Michael C. Taylor (July 21, 1948 – September 5, 2010) was an American

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

, and

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

. After a successful musical career, he became an

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

preservationist Preservationist is generally understood to mean ''historic preservationist'': one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects, or sites from demolition or degradation. Historic preservation us ...

. He is widely remembered as a performer and co-writer on John Denver's song "

Rocky Mountain High "Rocky Mountain High" is a folk rock song written by John Denver and Mike Taylor and is one of the two official state songs of Colorado. Recorded by Denver in 1972 it is the title track of the 1972 album ''Rocky Mountain High'' and rose to No. ...

Early life

Taylor was born in

Fayetteville, North Carolina Fayetteville () is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a major U.S. Army installation northwest of the city. Fayetteville has received the All-America C ...

, the son of Katie Steed and George F. Taylor. As a boy, he and his father collected native American

arrowheads An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as s ...

and similar artifacts around the area where they lived. As a teenager, he taught himself to play the

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

. By his late teens and early twenties, he had become the

lead guitarist Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featured ...

for folk singers in both Fayetteville and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Musical career

Taylor rose quickly in the music world, serving as lead guitarist for

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

and similar artists, all before his 21st birthday. Herb Metoyer was one of his early influences and mentors. He joined

The John Denver Band Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, activist, and humanitarian whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singe ...

in 1969, and was involved in writing, arranging, and performing such songs as "

", "

Sunshine on My Shoulders "Sunshine on My Shoulders" (sometimes titled simply "Sunshine") is a song recorded and co-written by American singer-songwriter John Denver. It was originally released as an album track on 1971's '' Poems, Prayers & Promises'' and later, as a sing ...

", and " The Eagle and the Hawk".

"Rocky Mountain High"

Taylor was given songwriting and performing credit for this John Denver hit, which is one of the two state songs of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. In an interview, Denver said of the song's creation "Mike sat down and showed me this guitar lick and suddenly the whole thing came together. It was just what the piece needed. When I realized what I had — another anthem, maybe; a true expression of one's self, maybe — we changed the sequencing of the album we'd just completed, and then we changed the album title."

Historian, archaeologist and preservationist

In the early 1970s, he moved to

Hilton Head, South Carolina Hilton Head Island, sometimes referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and southwest of C ...

, where his interest in the past was rekindled. He enrolled in the University of South Carolina, studying archaeology and anthropology. He became a research fellow in those fields at the university, and changed his career focus to those areas. In 1985, he and a group of Hilton Head residents began creating what is now called the ''Coastal Discovery Museum''. Taylor became its first director in 1988. He later wrote and narrated ''Mike Taylor’s History of Hilton Head Island'', an

audiocassette The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otten ...

feature in ''

Southern Living ''Southern Living'' is a lifestyle magazine aimed at readers in the Southern United States featuring recipes, house plans, garden plans, and information about Southern culture and travel. It is published by Birmingham, Alabama–based Southern Prog ...

'' magazine, and a video series about Hilton Head that aired on the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

, as well as several similar projects. In 2002, Taylor was named Executive Director of the ''South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust''. Among the many accomplishments during his tenure were the preservation of Battery White, a Civil War Confederate fortification near Georgetown; and the confirmation and preservation of

Fort Pemberton Fort Pemberton was one of the larger confederate forts was constructed in the defense of Charleston, South Carolina during the American Civil War. At the war's outset in 1861, it became evident that control of the western regions of James Islan ...

, a Confederate site on James Island. Taylor died on September 5, 2010, in Hilton Head, South Carolina at age 62.

References

External links

Coastal Discovery Museum

South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Mike 1948 births 2010 deaths American country guitarists Songwriters from North Carolina American folk guitarists American acoustic guitarists Lead guitarists Guitarists from North Carolina 20th-century American guitarists Country musicians from North Carolina