(HOLMDEL, NJ) -- Singer/songwriter Machan Taylor will soon be seen taking part in Gov’t Mule’s Dark Side of the Mule tour, reprising the role she played during the band’s original incarnation of the critically acclaimed Pink Floyd-themed concert. Taylor will appear on seven dates of the tour, along with her husband and Gov’t Mule keyboard player Danny Louis. One of the seven shows is at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel on Friday, July 13th.
Taylor’s participation is especially significant, not only because she performed on the live album of the same name -- a collection of songs by Pink Floyd which the band covered in their own distinctive jam band style -- but because she is also the only member of the touring ensemble that actually performed with Pink Floyd.
The tour, promoted by LiveNation, originated with a set of Floyd songs Gov’t Mule performed at Mountain Jam at Hunter Mountain. The show was such a success that it was subsequently recorded at a 2008 Halloween performance at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre, resulting in a live album featuring Taylor on backing vocals. That in turn led to the decision to take the show on tour.
Touring is nothing new for Taylor, an acclaimed singer, musician, composer and educator who also studies vocal science at the University of Utah. Over the past 20 years she has performed live singing back-up with Sting (including appearances at The GRAMMY® Awards and Royal Albert Hall), Foreigner and Pat Benetar, and, more significantly, with Pink Floyd on their 1987-88 “Delicate Sound of Thunder Tour,” the band’s first worldwide trek following the departure of founding member Roger Waters. In addition, she’s shared the stage with notables as Billy Joel, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Bobby Caldwell, and Natalie Merchant, in addition to singing as the front woman for the acclaimed jazz ensemble, Hiroshima.
The critics have chimed in as well. Leonard Feather, music critic for the Los Angeles Times and the Playboy Jazz Festival, described her as “Blessed with a powerful voice, astonishing range and physical beauty.” John S. Wilson, writing in the The New York Times, noted that “she has an even more striking voice that she warms up with some adept scat singing, and eventually explodes in a display of vocalizing that takes off in the Yma Sumac manner.”
In the past few years, Machan has been seen by millions of TV viewers thanks to appearances on Saturday Night Live, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show, and Arsenio Hall, among others. Machan, her 2004 eponymous debut reached #35 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Jazz Charts just one month after release. Her second recording of originals, 2007‘s Motion of Love featured performances with John Medeski, John Scofield, Randy Brecker and Danny Louis.
Her compositions in collaboration with keyboardist and producer Steve Gaboury have been featured on shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown, the Oscar winning film, American Beauty, starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening and the 2015 Golden Globe Award winning, Oscar nominated film Boyhood.
In addition, she has sung on the soundtracks for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Natural Born Killers and other films. She has also developed impressive credits as a vocalist or composer for the corporate campaigns utilized by Oil of Olay, Cottonelle, Toyota, Sears and Duracell, among other clients.
