The congregation has filled the sanctuary to hear chamber music in a church nearly a century and a half old. The conductor-arranger also serves as his own ensemble's violist. The musicians wrap their carefully prepared musical enhancements and jazz-tinged textures around the voice of a visiting soloist. The gentleman tenor captures the emotion and beauty of this transcendent, perfectly crafted musical moment, as he sings the libretto of his own timeless composition:

"Wild thing,
you make my heart sing,
You make everything,
Groooovy."

Roll over, Beethoven, and tell Miles Davis the news that popular music has now come full circle, back to the intricate arrangements of both of your musical eras.

Tonight, the classically trained musicians of Will Taylor's Strings Attached are incorporating classical arrangements and jazz improvisation into the music of Chip Taylor, the man who wrote the greatest psychedelic song in rock history, "Wild Thing."

Three decades after Willie Nelson's musical diplomacy brought the country rednecks and the rock 'n' roll hippies together in the same town, another performer named Will is achieving a similar musical feat. Each month, Will Taylor's Strings Attached performance series brings a singing songwriter into a church setting for a unique and moving concert experience.

Austin audiences have grown up, and so has the music. This time around, the crowd consists of the lovers of Nelson's musical peers (like Chip Taylor, no relation to Will) and the more serious classical music fans. Certainly, at least some of these people were part of that harmonic convergence that Willie had engineered at the late, great Armadillo World Headquarters. This time, they meet in the pews of St. David's Episcopal Church in downtown Austin, having graduated from the beer-stained floor of that legendary concert hall of a bygone era.

Will Taylor is comfortable in both settings, which just might explain how he came up with such an original musical idea, even by Austin musical standards.

The theory is that the marriage of acoustic Americana music with the sophisticated arrangements of the classical music genre will work. And it does. It only made sense to Will Taylor, since he and his fellow members of Strings Attached were already equal parts jazz and classical. Now in its third season, Taylor's music series is hosting Kelly Willis, Slaid Cleaves and, in upcoming concerts, many other respected gypsy song men and women of the road. Guest artists come in the week of the show, and, as Taylor says, "(I) bring in my own jazz players and training, and we make our own signature sound that can be attached-no pun intended."

Performance night

Backstage, just minutes before the January 16 show featuring Chip Taylor and his musical partner Carrie Rodriguez, Will Taylor is going over his arrangements while also managing every other aspect of the whole affair. "I got up at eight o'clock and I've only had a ten-minute break. That's what my whole week preceding the show has been like," he says, with slight exasperation. "I have a life, too. I have kids, I play in the opera (orchestra) now; we had a concert last night. I dream of the day when I can do just this one thing."

When this night is over, he will begin work on a Ballet Austin project, providing musical accompaniment for Shawn Colvin and the ballet scheduled for Valentine's weekend. Will has already seen advertising for that event-and he has yet to write its arrangements. But those worries start tomorrow.

Backstage before the show, Chip Taylor is relaxed and ready for his performance. "I've played in church before, but this is real special, playing with Will and the guys with some extra strings thrown in, with his sensitivity." Chip's partner Carrie grew up in Austin and was a violin student of Will's, which was the connection that brought her back home for this show.

Tonight, Carrie is performing with her former teacher's accompaniment, singing a pure country song with an appropriate sentiment for the traveling musician. "I keep lookin' for it, I hope I never find it. / If I get close to it, just put me on a train. / And get me back to Austin, oh damn, I miss that town / I got them sweet tequila blues comin' down."

As Will's student, Carrie learned jazz improvisation for the violin, but now she makes her living as a country fiddler. Is there a difference? It's impossible to tell, especially when the two players kick into pure Bob Wills Western Swing on "Say Little Darling."

Later in the show, Carrie's fiddle and Will's viola come together again for a warm and delicate instrumental introduction, after which Chip and Carrie sing in beautiful harmony as their voices carry to the church's ceiling and back. "Him who saved me, save me again / Him who made me, won't you be my friend." The song is a hymn of another sort, and the moment is the kind that is likely felt on many a Sunday morning in the sanctuary.

