Big Kat Kaylor

Michael "Big Kat" Kaylor is a singer/songwriter/piano player who hails from Nashville, Tennessee. This would normally tie him into that city's musical scene, which automatically brands any new artist as the next hat hunk wannabe. But Kaylor's music is as far removed from cookie-cutter country or other genre paint-by-numbers approaches. Kaylor works in a definite modern rhythm & blues groove, taking time-honored soul and R&B modes and infusing them with lyrics that can be sometimes introspective and often slyly humorous. His voice carries with it a world-weary conviction, giving his lyrics great weight and space within the song's context. The Kingsport, Tennessee native took to music as a youngster, learning to sing and play keyboards at an early age. Although country was the steady genre diet in his parents' household, Mike's tastes ran to blues, soul, and Elvis, with James Brown also mixed in as a formative influence. He moved to Nashville in 1985 not to pursue a musical career, but merely to take on a job as a real estate appraiser. Aside from forming a weekend band with bassist Robert Stapleton (Mike "Big Kat" Kaylor and the Blue Lines) and pitching some gospel tunes he had written around Music City, Kaylor's musical profile was decidedly low. It really wasn't until he met up with the staff at SOR Records and offered them a tape of his music that things started rolling towards his debut album, released in 1997. Kaylor's music draws from a number of styles and, as such, makes for a wonderful melting pot of American music to savor. As he puts it, "There's lots of R&B players in Nashville. It's a music town. I think the industry is open to what I'm doing, and I think it's the right time for me to be doing this."