwriter because when other songwriters listen to his songs, they’re blown away. And he’s traveled quite a bit over the years, especially in West Coast circuits. He certainly didn’t make it in Oakdale, but if you’ve hung around the guy or seen him play, you would know he has an infectiousness that just naturally makes people want to help him and cling to his music.
October 29, 2015 @ 10:32 am
Can anyone shed some more light on this album for me? I cant find anywhere to preview the songs online. Are most of them along the lines of Knuckleball Prime? I love that song, but am hesitant to purchase the entire album only hearing one song.
October 29, 2015 @ 9:27 pm
You can preview the album on iTunes.
October 30, 2015 @ 1:04 pm
Yay found it, and lovin it
January 13, 2016 @ 10:46 pm
you: “Music, just like sports, is mostly a young man”™s game.”
Sexist or what?
January 13, 2016 @ 11:21 pm
Please.
January 14, 2016 @ 12:03 am
Note the precision of Trigger’s language. He used the qualifier “mostly”, which turns this into a factual statement, not a sexist generalization.
If we could all write like that, then debates would be far more intellectually honest and the political correctness divide would have a chance to be bridged.
February 11, 2016 @ 9:13 pm
My fav of 2015.