Hymns, Western Swing fiddle tunes, classical pieces, country songs, rock 'n' roll-do these labels matter at all? It's all jazz to Will Taylor. "We're trained in the jazz tradition, which is (to) play ahead and improvise…We're bringing that into the singer-songwriter (format)."

At show time, it's just about the art, the artist, the audience, and the attached strings that Will's group brings. "I'm into the art of it," he says. "I think it's okay to say that I draw from these elements, but with labels, when you start doing that, you start to limit the scope of what you really hear when you're there at the show. But with our show, you can say our music (is) gospel, funk, rock, jazz, avant-garde jazz, swing jazz, Cajun. What is folk? That is so general. I just try to zero in on the particular artist."

A Taylor-made musician

That Will Taylor conceived the series representing such a musical melting pot of ideas is not at all surprising, when one considers his background. The thirty-five year old grew up right here in Austin, the son of a creative writing professor father. His parents owned a bookstore called Paperbacks Plus, which had a punk club downstairs called Voltaire's Basement.

The young Taylor took in live music with his dad, seeing artists like Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Butch Hancock. The elder Taylor, Charles, now an English professor at Texas A&M University, remembers those days well. "We used to go out to the old Soap Creek Saloon or to the Armadillo. Soap Creek was kid-friendly; lots of parents with young kids running around the place playing together while you played pool, drank a tall cool one, and listened to the bands. Will was one of those kids playing under the pool table."

Something about those experiences clearly soaked in and took root. In high school, his viola training was strictly classical, but his interest also took him into the freer jazz form. He tried to turn his abilities as a jazz violist into a living, but that proved to be too difficult. (The viola, by the way, is slightly larger than a violin and features a lower, more somber sound and range than its more common counterpart. But as Will puts it, the real difference between the two is that "the viola burns longer.")

Over time, he developed a great many skills and music related jobs, many of which continue to support him even today. He still teaches violin and viola privately, provides music and arrangements for weddings and parties, backs up other acts in the studio, and even engineers recording sessions for other artists (including an upcoming album by 8 1/2 Souvenirs).

For a scrappy, multidimensional professional musician, it's important to develop a sharp business sense, along with a keen eye for publicity. Taylor possesses both. Longtime friend, musical peer, and Strings Attached member, Steve Zirkel, remembers how Will's drive (not to mention chutzpah) had scored their previous jazz band some prestigious gigs. "Will went from being a nobody to booking us on a Canadian tour to five jazz festivals just through the Internet. He was a shameless huckster. He was in a radio station once in Winnipeg; he did a live on-the-air interview, then asked the DJ, 'Can I borrow your phone for a second?' and he called another radio station and (did) another interview over that radio station's phone!"

Along with Strings Attached, Taylor has also served as the studio band for other artists, including friend and occasional series guest Sara Hickman. "He's proven himself on three of my recordings," she says. "I think Will is driven to create. There are people who are born with a gene to get ideas out of their soul. I think Will's arrangements on (my album) Faithful Heart helped me create what I was seeking: aural arms of love that reach out and wrap around you."

A musical concept

Taylor's ambition was not just limited to playing music, though, and his determination to make music his occupation steered him the right way, as did a (literally) offbeat musical model.

As a member of eighties' Austin jazz band, Passenger, Zirkel had toured with legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Cohen believed in mixing country players and jazz players in his band, an effort to incorporate the rules of both disciplines into what he does. And for the jazz half, it was all about the improvisational skills of its practitioners.

Will envisioned a variation of that concept, and, with a dose of pragmatism, he found what he was looking for.

"It really came down to sitting down and thinking, 'How can I really make a living in Austin without having to tour? How can I keep developing my skills as a composer, arranger, and player and also involve my jazz training in that?' Austin has a great singer-songwriter scene!"

With that mental light bulb having clicked on, Taylor found a golden opportunity in a fortuitous night on Austin radio. In 2001, Taylor's group was participating in a live Bob Dylan tribute show on KGSR-FM. With Strings Attached backing up Barbara K MacDonald (formerly of Timbuk3), the other performers participating got to hear the musical richness that Taylor's ensemble could add to a songwriter's tale. Taylor made himself known through the music to many of the artists taking part in the tribute. The radio show served as an icebreaker for a number of future collaborations with special guests, like Darden Smith, Jimmy LaFave, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Eliza Gilkyson.

