Taylor Guitars will present an incredible array of talent at NAMM this year, including teenage country music sensation, Taylor Swift, modern rock band, Everclear, smooth pop hit-crafter, Christopher Cross, and country crossover megaband, Lonestar.
Taylor Swift is a 2007 Grammy nominee for “Best New Artist” after winning the prestigious Country Music Association “Horizon Award” and becoming a double platinum selling artist (more than 2 million copies of her self-titled debut CD). Her third single, “Our Song,” reached #1 on Billboard magazine’s Country Single’s Chart in December, around the same time her MySpace page topped 30 million music streams. Earlier in the year, Swift was named “Songwriter/Artist of the Year” by her songwriting peers at the Nashville Songwriters Association International; she also won the 2007 CMT Music Award for “Breakthrough Video” and was named “Country’s Hottest Female Artist of 2007” by AOL Music.
Everclear rose to prominence from the Northwestern grunge-rock scene in the mid-nineties. The band’s hallmarks were the excellent songwriting and Gen-X-friendly lyrics of colorful frontman, Art Alexakis, which, coupled with relentless touring, landed them a deal with Capitol Records. With a string of Alternative radio hits on Capitol, Everclear became certified platinum and eventually double platinum sellers, and Alexakis himself became a major alternative media figure, reporting from political conventions for MTV, and testifying before Congress regarding child support laws, among other efforts.
Now off Capitol, Alexakis is thriving in the indie rock world once again with a revamped Everclear. In 2006, the group released Welcome to the Drama Club on Eleven Seven Music (in association with ADA/Warner Music Group). The album cracked the Billboard Top 200 and climbed to number eleven on the Top Independent Albums chart, testifying to Alexakis’ songwriting strength, charisma and ongoing musical vitality.
Christopher Cross is considered one of the most influential soft rock artists of all time, having made his debut in 1980 with the self-titled Grammy Award-winning album that contained his first three hits, “Sailing,” “Ride Like the Wind,” and “Never Be the Same.” Christopher Cross won the sophisticated pop balladeer a record-setting five Grammy’s, including “Best New Artist” and “Song of the Year.” He also received an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for “Best Song 1981” with “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do),” which he sang and co-penned with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen for the Dudley Moore comedy, Arthur. Cross has toured and recorded steadily ever since; in 2007 he released a Christmas album exclusively on iTunes, and he is currently working on a new studio album for release in 2008.
Lonestar landed squarely on the country charts in 1995 with the Top Ten hit, “Tequila Talkin’.” Since then, the band has chalked up twenty-seven singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, nine of which have traveled all the way to Number One. Lonestar’s signature song, “Amazed,” was a crossover hit, topping both the country charts and Billboard’s Hot 100 and ensuring this multiple gold- and platinum-selling band a vaunted place in music history.
At press time, other artists performing for Taylor Guitars at NAMM include Fox TV’s Next Great American Band finalists, Sixwire; dynamic fingerstylist and well-loved Taylor clinician, Doyle Dykes; T5 slinger and Ultimate Guitar Show host, Marc Seal; energetic hard rockers, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus; and two fast-rising young Southern California-based bands, post-punkers, The Material, and alternative rock group, Future of Forestry.
As always, special guest artists will make unannounced appearances at the Taylor booth throughout the show. Check the posted schedule in the booth for updated performance dates and times.
