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There was always music. Even in the beat-up VW van his dad drove, guitar riffs would continually scratch out of cheap speakers. Taylor Hollingsworth and his father, Wesley, would trek in the van all over the South, listening to the likes of Tom Petty and Jerry Lee Lewis as they hunted hang-gliding hotspots. Hollingsworth remembers watching his father gracefully soar over valleys, as though it were the most natural act in the world.
"I think I got the bug for traveling from him," says Hollingsworth, who's prone to hitting the road on a moment's notice. After having played as a lead guitarist in multiple US and European tours, Hollingsworth feels more at home in a van than he does in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. That's not to say Birmingham hasn't had its pull on Hollingsworth. Listen closely and you can hear the gritty echoes of the South's greatest musicians in his guitar.
Hollingsworth comes from a creative family, so it was no surprise that his father suspected his son had a musical gift. One year, while visiting with his hang-gliding partner at a local music store, Wesley began eyeing electric guitars as a Christmas gift for his fourteen year-old son. Wesley never had a chance to make the purchase, though.
"He died before Christmas, but I ended up finding a guitar anyways," says Hollingsworth. "I knew from the moment I started playing that it just felt right."
It wasn't long before the guitar defined him. Each time he played a solo, his fingers obeyed his every move. He joined bands, he met girls, but mainly he turned himself loose in the music. You could hear the rage and the longing in his first recordings.
"The guitar really became an outlet for me," says Hollingsworth.
When Hollingsworth lost his mother to cancer a few years later, he watched as his ties to Alabama began to dissolve. His younger brother, also a musician, left for Nashville, so Hollingsworth only did what came natural. He hit the road and stayed there by either playing in other bands, or by taking his own band across the country.
Even though he's toured and recorded with the likes of Verbena, The Dexateens, Maria Taylor, and Conor Oberst, Hollingsworth has developed his own sensational style. His voice reflects a wealth of experience that's roughened by a life of the blues.
His new record, Bad Little Kitty, is a high-powered, rock-infused journey through the out-of-way warehouses and dives that populate his past. Paired with his aggressive, acrobatic guitar solos, Hollingsworth's music has become for many the sound of Southern rock's future. It's a destiny that Taylor Hollingsworth seems born for.
"I don't really feel like I had any choice in being a musician," he says. "It was that natural--I had to go down this road."
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