{"id":1501,"date":"2010-09-12T20:18:54","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T03:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=1501"},"modified":"2010-09-12T20:18:54","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T03:18:54","slug":"kurth-taylor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2010\/09\/kurth-taylor\/","title":{"rendered":"Kurth & Taylor"},"content":{"rendered":"

KURTH & TAYLOR<\/strong><\/h1>\n

TV made them famous, but real life separated <\/strong>them\u2014until now<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Wally Kurth and Christian\u00a0Taylor are the first to acknowledge that the decision to reunite their band, Kurth & Taylor, was spurred by a touch of midlife crisis. The group formed in 1992 and was known best for its performances on the ABC soap opera General Hospital<\/em>, on which Kurth was a cast member. But the two found themselves settling in different areas (Kurth in Los Angeles, Taylor in Nashville), and finally went on hiatus in 2005 to focus on their families. \u201cLife sort of intervened,\u201d Taylor says.<\/p>\n

It was Taylor\u2019s wife who suggested he retrieve his guitars from storage to share his songs with their children. He took her advice, which eventually led him to return to songwriting. His new songs found self-effacing humor in receding hairlines and broadening waistlines, an area of inspiration that he calls \u201cmidlife crisis comedy.\u201d Taylor called his old bandmates\u2014including bassist Lee Beverly, drummer Jim Bloodgood and lead guitarist Pat McCormack\u2014and played them the tunes. After getting an enthusiastic response, Taylor flew to L.A. to demo the new material with Kurth. They then forwarded it to the other musicians, who added their tracks and made individual MP3s for Taylor to mix together. Taylor\u00a0notes with amusement that, thanks to the band members\u2019 home studios, the cost of his $300 plane ticket was the only recording expense.<\/p>\n

These guys are no strangers to the DIY aesthetic. Kurth & Taylor started out in 1992 as an acoustic duo playing California\u2019s coffee house circuit before recruiting some of Taylor\u2019s musical pals from high school to create a full-fledged band. Their big break came when Kurth\u2019s storyline on General Hospital<\/em> called for his character, Ned Ashton, to begin moonlighting as a rock star. He suggested that the producers bring in his real-life group to help portray Eddie Maine & the Idle Rich, his alter ego\u2019s back-up band. The story arc spanned seven years and 40 performances, garnering them a Daytime Emmy Award for their song \u201cBarefoot Ballet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lessons learned about the advantages of marketing for a mass medium weren\u2019t lost on Kurth & Taylor. In the video for the aptly named \u201cLet\u2019s Get the Band Back Together,\u201d a new track on their recently released compilation album, Greatest Hits? 1993\u20132010<\/em>, they sing about reliving their youth by acquiring high-tech toys. The group illustrated the idea by dropping in visual references to Taylor\u2019s favored pro audio brand, Sweetwater Sound (sweetwater.com). It was a calculated move that paid off\u2014after Taylor sent a Sweetwater sales rep a link to the clip, the group was invited to spearhead a national marketing campaign appealing to middle-aged enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

Still, the two partners maintain that the true reward of their reunion is the chance to hang out and relive some good times. \u201cWe were overwhelmed by domesticity, and this was a way to get back with the guys,\u201d says Kurth, who now stars on NBC\u2019s Days of our Lives<\/em>. \u201cInstead of getting together for bowling night, it\u2019s great to be able to have some fun, to crank it up and sing with your old buddies.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the moment, having fun remains the only true goal. \u201cWe\u2019ve never taken ourselves too seriously, and we certainly don\u2019t have serious expectations at this age,\u201d says Taylor. \u201cBesides, who would take us seriously at this age?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/strong><\/p>\n

July\/August 2010 Issue of <\/span>M Music & Musicians<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KURTH & TAYLOR TV made them famous, but real life separated them\u2014until now Wally Kurth and Christian\u00a0Taylor are the first to acknowledge that the decision to reunite their band, Kurth & Taylor, was spurred by a touch of midlife crisis. The group formed in 1992 and was known best for its performances on the ABC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1049,1057,1047,1054,1051,623,1046,1050,1053,1052,1055,1056,112,1048],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1503,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions\/1503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}