Laura Power
Northern News Services
Friday, August 3, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - It was three years ago that Jim Taylor first sat on his stool at the Black Knight and entertained patrons with his kitchen party songs and his East Coast antics.

He has since become a staple for pub goers on Saturday nights, and for his third anniversary as part of the furniture at the pub, Taylor decided to record live with musicians he has met along the way and the people who have been coming out to see him perform.

Taylor said last Saturday during the recording the pub was jammed. Many of these people will become a part of his CD, whether they sang with him or simply cheered along in the background.

Much of the CD is being recorded at Dancing Sky Studios with Rick Poltaruk, and the live tracks will be laid down with the others to give it a full, live sound complete with the audience's participation.

"The biggest thing that we got out of that was the regular kitchen party ambiance," said Taylor, who has been working on studio recordings for the album for some time now.

The whole night was recorded on Saturday, including a few unplanned moments, one of which happened as he was singing the popular song Heave Away.

"Claire, one of the waitresses, jumped up and sang it with me and she's got a beautiful voice," he recalled.

One particular surprise that happened during the night was when he was singing a song for Maggie McDonald as he has done many times before. Her boyfriend, Percy Kinney, came up to the stage with her.

"Percy came up, got down on one knee and proposed to her," said Taylor, who said the whole thing is recorded though he is unsure whether it will be used on the CD.

He is also unsure as to how long the CD will be in the end, he said.

"That's hard to tell, because there's a lot of hooting and hollering and talking to the audience and sociables and all that stuff," he said.

Much of the cheering will be used during the introductions to songs on the album. The audience, he said, was "spectacular," and it was his way of saying thank you to the people who have come out to see him play over the years.

"The neat thing about Yellowknife is that there's new people coming in all the time," he said. "If they're from the East Coast they know what that's all about."

A few others played with him during the live recording and many more will be added to the mix in the coming weeks as the CD is prepared, totalling 12 musicians. At one point in the night, Taylor introduced all the musicians who will play on the album, even if they weren't there, to get the recording of the audience cheering for them.

Taylor expects that the CD will be ready in early September.