A sacred place

Three of the more important considerations for the series are location, location, and location. A church may seem an unlikely venue for a Ray Wylie Hubbard show, but not to Strings Attached fans. One man's sanctuary is another man's honky-tonk.

Concertgoer Marian Alexander finds the setting a refreshing departure. She appreciates being able to "come to a place where there is no smoking, no drinking, no excess noise where people are whooping and hollering. You have a beautiful setting which happens to be a church. The whole atmosphere is just great. You can just walk right into the church and be comfortable, safe, and protected. The whole thing is just so…groovy."

The church setting was a natural for a classically trained musician like Will Taylor. "I wanted to find a place that had that concert atmosphere and give the music that respect, and people that wanted to hear the lyrics could hear the lyrics."

In St. David's, he found just the right resonance, ambiance, and feel, from the front to the back. The acoustic presence is just as appealing as the visual beauty in the historic room.

Back in the seventies, audience member Alyce Guynn had enjoyed those times in that other historic room, the Armadillo World Headquarters, but with maturity comes a more philosophical outlook. "I enjoy being in this church. It's just beautiful, and I like the idea of this series bringing joyful music into a sanctuary that is a sacred place. It reminds us that music of all kinds can touch the sacred place in all of us."

The Mozart effect

With Strings Attached, Taylor is the visionary leader, but he's also a member of another ensemble, one that further inspires his creativity-playing viola for the Austin Lyric Opera Orchestra.

"It's great music to be around because it's music written for singers, written for a story. The orchestra from the pit is a great backup band for a journey. So a lot of times I'm sitting there in the viola section, I'm actually listening to Mozart, getting hints from Mozart. What does he do to augment a voice? How can I use that behind a singer-songwriter? What does he do there, to make the impact greater or to grab the audience?' I'm learning from the composers. I take ideas from a classical opera and use them in a concert series that I do. You may not hear it. But it is there."

Finding all the elements…

Taylor sets up the events, usually monthly, with the same approach that operas and symphonies use, laying out the whole season with committed dates and guest performers.

Once the guest artist has been scheduled (often up to nine months in advance), Taylor sends them a nine-page checklist of how the series works; they select the songs they'd like to perform, and then return the form. At that point, he begins absorbing the guest's music by listening to the selected songs. He immerses himself in the lyrics and the melody, hearing what kind of arrangements makes sense. The other members of Strings Attached will also be familiarizing themselves with the songs and developing their own musical ideas.

Taylor then loads the songs on his computer and marks them using an audio-editing program. In this way, he can see the song's entire structure laid out before him. The same program is then used to write the sheet music to guide his musicians and the guest artist. Taylor writes the string parts and the piano parts, but the bass and the drums have full poetic (or shall we say rhythmic) license.

Eventually, a new version of the song emerges-one that the original artist and the original producer might never have imagined.

…Then putting them together

"I'm crazy. I always bite off more than I can chew," admits Taylor, but that very craziness, along with the chaos of the performance week, seem to provide the inadvertent inspiration for the finished program.

The visiting songwriting performers bring their own chord changes, their own words and melody. Will and company take it from there. It's at the first rehearsal, during the week of the show, that the musical worlds collide, when the guest artists will first hear their songs in the newest incarnation.

The stylistic adaptation goes both ways. For Strings Attached, it's a different artist and a different style, with which they must familiarize themselves for each show, challenging all aspects of their collective creativity.

But the challenge is also before the guest artist to acclimate to this new musical environment. Three weeks before her own February 20 guest slot, gospel-blues singer Ruthie Foster embraces that challenge with optimistic anticipation, even though working within Will's world is unknown territory. "I barely know him. I've only met him one time. But I trust him. I have heard him play and I love the way he plays. He's quick and he's on it. I'm so looking forward to it."

Unlike many of the series' guests, the Strings Attached guys are "readers"-musicians who can read music. Their music-reading skills, combined with an understanding of the conventions of jazz, stimulates spontaneity. "Everybody can read, but everybody in the band also plays by ear. That's what's great about these musicians. We all come from the oral tradition, too. Sometimes artists assume that we're just readers and are surprised that we can jam, too. We can solo. We can improvise. I have written material, but I give the players plenty of room to stretch out."

