Spotlight on Molly Taylor – Spending an afternoon with the young singer-songwriter

On a frigid Thursday, Molly Taylor is all smiles at her Mid City house. The self-proclaimed night owl sits on her couch in a loose flannel shirt and dark blue jeans. To her right is an electric guitar she named “Vivian.” It’s plugged into a few pedals and a dusty Fender amp.

“I’ll play you a few songs here in a minute,” she says.

Taylor, a 23-year-old Covington native, taught herself guitar and piano and started writing her own material when she was 15. By the time she moved to Baton Rouge at 18, she was already playing shows.

With an eponymous EP released last year, Taylor established herself as Baton Rouge’s acoustic starlet. On songs like “Get Out” and “Cowboy,” she waxes nostalgic and spits venom at ex-boyfriends.

Up next for Taylor is a full-length album, titled Butterfly Woman. The 13-song affair is set for a summer release and was recorded at Cedar Park Recording Studio off Siegen Lane. The album features more electric guitars, and the content is darker. She says it makes her early works sound much happier.

“That first one had music that was very contemporary, folk-ish,” she says. “I thought it was happy and ‘Let’s go jump over rainbows.’ The new one is more rock ‘n’ roll. I like that it’s different. I want each album to be different.”

As the conversation winds down, she picks up “Vivian.” She thumbs through her notepad, looking for the right song to play.
“This is the newest one I wrote,” she says. “It’s called ‘Heartbreaker.'”

Her voice sounds like it has suffered through just the right amount of late nights filled with cigarettes and whiskey. Her guitar is full of reverb to the point where the notes feel like they’re sinking in a river.

“Breakin’ hearts ain’t as easy as it seems,” she sings. “Gonna be smart and place them back on their feet.”

Like many of her songs, “Heartbreaker” could be a breakup anthem. One can tell she’s singing about someone, to someone, at someone.

Like a good breakup anthem, you are left wanting to know who that someone is and would also hate to be in that person’s place.

Hear a few of Molly Taylor’s songs at her Reverb Nation page.

Molly Taylor will perform Saturday at 9 p.m. at Red Star, 222 Laurel St. Luis Mariani of The Hitchhiker opens. Cover is $5.