Chicago-born bluesman Otis Taylor never skirted tough subject matter in a career that took him from the Folklore Center in Denver to a brief stay in London, England, to retirement from music in 1977 to operate as a successful antiques broker and since 1995 back again to the blues. Albums like Blue-Eyed Monster (1997) and When Negroes Walked the Earth (2000) cast an uneasy spell on the blues world. At other times, Taylor's music was so uncompromisingly contemporary in its outlook on social injustices that he seemed more akin to South African poet and activist Stephen Biko. ~ Robert Hicks