The exchange of ideas can be quite democratic, but some guest performers allow more creative room than others for the distinctive Strings Attached presence.

The players must respect the writer's original story and color and decorate it with a delicate touch. They are, after all, strings attached. This point proved particularly important while preparing the January show. "Chip Taylor had a lot of control, and gave me very little room for that voice," states Will. "But I don't look at it negatively. I have to be flexible. I want them to be comfortable. His thing was 'stay out of the way of the lyrics,' (so) I worked with introductions and outros."

One particular intro served as one of the show's highlights, and it came from a player's improvisational skill, and an awareness of the powers of subtlety and restraint. For "The Trouble With Humans," (the title track of Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez's latest release), Will had written no parts in advance. But so strong was his confidence in Steve Zirkel's trumpet playing that he empowered him to create a Chet Baker-inspired, mournful and muted jazz solo. It was a matter of trust on Will's part, and when Chip Taylor heard it, he was properly impressed with the new sound and feel given to his powerful song.

Strings Attached cellist Charles Prewitt often benefits from the same musical magnanimity. "I really enjoy this because Will is really into this Appalachian bluegrass style. He gets you out of your skin. We try to pick up on things. During the show, we don't have stuff necessarily completely ironclad. When he starts doing a rhythm, I'll just try to imitate it so we can just go with each other and get this good string sound going."

A religious experience

Within that good string sound lays the intangible magic of music itself. "It speaks directly to the heart. It reaches for the divine, the spiritual," reflects Taylor.

Many members of his audience share with him their feelings on the religious experience that they find in the music. "They say they're not spiritual, they're not religious, but coming to the church to hear that, something about it moved them. Something about it was spiritual. I get that a lot, as they're walking out. It's kind of ironic, because I'm not necessarily a religious person, but my music is a spiritual outlet for me. Through music, I can bring people together and we are all together and for that one moment they can forget about their lives. Or they focus on the good parts of their lives, the positive aspects. All politics goes aside, all conflict, all differences, even with the guest stars that we've had tensions with in the rehearsal. As soon as we're onstage for those two hours, we can truly be ourselves. All differences evaporate."

A wild thing

That's the moment they live for. It's what Will calls "being in the moment, being here now. To me, (in) the jazz tradition, you plan and you practice, practice, practice, prepare, write these arrangements. There's a structure. But that night, what happens is original, only that one time."

Ultimately, it's all about joy. And that's true whether it comes from the spirituality of a meaningful song supported by a new and vibrant string and brass arrangement, or from the pure fun of a song like "Wild Thing," whatever instruments are involved.

During "Wild Thing" from the stage that magical night, Chip Taylor had declared, "This is the right place for this song. Let's raise the roof." As though the audience members were opening their hymnals to sing an uplifting spiritual, they obliged with a rousing sing-along. It's possible that they really were singing an uplifting spiritual, just one that had never been included in a book of hymns.

Backstage after the show, it is pointed out to Charles Prewitt that his cello solo during the psychedelic classic was very likely the first of its kind. With quick reflection, he laughs. "Yeah, that was definitely a wild thing, wasn't it?"

Rush Evans played the violin from the fourth through the sixth grade, and he wonders if those thirty-year-old skills could help Will. You may e-mail Rush at revans@goodlifemag.com.

Strings Attached

The current members of the ensemble are Will Taylor on viola, violin and acoustic guitar, Charles Prewitt on cello, Steve Zirkel on bass and trumpet, Brad Evilsizer on drums and percussion, and Eddy Hobizal on piano.

Past members include Jason McKenzie on percussion, Shawn Sanders on cello, Glenn Rexach on guitar, John Fremgen on bass, and Javier Chaparro on violin.

Upcoming concerts

April 2, 2004-Slaid Cleaves
April 23, 2004-Kelly Willis
May 21, 2004-Guest artist to be announced.

Concert tickets can be purchased on-line at www.stringsattached.org, by phone at 512-477-9837, and in person at St. David's Bookshop at Seventh and Trinity streets in downtown Austin.

-Rush Evans