Tommy Talton is one of the best singer-songwriters and guitarists of our time. He is a founding member of Macon, Georgia’s Capricorn Records group Cowboy, a/k/a Cowboy Boyer & Talton, an iconic band with a cult-like following, formed in 1970, along with songwriting partner Scott Boyer. The band recorded four albums on Capricorn Records and toured extensively from 1970 to 1977, from Carnegie Hall (as special guests) to Fillmore West in San Francisco and most cities in between, including tours with The Allman Brothers Band, as the rhythm section for and special guest of The Gregg Allman Band on the 1974 Gregg Allman “Laid Back” tour, and during that time, also recorded with Alex Taylor (James Taylor’s brother) and Bonnie Bramlett, among others. Prior to 1970, in 1966, Talton formed We The People, a Leesburg, FL-based garage band.
While in Macon, GA through most of the 70s, Talton was a studio musician recording with artists such as Gregg Allman, The Allman Brothers Band, Bonnie Bramlett, Martin Mull, Corky Lang (West, Bruce and Lang), Mountain, Dickey Betts, Clarence Carter, country legend Kitty Wells, Alex and Livingston Taylor, Arthur Conley of Sweet Soul Music fame, and more. He toured extensively throughout the U.S. with Cowboy and with the Gregg Allman tour.
Capricorn Records closed its doors in 1977, and Cowboy members went on their own musical journeys for a time. Talton moved to Europe, where he recorded and performed throughout most of the 90s with a group called The Rebelizers, with members of Albert Lee’s band, Hogan’s Heroes. Talton returned to the United States and formed the Tommy Talton Band in 2006 and continued to tour since that time in the United States, Europe and Canada, up until his untimely death on December 28, 2023. Boyer and Talton continued to work together sporadically over the years. They re-formed Cowboy thirty years after its dissolution in 2007. This iteration recorded at least an album’s worth of music with Sandlin at his studio, Duck Tape Studios in Decatur, Alabama. In 2010, they performed their first concert in over thirty years, billed as Cowboy/Boyer & Talton, at the Cox Capitol Theatre (now The Capitol) in Macon. It was issued the following year as a live album on Hittin’ the Note Records, titled Boyer & Talton: Cowboy Reunion 2010.
While fans will agree that it’s hard to top Talton’s previous work to date, his upcoming posthumous release Seven Levels (due out November 7th via Strolling Bones Records) is sure to exceed all expectations. The album was mastered following his passing, and is Talton’s final words to his fans, his family, and his musical family. Tommy Talton has left an indelible mark and roadmap for all songwriters and musicians, both now and into the future. His is a prolific and powerful legacy that will never be forgotten.
Recorded in Macon, GA at the legendary Capricorn Studios, these seven tunes were recorded over several memorable days in April of 2022 and feature Tommy’s former band members and Capricorn label mates: Randall Bramblett, Chuck Leavell, Rick Hirsch, Charlie Hayward, and Bill Stewart. Each song was lovingly overdubbed, mixed and mastered in the following months by Rick Hirsch — a truly herculean effort, as Tommy was a perfectionist. Between medical treatments, Tommy kept moving forward. He showed amazing courage in that he never let the cancer define him. He knew these tunes would be his epitaph and it is evident in these excellent compositions, arrangements and performances that this is something special.
Today, Glide is offering an exclusive premiere of the standout tune “’I Want To Do It All Again,” a charming and nostalgic work of heartfelt songwriting. Backed by sparse yet warm instrumentation that includes acoustic guitar and strings, Talton sings from the heart as he offers a lyrical reflection on life’s journey. The vocals are bare and vulnerable, and the lyrics are simple yet powerful. The song feels like a fitting send-off for an artist who lived a full life filled with good music. It’s an emotionally charged song, with Talton singing “I want to do it all again, making it new somehow” to the partner he’d like to share it with. The song’s beautiful, vivid imagery captures the basic human longing for connection — “becoming every soul I ever met” — and Talton’s hopefulness for the next journey, whatever that might be.
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