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April Taylor takes her musical heritage seriously but when your great grandfather wrote songs with the world famous Carter Family, it just comes naturally. The Tennessee native grew up surrounded by music. “All my life I have heard the stories about my great grandfather on my mother's side writing music with the Carter Family. They have always had a family bluegrass band that plays festivals, local events and every family gathering. My grandfather on my father's side of the family can play any instrument he picks up. One of my greatest childhood memories is sitting beside him as he taught me to play the guitar.” As a kid, April would spend hours listening to her father’s albums and singing along though she never took her own musical talents seriously. She was happy singing in her church and with her family, with the hopes of passing her rich musical heritage on to her own children.
However, a local radio station contest changed all of this. April recalls the day. “I was driving home from work and I heard the radio station announce the contest. The DJ said that anyone could send a tape of them singing any one of the songs of Contemporary Christian Artist Jaci Velasquez to the station to enter. I had always sung Jaci's songs in church and decided to send in a recording of me singing, "On My Knees".” April’s entry, along with two others, was selected from the thousands of tapes and CDs that the station received. The three contestants were invited to appear in a singing competition prior to the start of the upcoming concert appearance by Velasquez. “I stepped onto that stage in front of 3000 people, sang my song and the judges loved it". She won the contest and impressed everyone there, including Jaci who asked her to sing the song as a duet with her later in the show. Her memory of that night is still so vivid, “I didn't know what to say! It was so awesome to be able to sing with this well known artist, knowing I had been singing her songs in church for several years.”
A short time later, another of April’s recordings found its way to producer and president of Plateau Music Tony Mantor. Mantor was impressed with what he heard and contacted April at her home in Bristol. “I still go over to my grandfather’s house every Sunday so that we can play guitar together, which lead me to thoughts of my family and the way they made music. I knew that if I started down this road, I had to do it in a way that made them proud.”
Mantor and April agreed to work together and a short time later, began to search for songs for her first studio session. They listened to hundreds of songs submitted by some of Nashville’s hottest writers and publishing companies. Then one day Tony played April a song he had found at one of the city’s smaller publishing houses. That song was “Hero At Home” by writers Paul Harbin, Sandi and Charles Kight. “My mother’s father was deployed to Korea and left my grandmother at home with 4 small children. She has told me so many stories of the struggles she went through while he was away. I also have a really good friend whose husband is in Iraq now. He has been gone for over a year.
When I first heard the song, I immediately thought of their lives.” Producer Mantor describes the song as, “A message that we all need to hear and remember; for the wives that are left behind are truly the unsung heroes. When April told me about her background, I knew it would be a very natural fit for her.
Over the next year, Taylor and Mantor worked in the studio to record “Hero At Home” as well as eleven more songs which they then titled the album I Wanna Live Like That. But it was the message carried in the words of “Hero At Home” and the emotion brought to life by April’s voice that cried out to be heard. So in the fall of 2005, April Taylor asked us all to remember, whether our own or someone else’s, the “Hero At Home”. The wildly successful single lunched a nationwide tour that began in January of 2006 and continued through the summer months and the release of the second single, “All My Love”.
The third single, “Just Another Hurt”, shipped to radio in October 2006 and immediately began filling the airwaves and climbing the charts, pushing toward the January 07 in store release of I Wanna Live Like That CD.
In the Spring on 07 April released 'What It Takes" the song hit the charts the first week of the release and climbed to 47 on the Music row top 75. Christmas 07 her first Christmas Single was released for the Christmas Season and then her 5th single I Wanna Live Like That, the title track of her album was released December 24th and has already started filling airways for 2008!
April has enjoyed the whirlwind of performances, interviews and traveling that her life has become. She has had 5 nationional radio releases, 4 have all charted in the top 50 on Music Row! When asked how it felt she simple replies, “I named my album I Wanna Live Like That, because it was my dream. Now the dream is a reality and I have so many fans, people at radio and at my label to thank. It is going to be a great 2008!
How are you? I am good..miss ya!! Hope your having a great week! I was watching some of your performances on your page..you look and sound great..hope to see ya sometime soon!!
OMG i can't believe my computer is actually letting me get to your comments window! tried to call you tonight a few times. yell at me tomorrow. practice was amazing and the mag cover is GORGEOUS!i love you!!!
Our Pleasure, April ! ! Hope you and all your many fans, friends and family check out our Top Friend ... JON WOLFE ! ! AMAZING TALENT, TERRIFIC SONGWRITER and GREAT GUY ! ! George and Lynne
time to schedule another tour! paul got me a Nikon P50 for my birthday! and it shoots wide enough to get both of us from the dashboard. that way you don't have to keep hogging the shot...you little diva, you.
The album is GREAT!! Now I can really listen to it instead of just when I'm sitting at the computer listening to tracks! "Being Tough" is fantastic! Sounds like someone I know all too well! Keep on singing!
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