Artist Spotlight - Brit Taylor

Brit Taylor’s Land of the Forgotten twangs (“Broke No More”) and twirls (“All for Sale”) with unforeseen depth (“Bird of Prey”). We recently spoke with the Kentucky-born songwriter about her home state, songwriting and the excellent new collection.

“I was thinking about the next project I wanted to make,” Taylor says. “We started going through my catalog – an old school way of doing things – and I had about thirty songs on a playlist that I had put together. I wanted to narrow the list down to ten.”

Alt.Country Specialty Chart: Describe how the new album took shape.

Brit Taylor: I kept listening to those songs and intuitively started paying attention to the songs I started to skip. I narrowed down to eleven songs I never wanted to skip. I decided to listen to my intuition instead of manhandling the project like I used to do.

Did those songs you picked have a common lyrical theme?

No, I just didn’t wanna skip them (laughs). They were all just guitar and vocal (mixes). There were some songs that I loved, but I caught myself skipping past them to the next one. I just told myself, “Okay, I love that song, but the time is not now for that one.”

Tell the story behind writing the title track.

“Land of the Forgotten” is my love letter to my hometown in Eastern Kentucky. I feel like there are lots of misconceptions around Appalachia and particularly in Kentucky and the coal mines. Kentucky is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to with some of the greatest people in the entire world.

Yet we don’t hear much about Kentucky.

Yeah, I feel like the only time someone remembers that area is when a tragedy like a big flood strikes or a tornado hits there. I just wanted to write a love letter to my hometown saying I would never forget about it no matter how long I have been gone. My roots run deep.

Describe the musical influences you drew from that region. 

Oh, I grew up around the country music highway: US Route 23, a really short stretch of highway that runs through Eastern Kentucky. We got Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs, the Judds, Dwight Yoakam, Chris Stapleton, Tyler Childers, Patty Loveless, and the list goes on. I grew up with this lore like, “There’s something in the water here. If it can happen to them maybe it can happen to me.” People were always wondering who was gonna be the next Route 23 artist.

Co-writing is another common thread between you and those artists.

Yes, I co-wrote most of these songs with my husband Adam Chaffins, who is also an artist. I wrote other songs with people like Pat McLaughlan. Pat was one of the few people John Prine wrote with regularly. I love co-writing with my people. I’ll sometimes come in with a verse and a chorus and I’ll think about who would understand where I’m coming from in the song. Co-writing is really special when you find your people.

Explain how these songs represent your evolution as a songwriter.

These songs show an evolution as far as who I am as a person. We’re all continually shifting and changing – hopefully for the better – and this is who I am for the last couple years. The Land of the Forgotten is very much an observation of life. There are a very few songs on there that say, “I’m a this” or “I’m a that.” I have a lot of third-person stories on the record. I was just trying to understand what’s going on around me.

– Brian T. Atkinson