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Sean Taylor—Lockdown—Independent Release

Sean Taylor is a solo acoustic artist from London. Sean is well
known on the blues circuit, has toured extensively and released
many albums. His latest release is aptly titled ‘Lockdown’. I
must warn you from the outset that some of the lyrics are hard
hitting but don’t let that deter you.

The album opens with ‘Herd Immunity Part 1’. Over an intro of
electric piano and a solid beat Sean pulls no punches with his
take on how the pandemic has been handled in this country.
You can feel the underlying anger. With ‘The March Is On’ a

bluesy backbeat and a touch of harmonica accompanies more of
today’s world problems. With ‘No Borders’ Sean’s soft voice laps over a piano based backdrop to
champion diversity.

The album is nicely punctuated with two familiar pieces written by Ludwig Van Beethoven,
‘Moonlight Sonata’ and ‘Fur Elise’. I think Sean has been developing his classical piano skills over

lockdown and these two pieces are short, gentle, naive and very touching.

With this album Sean has used spoken word to apply the lyrics to these songs. This is an art form in
itself and one Sean has managed to accomplish with his soft voice, good diction and above all else
sincerity.

Whilst Sean provides the vocals, guitar and piano we can not underestimate the contribution of
Mark Hallman. Not only does Mark provide drums, bass and organ but he also produced, mixed and
mastered this album in his studio in Austin Texas. Quite clearly Mark and Sean have developed a
way of working together over time and formed a great partnership that really brings out the best of

Sean’s songs.

‘Black Lives Matter’ has a slowed down bluesy boogie backdrop for Sean to hit us with the hard
truth, “how many worlds will you shatter before you realise black lives matter”. Sean addresses yet
another world issue with ‘Palestine’, once again very moving. ‘Herd Immunity Part 2’ is slower
paced than Part 1 but much more poignant. I have to confess that this made me feel quite emotional

bordering on tears such is the anger and power of Sean’s delivery. The 80’s style sax solo outro
gives you time for reflection.

The title track ‘Lockdown’ is an instrumental collaboration with Bare Beats. A great hip hop beat
with some nice piano on top. The album closes with ‘Free To Do’ a tale of terrors of the tech world

something I’m sure we can all identify with. This has a more jazzy feel. I really love the double bass
and the wonderful sax once again from Joe Morales, this combination almost giving off a Steely Dan
vibe.

Protest songs were a thing in days gone by, almost a genre of their own. Think, Guthrie, Dylan and
Seeger then fast forward to 2021 and here we have Sean with something more sophisticated but

with the same impact nonetheless. Sean is a great wordsmith and has the ability to articulate world
events and distil them into a cool digestible form for us all to absorb and reflect upon. If I was
putting together a time capsule for 2020 I would put this album in it.

Ged Wilson