Gileah Taylor “Still Here”
Americana Highways brings you this premiere of Gileah Taylor’s song “Still Here” from her forthcoming album Slow Parade, which is due to be released on April 12. The album was produced by Gideon Klein and Gabe Klein; engineered by Chris Taylor and Gabe Klein; mixed by Gabe Klein; and mastered by Eric Conn at Independent Mastering.
“Still Here” is Gileah Taylor on vocals; Gabe Klein on drums, percussion, and Wurlitzer; Gideon Klein on bass, baritone guitar, steel guitar, acoustic guitar, and 12-string guitar; and Chris Taylor on background vocals. Gileah has a slow, Hope Sandoval-like vocal quality that carries you along at a languid pace, and will remind you a bit of Mazzy Star and boygenius. In this song there are country church vibes and a lament processing sorrow and you can feel with stunning clarity the moonlight and the palpable emotion.
I don’t see you
I don’t see you anymore
When you were here
Were you here for sure
When I saw you last
It was providence
Let me leave you behind
I remember when I wrote “Still Here,” it was around the time of a super moon. I, of course, included that moon in my song. I imagined the moon outside of my house, shining into it, and I imagined myself in the doorway. When I looked behind me, I saw my shadow, and that shadow let me know that I was still here.
“Still Here” is a little bit old hymn and a little bit alt country. There are several guitars on this song, including baritone, steel, twelve-string and acoustic. There’s also a rich drum section and an old Wurlitzer to round out the church sound.
When I look at “Still Here” on paper, I recognize that it reads like an old hymn. And that’s okay with me because I grew up in church. It came from a very specific and sad season in my life. I wanted to be myself again. I’m talking to myself throughout the entirety of the song. Or, rather, I’m talking to an old version of myself. I honestly didn’t know what to do, so I started asking some hard questions. You gonna sit there? You gonna slumber through your days? When you ran through all those years you slayed?
Picking out my favorite lyrics in this one is easy. “There’s a quiet / And it’s calling you say / And I get it / Life’s a slow parade / Of a flashback from judgment day.” This lyric comes from the time I edited my preacher dad’s handwritten manuscript of his sermon series. He wrote an interpretive paraphrase of the book of Ecclesiastes. In the book, my dad says that as soon as you recognize that something that was previously a pleasure becomes a burden, aging is upon you. It’s a heavy thought. My dad (and the preacher before him) go even further: You might have an increased awareness but a gnawing inattention to life’s pleasures. And why? It’s just as plain as the funeral procession passing under your window. All of the signs are calling you…not to join the procession as one of the marchers, but to join as the guest of honor, at the head of the procession. – Gileah Taylor
Find more details and information on her website here: https://gileah.com/
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6I49rH-dT_o%3Fsi%3DCnh5DSYtAYI2Sd_b
