By Jordan Bartel, Times Staff Writer
On a table in Richard Taylor's Eldersburg home was a stack of CDs and a stack of unopened envelopes and packages.
Taylor will spend the next few days sifting through the pile, listening to every submission, perhaps the first few seconds of each song on each album.
Everyone who mails him has one goal: to be featured on Taylor's podcast Roots Rock Radio, a downloadable online radio program he developed a little more than a year ago.
"I want to show you something," Taylor said pointing to an image he pulled up on his Apple PowerBook G4.
Taylor tracks who listens to his podcast. On his laptop, tiny dots cover the United States and Canada and much of Europe. There are even listeners in Australia and, shockingly, the Canary Islands.
Roots Rock, which started with 100 listeners and now averages 7,500 a week, was even recently reviewed in Rolling Stone magazine. Taylor also finds time to play and record occasionally with his band Richard Taylor and the Ravers.
Taylor talks about how he started his radio show, the kind of music he wants to showcase and why he isn't a big fan of FM radio.
Q: How did the show get started?
A: It coincides with the history of podcasting, which started about six months prior to when I started. I had been reading about podcasting and I thought that maybe there's a roots rock podcast out there somewhere that I can listen to. I've been called a roots rock fanatic.
Q: How would you describe roots rock?
A: It's like a basic rock that has influences from the roots, which would be blues and country and also pop. It's like an amalgam of those.
But its like the garagey kind of rock, not like the super-produced, you know multi-mega million selling...
Q: Kind of raw?
A: Yes. A lot of it's raw. Some of it's better produced than others, but it has that raw energy to it. And it can be on the bluesier side. It can be on the country rockabilly. It can be a little punk, a little garage.
Q: What did you want to showcase?
A: It all started because I wanted to hear this kind of music. I wanted to find a source of it.
I was looking to find that music. At the beginning I only had a few local bands permission to play CDs. I don't play without a band's permission. Initially I had shows a half an hour ... and it eventually grew to an hour.
Q: What kind of stuff were you getting at first?
A: One of the first CDs I got was from Italy, a group called the Cheap Wine. And they were a little more on the hard edge, put they had one or two songs that really fit the format.
Then I got a group from Spain called Sugar Mountain. They sounded like a Spanish version of the [Rolling] Stones but they sing in English.
Q: How did the show start catching on?
A: Initially I had maybe the first month 100 listeners. My friends mostly. I told them that, hey, I got this show, it's going to feature independent roots rock that you've probably never heard of before. It's not the majors, not that I don't like that. I'm a big Stones fanatic. Love the Stones. And a large part of what they did in the '60s is the criteria for roots rock.
They did the amalgam of blues and rock and a little bit of country and they were very garagey in the '60s.
So, eventually it started growing a little bit. 150, 200. When I got to 500 I thought, wow this is fantastic. Then iTunes picked it up. I maybe at that point had about a few thousand listeners. They had it as high as 11 in their podcast directory.
Q: How did they pick the show up?
A: You can submit the music directly to their podcast directory, however it doesn't appear in a [featured iTunes podcast] listing unless someone from Apple is listening. So, who knows?
It got to a few thousand a week and then when iTunes picked it up it jumped out of the ballpark. Now, the only jump since then has been the Rolling Stone article. That particular show that they reviewed, has gone over 10,500 downloads. That particular show. The other shows average about 7,500 to 8,000 downloads.
Q: What was your reaction to the Rolling Stone review?
A: There was this guy from the magazine that called me for fact checking ... and he said he was from Rolling Stone online. So I said, that's cool, I'll look for it on the Web site somewhere.
Then a friend of mine e-mailed on a Saturday morning and said, "How does it feel to be in Rolling Stone," and I thought he meant the same online thing.
But he goes, "No, you're in the magazine." I went down and got a copy at the High's. And it was great. I was the only unknown entity on that page. I was ecstatic
Q: Were you worried that the show wouldn't catch on because it's always unknown artists?
A: First of all, I wasn't worried about anything. I liked the music and I started getting CDs from bands. I think that I've solidified the core of bands that are making this kind of music and also building an audience for it.
Q: Were you expecting the show to go international?
A: Since the Internet is, yeah. South Africa I was a little surprised. I got Afghanistan listening ... but I presume it's Americans there listening.
Q: How long does it take to produce one show?
A: Eight hours. Eight hours per week, mostly on Saturdays. Finished up, I'll listen to it a couple of times, just to make sure it's okay. Usually 14-15 bands in a show.
Q: Wow. That's a lot to put in.
A: Yeah. That's why it takes eight hours. (laughs) You know, I have to sort through all the CD submissions. I have to listen, pull songs that I want. Typically I can tell within the first 10 seconds whether I do or don't like it.
Q: What grabs your attention?
A: Crunchy guitars. Not fuzzy, but just good-sounding guitars. A good vocal. A snappy snare drum. And also if the song has a catchy hook and that should be up front, not buried in a song.
Q: What's your opinion of radio today? Don't like it?
A: You mean popular radio? Yeah.
Q: Why?
A: I guess what's popular today is rap and stuff. Is that what you're talking about?
Q: Well, just anything you would normally listen to in your car or at home.
A: Before this started I probably listened to WTMD in Towson, which is a college-based, semi-indie thing. But to me, it seems like even those stations are having consultants telling them what to play. So, what's the difference between them now and top-40 radio? It's all becoming the same thing.
Q: Where's the best scene in the United States for independent music?
A: Probably Austin, Texas. It seems to be a hotbed. They have a great combination of the blues, roots rock. A lot of the bands I get are from Austin. But also New York and down South and even in Canada.
Q: You have a full-time job also, right?
A: Yes. I'm a pro video engineer [based in Baltimore]. Basically what I do is set up and troubleshoot video editing suites, you know the computers, for TV stations, advertising agencies that do promos.
Q: So as long as you keep on getting CDs, you'll keep on doing this?
A: I don't think I can stop.
