MARK TAYLOR

                                                                "Dust Off That Dirt"

                                                                 Independent Release

Though it’s been since “I’m Down” in August of 2021 that we last got a proper single from Mark Taylor, that doesn’t mean that he’s been quiet over the past year and a half. Quite the opposite actually!

The young talent made the move to Music City, immersed himself in the songwriting scene, and has been creating a buzz with writer round appearances and high profile co-writes, honing his craft as he’s readied his latest material which has now culminated with “Dust Off That Dirt.”

The swampy lick felt through the instrumentation the moment you hit play instantly hits you with a different, more gritter feel than Taylor’s previous pop country flavored singles have offered, acting as an immediate showcase of his growth spurt as a songwriter and an acknowledgment of shift in direction as an artist.

“If you’ve been stuck anywhere but mud

Been way too long since you seen the sun

Set over them Southern pines

Into a backwoods bonfire night”

Taylor sings to open the song as he begins to tickle your outskirts senses while you boringly sit in the middle of the mundane hustle and bustle of the stagnant rat race that you’re currently caught up in.

Continuing to entice you while daring you to rediscover who you are and where you come from, he pokes at you with mentions of getting lost out on a country road as he then offers the antidote needed to get you back on track when he pushes your final button by declaring, “you know where you gotta be,” just before punching the chorus:

“It’s time to dust of that dirt

High tail it to the outskirts

Trade 4 walls for 4 wheels

A front porch for a back field

Cause there’s nothing quite like

A little starlight moonshine good time

Raise a little hell on a slice of heaven on earth

Knock the dust of that dirt”

Though songs with these types of themes are plenty in country music, Taylor skillfully uses “Dust Off That Dirt” in such a way that it doesn’t just glorify those bonfire nights with a looking back on them perspective, but it really challenges the listener to take a day off work and go and get reconnected with themselves through a slow-down reminder of who they really are.

However, most importantly for Mark, this song is the catalyst that throws his latest chapter wide open with a fresh new sound for him that will leave the listener anticipating what comes next, reigniting the buzz that he’s captured in the past as he steps into his next.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)