Taylor Glasheen has always played music, always written songs, always performed here and there. But when the pandemic hit, she decided to finally take the plunge into the music industry in a real way.
She went to Nashville to record her debut album “Tip Me A Dollar” with an all-star slate of players. It is a heartbreaking tribute to country music, with an outlaw note. And it has launched her into the Phoenix music scene and beyond.
She recently played a few of those songs for us at The Dirty Drummer in Phoenix and sat down with The Show to talk more about her music, her love of Phoenix and her very musical upbringing.
Full conversation
TAYLOR GLASHEEN: Both my parents were in the Air Force and we kind of moved around a lot when I was a kid. But then we settled here in 1995, and I grew up in Phoenix just roaming around the desert the whole time, you know, having a good old time.
LAUREN GILGER: What are the ways in which music sort of intersected with your family life? Was it holidays? Was it a Tuesday night? Was it all the time? What's it like?
GLASHEEN: It was all the time. It was all the time. Like if we were having dinner, there was music playing, if, you know, we're cleaning windows are open, like there's certain themes that we would, you know, we'd have a lot of Paul Simon during cleaning just to kind of bring up the mood a little bit. And definitely a lot of family gatherings, there was a lot of John Prine and, you know, Kris Kristofferson playing.
I have a family full of musicians and, you know, everyone would just pick up a guitar. We had a piano, and Uncle Tim would be on guitar, Holly would be playing the piano, my dad would be attempting to sing, sometimes well, sometimes not so well, depending on how late the night went. But yeah, we always just had music playing around, you know.
GILGER: Do you remember learning to play music or learning to write music, or was this something you just always did?
GLASHEEN: Yeah, so my dad kind of notoriously would just sit me on his lap and then put the guitar over us, and he'd play the chords and he'd give us the pick and we just kind of strum along and then we'd sing, you know, whatever song. I thought that he wrote “Tangled Up in Blue.” I thought that was his song, and it would like be playing on the radio and I'd be like, “Dad, your song is on the radio,” and he’s just kind of chuckle and just …
GILGER: He’d let that roll.
GLASHEEN: He would let it roll, yeah.
GILGER: So are those where a lot of your musical influences come from, from your childhood?
GLASHEEN: Yeah, definitely. My mom, she's from New York, so she gave me a lot of, you know, a lot of disco and, you know, raised with Prince and, you know, Chaka Khan, things like that, and my dad's from Wisconsin, and so he's like kind of the country boy, hardworking and yeah.
GILGER: So you've always been writing songs. It sounds like you've always been playing. So tell us about what happened recently. This became less of a hobby, more of a career.
GLASHEEN: Yeah, I would kind of pick up a couple of shows around town, you know, just never really took it seriously and then the pandemic hit and, I was like, all right, I have all this time on my hands. Let's go ahead and try and see what I can do with this. So, went out to Nashville, recorded an album, and here we are.
GILGER: So I mean there's, there's something that happened in between there, right? Like you, you can't just go to Nashville and record an album. I mean, like how did this happen? That's amazing.
GLASHEEN: Yeah, in a perfect world, yeah. No, so, my girlfriend, she's from Nashville, and she's actually in the music industry as well. She does a lot of, tour managing and, has a band of her own, and I was gonna record here and she was like, “you're gonna record, you're coming to Nashville, and I'm gonna have all of my, my friends hop on.” And so she really just got like a full all-star cast on the, on the album.
GILGER: So this is the first time you've ever been in a studio and you show up with, you know, some of the best studio musicians in Nashville.
GLASHEEN: No pressure, no pressure.
GILGER: What was this like? Yeah, talk about it.
GLASHEEN: It was cool, you know, everyone, everyone in Nashville, what's nice is everyone has such a love for music. So like anybody coming in, they really just my experience, they welcome you with open arms, you know, and they just really, really knocked it out of the ballpark with that one.
GILGER: Yeah, yeah, I mean, so were there moments in that process where you said, “what am I doing here?” Or was this intimidating to you in any way?
GLASHEEN: I mean, yeah, for sure, there's definitely moments where it's just like you hear a certain. Like Robbie would just, he'd hop on the drums and he just and I'm just like, all right, I'm playing GCD, you're going crazy, man. But yeah, it all just really melded together really nicely.
GILGER: Yeah, I want to go back to that moment. You said the pandemic sort of pushed you to say, “I'm gonna record an album,” you know, finally, it sounds like after a long time of writing and playing, what was that like? What happened? What were you feeling and thinking?
GLASHEEN: So I was lucky enough, like right at the beginning of the pandemic, to go through a breakup.
GILGER: Always good for songwriting.
GLASHEEN: Yeah, it really is. I tell you what, thanks for that one, but so I had a lot of time on my hands just like a lot of time to think like, all right, this is a big transitional point in my life, in my personal life, in the world, you know, what's, what would I want to be doing with my time and, don't wanna be staring at four walls or just kind of make of it what I will. And I decided to make of it what I will, and here we are.
GILGER: I mean that takes a certain kind of person, right, to not sort of give in to the despair of the moment and maybe of what's happening in your personal life, but to say …
GLASHEEN: Oh I did. I did give into the despair of the moment. Still working on turning around but just leaning a little bit more into the hobby.
GILGER: So let's have you play a song for us now. What's this one?
GLASHEEN: So this song is called “Marcella.” It's basically a song about, you know, falling in love and even if the love ends, it still does continue and I guess this is more so about the haunting side of that thing.
[SONG PLAYS]
GILGER: What do you love about performing, about being on stage and in places like this and, and all over?
GLASHEEN: Yeah, definitely with performing, it's connecting with everyone that's there, you know, it could be a room of 300 people, it could be a room of two. And I think if you play right and if you're singing about things that people can relate with, there's a lot of magic that can happen with a live set.
GILGER: Are there moments that stick out in your mind, like shows when you've said, “oh, this is why I love this.”
GLASHEEN: Yeah, I remember it was, so when we had first moved here, my dad took me to a place called Fiddler's Dream. It's a little coffee shop on like 51 and Northern. And they would do open mic nights, and that was one of the first places I ever saw live music in Phoenix. Then years down the line, before I released the album or even it was a twinkle in my eye, the album, they asked me to like do a set there. And it was very cool to have my dad sit in the audience of the first venue that he took me to and then for me to be playing there and then just to kind of see that come full circle there, you know.
GILGER: Let me ask you about playing in Phoenix, about being a musician here. It's sort of a new and a growing, I think, music scene. Do you want to stay here? Do you want to go off to Nashville where, you know, you recorded the album and, and, and where there is much more infrastructure for this?
GLASHEEN: Phoenix is my home. Yeah, I love Phoenix. I, I am very confident I will die here, you know, in, in a light, that's not to be dark, but, it's just you know, my roots are here and definitely I'll, I'll be traveling around, you know, always on the road, but this is definitely where I wanna lay my head for sure.
GILGER: All right, so let's have you take us out on a song then. Which one do you have for us?
GLASHEEN: The next one's gonna be “Tulips” and that's a little nod to Waylon Jennings and kind of when you miss someone late at night or early in the morning and just thinking about them.
