According to friends and family members, area singer/songwriter/guitarist Taylor Shannon has died. He was 30 years old.
Shannon — who was also a tattoo artist at Aces High Tattoo in Mount Orab — built his reputation as a talented Country musician with a gritty, soulful style, releasing albums like 2015's Home & Tennessee which helped him score the 2016 Cincinnati Entertainment Award for top local Country artist.
In the past few years, Shannon had been performing and recording with his band Smoke Parade, which boasted a Roots- and Punk-tinged Modern Rock sound just as powerful as his more straight-ahead Country material. The band also featured Shannon's lifelong friend Seth Bunton and drummer Zach Backus.
Shannon had been bouncing between his solo and Smoke Parade work in the past couple of years. In September, he'd returned to his solo guise to release the single "Lazy," which he told me via email he based on an unreleased demo by the band Brand New that he came across on Reddit.
At the start of the year, Shannon released the solo single "Vampire Song." He'd more recently released snippets of his track "Shine" in a post on Facebook in which he said a new solo EP would be released this spring, followed by a full-length album.
Shannon also appeared on the great local music web series Fret Buzz recently. On the show, released in early January, Shannon talked about, among many other things, Flying V guitars and working briefly with James Brown tribute artist Young James Brown. He also played the unreleased song "Cold Sweat."
Since news of his untimely death surfaced on Jan. 29, friends and fans on social media — including a wide swath of local musicians from different generations and genres — have been remembering Taylor's musical gifts as well as his kind and generous spirit.
RIP @_TaylorShannon Prayers @vinceshan20 for you and the family, pic.twitter.com/VYQIc9zimb
— Call sign Hippy (@Hippy3_327inf) January 30, 2020
https://t.co/JEmsGSs7A2 Great Talent gone too soon Taylor Shannon. Prayers and love for Madeline and family.
— Bobby Mackey (@BobbyMackey) January 29, 2020
Rest easy buddy. You will always be my brother from another mother. My heart hurts so bad. I’ll see you on the other side.
— Gregory Harshfield (@HarshfieldGreg) January 29, 2020
Taylor Shannon
1989-2020 pic.twitter.com/jG1NrtcEYV
I don’t know why.. I’ll never understand.. sad news from back home.. RIP @_TaylorShannon , you were such a talented song writer and musician and always so fucking nice to me when we spoke.. Condolences to his family and his beautiful wife. Yet another sad day..
— DYLAN (@TheDylanHolland) January 29, 2020
