Lewis Taylor on heavy rotation here.

I knew the name, but always had him lumped in with Jay Kay. Read the piece, bought Stoned II, and a few days later bought another four albums. There was more discussion about him a couple of weeks back.

He's also well represented on Spotify.

Could be an interesting experiment/ case study to say what impact Word editorial can have on an artist's sales...

I'll keep an eye on the Official Chart Company website

There has been a noticeable uplift from in the last two weeks - from 1 sale of 'Stoned' a week an incredible 6 copies in the week of publication. Mind you, I haven't bought mine yet.

It's a long way from the heady days of the end of 2006 when he was selling 8 or even 9 copies a week...

don't you think?

I was one of the 27 people who bought it when it first came out, and it's been on the shelf unworried for ages. Prompted by the article I loaded it into the car player this week, but found that although I still liked it a lot, I couldn't take more than half a dozen songs before the delivery started to grate a little. It's his faux American R'n'B vocal delivery that I find false I'm afraid.

I'd love to hear the alleged Troutmask version; does anyone know if it's 'out there'?

And is it worth my time getting "The Lost Album"?

Sorry to gush but shit he's good. It's so nice to find some new (to me) music that I really like that isn't made by Grizzly Adams's nephews if you see what I mean. Why haven't I been told about this before? Currently addicted to the title track of Stoned Part 1.

...such as "Lewis Taylor" being released in 1997? 1996. He also never finished his cover of the "Trout Mask Replica" album, admitting that he got bored with it. And that TV documentary? It was Dutch...not really a language easily confused with German now, is it? Heiliges Kanonenrohr!

The rumour that he was writing comedy stems from an admittedly childish jape of mine amending the Wikipedia page on Lewis. I stated that he was writing comedy for the Chuckle Brothers, which (let's face it) is even more far-fetched than the rumour that he was working as a plumber. Lo and behold, an American fan set up a Facebook group for him and mentioned these "endeavours" (though she omitted to mention the moustachioed mirthmongers by name). How I chuckled.

The forum devoted to him became messy anyway, practically turning into an anti-Lewis site what with various people voicing their bitter dissatisfaction with him which was very personal and vitriolic at times. It's a shame though that he wishes to eradicate his legacy; I half expect to see him frantically pulling his CDs off the shelves at HMV and hiding them elsewhere. Perhaps in the Chuckle Brothers section.

First of all, thanks for the kind words about the article. I'm delighted that so many of you have gone out and bought some of Lewis Taylor's material since reading it, since that was precisely the response I hoped to get by writing it in the first place.

I take full responsibility for any factual errors as well, and I apologise - entirely the fault of sloppy research. I'm particularly narked that I got the release date of the first album wrong, since I had the bloody thing sat next to me while I was writing the piece. As for the documentary, I had only a somewhat sketchy recollection of it. I'd not seen the YouTube clips for quite some time, and, of course, they're gone now.

Dufflebag - you scamp, you! I had a suspicion that some of those rumours were no more than mischief-making, but, as is the way in the internet age, they seem to have become part of the Lewis myth nonetheless. I did wonder at one point if he'd started some of them himself.

Jim M - As regards that Reverend thing, there's some sort of a King Crimson/Robert Fripp connection there, I think. I understand the Reverend is somebody who works with Fripp's DGM organisation, and who asked Lewis to sing on a couple of songs he'd recorded. I know you can buy mp3s/FLACs from DGM, but other than that, I've no idea if it's available in any other form.

Anyway, glad to see the article seems to have had the desired effect.

full stop.

Lewis Taylor is "the only bona fide musical genius this country has produced in the last 20 years".

Nice to see an article on this genius in Word, and can only echo the words of most on this page. The man seems to have a fear of success more than anything else...what a pity...

Duffelbag, your comments are hysterical! I'm going to presume that you're a writer/journalist...or at least you should be...

MJ & LT. Obviously, it ain't gonna happen. Might have been a good look though, as could have been D'Angelo, Aaliyah...

:(

I'm so glad to see that even today people are continue to discover the genius of Lewis Talyor - I discovered him by accident when I was visiting my local music shop and I always ask what's new and what's hot, luckily the guy who's opinion I always rate quite highly had just had the new LEWIS CD in from Island - we gave it a quick listen and I was instantly blown away! So off I went delighted in this new discovery, expecting it would be the start of something great, which did seem to be the case up until the aftermath of Stoned part II when Lewis was obviously getting disenchanted by the music business yet again and who can blame him - broken promises by record companies, failed collaborations with other artists who are only trying to boost their own ego's!

I am missing his unique approach and style but only Lewis can make the decision to return to the fore, I hope he does, but in the meantime, I have all of his albums to keep me sane! (even the beefheart tribute - which incidentally I think was just a bit of self indulgence to prove a point about his lack of interest in mass appeal LOL I dig it just the same though) but hey, we only get one life, so I think Lewis should do just whatever he chooses as long as he's happy ;-) M - www.cruiserman.co.uk