James Talley
| James Talley | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 9, 1944 Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States |
| Genres | Country blues, electric blues |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Website | www |
James Talley (born November 9, 1944) is an American country blues and electric blues singer-songwriter.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, (WKDA Nashville Interview, Late 1970s) Talley is an artist whose vision of the American experience, as author David McGee has said is "startlingly original." As a youth, Talley's family moved from their home in Mehan, Oklahoma, near Stillwater, to Washington state, where his father worked as a chemical operator in the Hanford plutonium factory. After five years in Richland, Washington, and realizing the hazards his father’s employment presented, the family relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Talley graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in fine arts.
After college, encouraged by Pete Seeger while on a trip to New Mexico, Talley began to write songs that drew upon the culture of the Southwest. These early songs eventually became The Road to Torreón, a saga of life and death in the Chicano villages of northern New Mexico. Released in a boxed edition by Bear Family Records in 1992, it was a collaboration of photography and music, with a photographic essay contributed by Talley's lifelong friend, photographer Cavalliere Ketchum.
In 1968, Talley moved from New Mexico to Nashville, Tennessee to try to get his songs released. Over the years Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck, Gene Clark, Alan Jackson, Hazel Dickens, and most recently Moby, have recorded his songs. Joining country music and the blues, B. B. King, played his first Nashville session with Talley in 1976, as his lead guitar player.
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