Taylor Hopes to Steal Your Heart

By Mandy Catoe

Lancaster native Pam Taylor will sing tonight at The Craft Stand. The award-winning, American roots rock singer/songwriter is performing free at 7:30 p.m. – her way of thanking her hometown.
Taylor, 39, will be singing from her third CD, “Steal Your Heart,” ahead of its release next month. She and her bands have performed locally before, but this will be her first time alone on stage.
Taylor took some time to talk about her life and her music earlier this week. She overcame drug addiction, a broken heart and health issues. In her first solo album, Taylor shares her journey and the secrets of her success.
“My life is magic,” she said. “Look at what I have done.
“I came from a small town, had a job selling and repo-ing cars, and a drug addiction,” Taylor said. “That did not define me, but I used it and built this.”
Taylor graduated from Lancaster High School in 1996, where she says she felt bored and restricted by the rigid rules. Her free spirit was yearning for more, always more. Although she was sometimes the target of teenage bullying, she harbors no bitterness.
“We were kids; we were all just kids,” she said. “That, and working in collections at Car Cents, made me tough and gave me the ability to read people.”
She released her first CD, “Hot Mess,” in 2012. Three years later, she released “Stolen Hearts,”  a duo effort with a man she gave her heart to. With her new album, her message is about stealing your own heart, becoming the source of your own happiness rather than relying on someone else.
Not only has she found her magic, Taylor now realizes she has the strength of a mountain.
Taylor expresses her evolution in "Mountain," the fifth track on Steal Your Heart.
“It’s what is below the surface that makes mountains,” she said. “Appreciate the struggle that made it.”
Taylor is about 5’4”, thin, blessed with great cheekbones, sky blue eyes, long blond hair and amazing energy. Usually barefoot, she looks like a happy hippie scented with patchouli and peppermint. Her brown suede purse has fringes and an embroidered peace symbol.
Her frequent dimpled smile declares a deep gratitude. She barely looks 30 years old, despite the pain she has come through - proof that it is not the load that kills you, but how you carry it.
"Living your dream and being happy keeps you young," Taylor said.
Her songs and tattoos tell the story of how she found a way to lug the load, learn the lessons and keep moving forward.
Taylor has been clean and sober for nearly 15 years. She is fluent in metaphysics and talks about energy fields, chakras, synchronicity, raising one’s vibration and healing. She practices Reiki and believes we are always being prepared for something to come.
Her song, “Already Alright,” is an upbeat tune about trusting the process of life and accepting that you are enough, right now.
Taylor says she’s grateful for it all – the pain and the joy. She has paid her dues to sing the blues.
“To thine own self be true” is tattooed on her right forearm.

Photo Supplied

“In the past, I didn’t stand up for myself. I was a doormat, but no more,” Taylor said as she ran her fingers over the ink. “See the little song bird at the end of the quote. That’s me. I am free to sing and free to fly.”

"Already Alright" is a beautiful song about living the life you were meant to live, knowing there is no need to wait for a day in the future when it will be alright, because it already is. 
Taylor has won many regional awards, including the Queen City Music Award for Best Female Rock Artist three years in a row (2013-15). In 2012, she won Best Female Rock Band and Best Blues Band in the Charlotte Music Awards. She brought home Best Female Rock Artist at the 2014 Carolina Music Awards. She has been named Best Local Songwriter by Creative Loafing and was the cover feature artist for a special Women in Blues edition of Blues-E-News Magazine in 2013.



A family tradition
Taylor credits her dad for teaching her about creating her own reality, nothing short of a dream coming true.
Music is a Taylor family tradition. Her grandfather, Melvin Taylor, played guitar in a band for years. Her father, Mike Taylor, 67, played saxophone in rock bands for years and was part of his daughter’s first band.
When her grandfather died last year, his acoustic guitar was handed down to her. It’s the one she strums at home while writing the songs in her heart.
“She has been singing since she was 3 years old,” her dad said. “She would stay in the sun room on the back of the house and play Elvis records all day, and dance and sing to the top of her voice.”
Taylor’s dad is very proud of her. He said she made it all herself – the bookings, licensing her songs, her logos, everything.
The man who played drums and saxophone with his little girl through the years says he is so amazed at her.
“She’s a force of nature,” he said. “I can’t play on stage with her anymore without being moved to tears.”
“She is magic,” he said.


World tour ahead
Taylor will be heading out early next month on her first world tour with stops in Scotland, England, Netherlands and Israel.
Taylor also expresses her art by making jewelry and she gives freely of her talent. She works with Girls Rock Charlotte and often plays benefit concerts. Visit www.pamtaylormusic.com for more information.
Taylor uses the stage and her music as a platform for the bigger message she wants people to hear. Her motto is “Be the light, give the love and share the music.”
“I want people to know how freaking awesome they are,” she said.

Father & Daughter after Hot Mess Release Party Double Door Inn (Supplied photo)

Follow reporter Mandy Catoe on Twitter @MandyCatoeTLN or contact her at (803) 283-1152