Joshua Taylor

Genre-bending singer-songwriter and guitarist Joshua Taylor is the 2023 recipient of two San Diego Music Awards, for Best Pop Album (Unscene) and Best Rock or Indie/Alternative Song ("Cars Don't Run Forever"). The album is produced by award-winning producer, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Berkley (Jason Mraz, Bob Weir, Jewel, Steve Poltz). Wayne Riker of the San Diego Troubadour notes, “The arrangements are crisp and well thought out… [Unscene] will win your heart upon first listening and beyond.” Hailing from the Heartland, tattered and travel-worn from an ill-fitting decade in the Navy, Taylor stumbled his way into a meaningful midlife identity as a confessional storyteller. His singing and playing bear the marks of a guy who long studied his heroes with dweeby intensity, before reluctantly finding the courage to distill their influences and trust his own creative impulses to craft something identifiably personal. Taylor's sound is very evidently driven by an internal competition between polished precision and dogged earnestness. Taylor and his wife, powerfully agile and expressive vocalist Sandi King, work together frequently as a backing vocals section, and their tight arrangements have been featured on recordings and live performances by numerous award-winning San Diego artists, including Jeff Berkley, Jonny Tarr, Rebecca Jade, and Lauren Leigh. Their own R&B/soul band King Taylor Project received twin 2023 SDMA nominations for Best R&B, Funk or Soul Song and Song of the Year, for their energetic single "Devil in the White City." During his tenure with Arizona-based rock band Ponderosa Grove, Taylor opened multiple dates for the Grammy Award-winning Tedeschi Trucks Band, and shared festival stages with a diverse array of artists including Dawes, Katie Pruitt, Lucinda Williams, and Fantastic Negrito. A highly active and versatile performer, sideman, and session musician on the San Diego scene, Joshua is recognizable on guitar for his taste