About Taylor Pie and Eben Wood

In 1986, I returned to Tennessee and bought a “20 acre-more or less” hill side farm about 60 miles southeast of Nashville. Allen and I continued our friendship and when he started a publishing company called Forerunner he and his partners signed me as a writer. That’s when I met Herb McCullough and Debbie Nims and we wrote “Oh, Mandolin,” a song that I’m convinced will someday be a bluegrass classic. Of course, part of my confidence is because Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike recorded it with such sweet perfection. They even got Tim O’Brien to play mandolin on it!

Most recently, independent artist, Terri Hendrix, recorded the title cut from my “Long Ride Home” CD on her “The Art of Hanging Wallpaper” Wilory Records release and Herb’s and my, “Walkin’ On The Moon” on her “Celebrate the Difference” children’s CD. I’m now performing with Eben Wood, an old Ray class of ’65 alumni buddy who started out playing in garage bands in the mid sixties in Corpus, at age of sixteen. His first band was with Rod Prince who later formed the Bubble Puppy, and he was lead guitarist for the Four Winds who ultimately became known as The Bad Seeds, a group my brother Mike helped start. He likes to remind me of the time in Corpus when I was headed off with the Pozos and he asked me to show him some guitar chords…and now he’s a guitar wizard!

Eben’s played in bands with Chris Geronoittis and Stan Moore of the Zakary Thaks, as well as Chris Layton of Double Trouble. He’s backed many musicians including Billy Joe Royal, Jerry Jeff Walker, The Pointer Sisters, Freddy Fender, Charlie Pride, and REO Speedwagon. He was Sam Neely’s lead guitarist during his A&M Record years, performing with him at the famous Troubadour in Los Angeles. During this time, Eben played and arranged on David and David’s “A Song for You” album.

Eben and I hooked up in Corpus while I was there representing the Pozos at a fund raiser for Del Mar College in 2005. We hit it off immediately at a house concert and spent the next week playing music together. When Eben reconnected me with Kathy Harrison, another Ray ’65 graduate, something clicked for us all and we began forming the framework for a record company. My buddy Steve Wallace was called in from Chattanooga, TN, to shoot some video and quickly joined the three of us in musical spirit. PuffBunny Records became a reality this year and the our first release is “So Little Has Changed” with a live album from a Pie/Eben performance at Hondo’s on Main in Fredricksburg, TX, in October of 2006, soon to follow.

Between you and me, this is probably the best time of my life! The music feels better than ever! I’m creating it with incredibly talented friends who share the same kind of dreams and are a heck of a lot of fun to boot! I thank my lucky stars for all of you who’ve always been my inspiration.

In music & light, Pie

More at: http://www.taylorpie.com