Hudspeth & Taylor Folie a Deux

Hudspeth & Taylor
Folie a Deux
Self-Produced

This duo is comprised of guitarist Brandon Hudspeth and vocalist-percussionist Jaisson Taylor. I am familiar with Hudspeth from the band Levee Town, whose music struck me as mostly generic blues-rock with enjoyable but generally lacking stand-out vocals. Hudspeth did impress me as a guitarist, if not as a singer. This duo shifts things into an unplugged blues vein with his guitar matched with Taylor, who I found to be an impressive vocalist. The pair are responsible for 12 of the 13 songs here.

This is an easy recording to kick back and simply enjoy. The opening "Big Fat Hairy Lie" has Taylor straight-forward singing about this woman telling him he loved him, but it was a bit fat lie with slid guitar backing. Taylor's unforced natural delivery and clean delivery of the lyrics impress as does Hudspeth's boogie guitar break. "Walking Down the Road," (with Taylor wishing could be with his baby) is an intriguing performance. One can imagine a band performing this as a Jimmy Reed styled shuffle from Hudspeth's boogie guitar backing. Hudspeth's percussive slide guitar attack supports Taylor's forceful singing on "I'll Be Right Back." "Candy Man" is not the Mississippi John Hurt song, but an original by the pair that Taylor sings with genial warmth. Hudspeth's fingerstyle guitar backing is excellent. Adding variety to the music here is the jazzy backing to "Silly Dilly," a song with plenty of wordplays. "Rock With Me Baby" is a boogie shuffle that I find evoking Juke Boy Bonner. There is a country-folk feel to "Low Down Dealer Man," a lament about losing at a gambling table. The title track is a charming instrumental on which Hudspeth exhibits his first-rate fingerstyle guitar. One other track to highlight is "When You Comin' Home," with Hudspeth playing a nifty guitar riff.

In summary, "Folie a Deux" is a well-played, superbly sung collection of entertaining acoustic blues performances.

I likely received a review copy of this from a publicist. Here is a clip from a few years ago of Hudspeth & Taylor in performance.