Allan Taylor It's Been Good to See You (Live) DMM 2LP

"This album came as a pleasant surprise. When I decided to quit the long tours throughout Europe, I thought the album, 'The Road Well Travelled' would be the last in my catalogue of albums. However, Günter Pauler, of Stockfisch Records, had other ideas; he reminded me of the two concerts I played in Northeim in 2023, and the fact that he had recorded both nights, songs and stories. When I perform a concert, I always tell the stories behind the songs before I sing them, but never before have we recorded them – we just record the songs. This made it special, and something we knew our audience would like to hear.

"So, what you hear is a collection of songs with the stories, a compilation from two nights of concerts. There are a few mistakes; sometimes I miss a note on the guitar, or I change a line or two, but it's live, natural and real, and is a perfect example of shared emotion. What is without doubt is the perfection of the technical sound quality, which one always expects and gets with Stockfisch Records.

"If I have a message for you it's this: just sit back and enjoy the journey, and I'll see you somewhere 'on the road.'"

-Allan Taylor

"The 'On the Road' chapter of Allan Taylor's life seemed to be closed. However with this new live double album he offers his fans a firework of emotions and invites them to resonate on the same wavelength. It's a musical legacy that blurs the lines between concert and intimate storytelling. The masterful production by Günter Pauler and his team captures not only Taylor's timeless songs, but also the stories that bring those songs to life. The recording took place in May 2023, almost symbolically at the Bürgersaal in Northeim, which is right next door to Stockfisch Records, the artistic hometown with which Allan Taylor has been connected for over 30 years.

"'My life is really in the songs. That's my life on the road.' Taylor, who has never forgotten his roots as the son of a British worker family, leads us back to his beginnings with these words. Inspired by Jack Kerouac and other authors of the beat generation, Allan Taylor found poetry on the street. His striking voice and his subtle guitar playing takes us on a journey through six decades. With the help of a pinch of humour, he paints lively pictures, telling stories from Sweden in 1966 to Greenwich Village of the 70s to the 'Beat Hotel' in Paris.

"The album reveals unshakable idealism - it was the dream of independence that kept the artist on his path in hard times. His humanism respectfully celebrates people, who otherwise receive little attention.

"Despite being 80 years old, he's a young and optimistic troubadour on the stage, who sees existence as a balancing act on a high wire. Using symbols such as the 'red balloon,' he gives us courage to seize opportunities and points out that the journey is the destination. Allan Taylor's art is an invitation to understand life in its philosophical power - a dignified farewell and a bright horizon at the same time.

- Illya Kolba, February 2026