Benjamin Taylor is a musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 and actor

Acting

Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....

. He is the son of folk rock

Folk rock

Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...

 artists James Taylor

James Taylor

James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....

 and Carly Simon

Carly Simon

Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...

. His sister, Sally Taylor, is also a musician. Ben Taylor bears a striking resemblance to his famous father and has a singing voice akin to him as well. Although he has made efforts to distance his career from that of his parents, there are inevitable comparisons because of this, and because his chosen genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

 of music is similar to that of Simon and Taylor. Taylor has also toured with his father.

Career

On his first released album Famous Among the Barns and his EP #1, Taylor collaborated with friends Adam MacDougall and Larry Ciancia to form "The Ben Taylor Band." Ultimately deciding that this path (which yielded music that Taylor describes as "neo-psychedelic folk funk") did not represent his true musical nature, Taylor released a follow-up solo album that is much more acoustic in nature and more in line with his family roots. That solo effort, Another Run Around the Sun, featured backing vocals by his sister and mother, with Taylor as vocalist and guitarist, Larry Ciancia as drummer, and bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 by Kevin Bacon

Kevin Bacon (producer)

Kevin Bacon is a British musician and record producer best known for his work with fellow brit Jonathan Quarmby under the moniker 'Bacon & Quarmby', as well as being bass player in his band The Comsat Angels....

 who also produced the album.

Acting

Taylor's most recent role was that of Cal Cooper on American Dreams

American Dreams

American Dreams is an American television comedy-drama program broadcast on the NBC television network, produced by Once A Frog and Dick Clark Productions in association with Universal Network Television and NBC Studios...

(2004). He has also appeared on the UK show Always and Everyone

Always and Everyone

Always and Everyone was a British television drama that ran from 1999 to 2002. It dramatised the hectic everyday lives of the doctors and nurses running the Accident and Emergency department of the large, busy city hospital, St. Victor's. The series has never been released commercially on VHS or...

(1999).

Taylor's cover of Macy Gray

Macy Gray

Macy Gray is a Grammy Award-winning American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress, famed for her distinctive raspy voice, and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday and Betty Davis.Gray has released five studio albums, with her fifth studio album, The Sellout,...

's "I Try

I Try

"I Try" is the second single from Macy Gray's debut album On How Life Is, released in North American in January 2000 . It was Gray's biggest hit to date...

" was used in a Honey Nut Cheerios

Honey Nut Cheerios

Honey Nut Cheerios is a variation of Cheerios breakfast cereal, introduced in 1979 by the General Mills cereal company. This is the second variation from Original Cheerios, it is sweeter than the original, with a honey and almond flavor...

 television commercial in Canada aired late 2008, early 2009.

Charitable work

Taylor appears on the CD Too Many Years contributing the original track "Listen to The Music" to benefit Clear Path International

Clear Path International

Clear Path International is a non-profit organization based in the United States. The organization assists civilian victims of war in post-conflict zones. This assistance takes the form of direct medical and social services to survivors and their families as well as equipment support to hospitals...

's work with land mine

Land mine

A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....

 survivors.

Personal life

Ben Taylor attended high school at Tabor Academy

Tabor Academy

Tabor Academy is a highly selective independent preparatory school located in Marion, Massachusetts, United States. Tabor is known for its marine science courses...

, a college preparatory boarding school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 in Marion, Massachusetts.

Taylor has been training in martial arts

Martial arts

Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....

 since he was a teenager. According to the December 2008 issue of Black Belt Magazine

Black Belt Magazine

Black Belt is an American magazine covering martial arts and combat sports founded in 1961 by Mitoshi Uyehara. During the early years of the publication, Uyehara was a hands-on owner and publisher...

, Taylor has trained extensively in qigong

Qigong

Qigong or chi kung is a practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and meditation...

, t'ai chi ch'uan, wing chun

Wing Chun

Wing Chun , also romanised as Ving Tsun or Wing Tsun, ; ; is a concept-based Chinese martial art and form of self-defense utilizing both striking and grappling while specializing in close-range combat.The alternative characters 永春 "eternal spring" are also...

 kung fu, and recently Brazilian jiu-jitsu

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art, combat sport, and a self defense system that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting...

 under Renzo Gracie

Renzo Gracie

Renzo Gracie is a Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Carlos Gracie Jr. and a former mixed martial arts competitor in the Ultimate Fighting Championship . He is member of the Gracie family of Brazil. He is the son of Robson Gracie, grandson of Carlos Gracie, nephew of Carlos...

. Taylor is the founder of his own hybrid style he refers to as Kung Folk.

Green Dragon, Name a Fox (Recorded circa 1997) (Unreleased)

1. ""
2. "Paradise"
3. "Revenge"
4. "Broken Tonight"
5. "It May Take Some Time"
6. "Lie Down My Love"
7. "Well Enough Alone"
8. "Surround Me"
9. "I'm Doing Something Bad"
10. "Losing My Resistance"
11. "I Can't Believe It"
12. "Tower For Fools (Just In Time To Fall Down)"
13. "Jamie Loves the Ocean"

Famous Among the Barns (2003)

1. "Island"
2. "Let It Grow"
3. "I Am the Sun"
4. "Day After Day"
5. "No More Running Away"
6. "Safe Enough To Wake Up"
7. "Time of the Season"
8. "Just Like Everyone Else"
9. "A Good Day To Be Alive"
10. "Mushroom Dance"
11. "Rain"
12. "Tonight"

EP #1 (2004, EP)

1. "Day After Day" (edit)
2. "Island" (acoustic with Carly Simon)
3. "I'll Be Fine" (super rough mix)
4. "Surround Me" (acoustic version)

Another Run Around the Sun (2005)

1. "Nothing I Can Do"
2. "You Must Have Fallen"
3. "Think a Man Would Know"
4. "Someday Soon"
5. "One Man Day"
6. "Always"
7. "Digest"
8. "I'll Be Fine"
9. "Surround Me"
10. "Love"
11. "More Beautiful"

Deeper Than Gravity (2006, EP)

1. "Nothing I Can Do"
2. "I Try"
3. "Digest"
4. "You Belong To Me"
5. "Lady Magic"
6. "Glory Box"

The Legend of Kung Folk [Part 1 (The Killing Bite)] 2008

1. "Wrong"
2. "She's Gone"
3. "Wicked Way"
4. "It's Only Love"
5. "Dangerous Girl"
6. "Something For Nothing"
7. "Wilderness"
8. "You're the One For Me"
9. "Space"
10. "After It's Over"

External links

Main sites

• Ben Taylor — official site
• Ben Taylor Band — official site
• Ben Taylor Online — unofficial site
• Ben Taylor on iLike
  ILike
  iLike is an online service that allows users to download and share music. The website makes use of a sidebar that is used with Apple's iTunes or Microsoft's Windows Media Player. The program and sidebar are not required in order to use the site but allow for ease in discovering new artists....
  
  

News

• Review of the new album March 2009
• BBC News Online: "Taylor steps out of family shadow" from October 2006
• The Son Also Rises: Ben Taylor's organic, romantic grooves have a kick, Charleston City paper