Allan Taylor - All Is One

Arguably the finest album of his career

Allan Taylor has spent his life making music. His immediate career aim on leaving school at 16 was to run a folk club. After a decade honing his craft as a songwriter, singer and guitarist, he made his recording debut with Sometimes which featured members of Fairport Convention, with whom he also toured at the time.

Forty-odd years and 18 albums down the line, Taylor has released All Is One, an album that has been glowingly reviewed in both roots and rock magazines and is arguably the finest album of his career. On previous albums Taylor sang songs about the road, about all the different countries and all the hotel rooms... All Is One goes deeper — into time and ultimately to the recognition that "All Is One." A powerful philosophical statement delivered with virtuoso lightness.

Someone who is approaching 70 and calls his album All Is One obviously has something to say. Just recently Allan Taylor faced one of life's tests — a severe shoulder dysfunction prevented him from playing guitar — not an easy situation for a musician. In the meantime that is thankfully all healed and forgotten. Not shying away from the strain and frustration involved, he worked his way back to his instrument, his fans and to the recording studio at Stockfisch Records. He could have presented this album as a big comeback, a resurrection, but that is simply not the style of this master of contemplative tones.

Insiders will recognize a stringent continuation of his 2009 album "Leaving at Dawn." Even then it was about leaving, about long journeys, the poetry of movement — subjects even more strongly represented on this album. Instead of driving on asphalt it's about moving through time, and the title song is the best example. He wrote the first lines back in 2004, which kept flickering back to him and could finally now be completed. The lyrics tell of old guitars and of velvet gloves which close doors — but the song is a long way from drowning in sentimental resignation. Those who can read between the lines will discover a clever mixture of dance and march: "One final dance unites us all."

Taylor plays his favorite Martin guitars with the same sensitivity for body, expression and autonomy which one finds in his vocal performance — always moving, and never merely vague. In the last song Allan Taylor summarizes: "I may not be the perfect man, I guess I'll do the best I can" — and ends the album with the bemused lightness of a simple D-major chord. Maybe a touch too modest for a master?