South Carolina songwriter Taylor McCall has released The Porch Sessions EP (23rd August – Black Powder Soul Records), featuring four tracks from his acclaimed 2024 album Mellow War. McCall says, “The Porch Sessions are an intimate batch of outdoor recordings done with myself and Sean McConnell. I wanted to break down the artificial veils of the studio and bring the listeners onto my porch.”
To coincide with the release, McCall has released a new video for Rolling Stoned Again which offers intimate footage from the porch production. Following a UK trip to play Cambridge Folk Festival, McCall is set to embark on his first headlining US tour throughout September.
Mellow War is McCall’s third album, an emotive and melodic set pitched somewhere between Lou Reed, Sam Cooke and Steve Earle. McCall says, “Mellow War pays homage to my late grandpa. The album cover is him in Vietnam. These songs are sort of letters to home that I imagined he might have sent. My grandpa was a life inspiration for me; it was bigger than just music. The songs are a tribute to everything he stood for and everything he taught me.”
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, McCall found his true sanctuary in the woods and on water. Much of his early life was caught between the outdoors and the Sunday service. Experience, story and song were paramount in his upbringing – he was raised in a family steeped in feral mystery. He discovered his grandfather’s guitar, an instrument he played with ritual secrecy until he was eighteen. After high school, he left South Carolina and headed west toward the Rockies. McCall lived close to the bone on Montana’s rivers, studying the Yellowstone, the Madison, and the Missouri more diligently than any coursework.
McCall says, “Like fishing, you can never be sure in songwriting that the lightning’s gonna come. But you have to keep standing in the river.”
Order The Porch Sessions: https://orcd.co/porchsessions
The Mellow War US Tour Dates
Sep 1 – Denver, CO; Moon Room
Sep 3 – Minneapolis, MN; 7th Street Entry
Sep 4 – Evanston, IL; SPACE
Sep 5 – Milwaukee, WI; Shank Hall
Sep 7 – Columbus, OH; The Basement
Sep 8 – Indianapolis, IN; The Hi-Fi
Sep 10 – Lexington, KY; The Burl
Sep 13 – Nashville, TN; The Basement
Sep 15 – Detroit, MI; Lager House
Sep 17 – Pittsburgh, PA; Club Cafe
Sep 18 – Philadelphia, PA; World Cafe Live
Sep 20 – Hamden, CT; Space Ballroom
Sep 21 – New York, NY; Mercury Lounge
Sep 22 – Winchester, VA; Bright Box Theater