Former 'America's Got Talent' contestant from Alexandria has music label in Nashville
Taylor Mathews has been up to quite a bit since he was a nervous 18-year-old who flashed what one judge described as his "cheesy grin" on "America's Got Talent" in 2010.
The Alexandria native wowed the judges and audience with his guitar arrangement of the 1939 classic "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." And he did it again with another arrangement of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World."
Mathews made it to the top 10 before he was eliminated from season five, but it's an experience he said he wouldn't trade for the world.
He now lives in Nashville, where he started the Pelican House music label and has been lending his efforts to building a community of creatives and making music for TV and film.
"I have 13 artists internally that we developed and five artists I signed to the label," Mathews said in a recent phone interview with the Town Talk.
Songs Mathews has written have been featured on shows like Netflix's “Virgin River” and Freeform's “Good Trouble.” One of his songs, "Fall in Love This Christmas," sung by the artist Foster, has been featured in the Hallmark Christmas movie "The Christmas Ring."
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Foster will have another Christmas song coming out this holiday season, Mathews said. Two other Christmas songs will be released by another Pelican House artist, Anders Sohn.
Helping others make music
Mathews writes for all of the artists signed with the label. Another artist he helped develop, Sheffield, sings one of Mathews' songs, "You and Me and Christmastime."
"It has been the most streamed independent Christmas song released in the world since its release and placement on the Christmas Hits playlist by Spotify in 2018. We are the only independent record included in this curation," said Mathews.
Mathews stopped putting out music under his own name in 2013, which was the last time he released a record.
“I'm going to have more music coming out within the next couple of years,” Mathews said. “But right now, I was so eclectic with my approach of trying to write in all sorts of different directions"
He's worked on projects that fall under several other musical genres, including surf rock, folk and indie. The first project he did with Sheffield was “In This Kind of World,” a love song geared for weddings.
“We've been in tons of wedding videos, like thousands across the world," Mathews said. "It's really really cool to tap into different areas of how people interact with and engage with music.”
Mathews said he's evolved since he first walked onto the stage in front of a national TV audience 12 years ago.
Growing creatively
Once he started coming off that euphoria, he realized he needed more knowledge and education on how the music process and business works to create a song that will engage people.
"I was very green as to what I should do with the attention, and I didn't have my craft developed enough at that stage, so it was really hard for me to turn that into anything more than just kind of a fun, you know, pat on the back, hug, high-five,” Mathews said.
At that point, he had never written with other people or worked with producers.
“It was cool, though, because it kind of fed me to the wolves,” he said. “As soon as that all happened, it was very affirming for my parents at the time to be like, ‘Oh, you know, there might be something here, so let's get behind your dreams and go and chase after this thing.’ ”
Tour buses and 18-wheelers
He missed his own graduation from Alexandria Senior High to tour with "America's Got Talent" across the U.S. and Canada that year, playing for 3,000-5,000 people a night.
“We played at some major theaters across the nation," Mathews said. "We had six tour busses, three 18-wheelers. It was the first year that AGT even put on a tour.”
While he was a finalist, he returned to Alexandria to perform as an opening act for the Christian alternative rock band Altar’d at the Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center. Once people found out he was on the bill, the concert quickly sold out, and a matinee performance was added.
He also performed at the Summer Kick-Off Dance Party and Concert in 2010 at Fort Buhlow Fun Park. He even performed at Scott M. Brame Middle School. And he served as grand marshal of the Natchitoches Christmas Parade and the Ball Christmas Parade.
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What about performing?
Before "America's Got Talent," Mathews performed for seniors at a few nursing homes, at Tunk's Cypress Inn in Boyce and at the Blue Dog Cafe in Lafayette. He also performed at the former Hastings Entertainment Superstore on MacArthur Drive in Alexandria.
Now, he’s given up performing for the most part.
“I was not too fond of the unsustainable living I was kind of chasing after with that whole world,” said Mathews.
Every now and then, he'll do writer's rounds around Nashville. It’s a collection of songwriters who present material that they've worked on for that year, he said.
He returns to Alexandria about two to three times a year to check up and work on a couple of properties he owns.
Does he still get recognized from "America's Got Talent?"
"Every now and then, yeah. It's surprising. I'm a bit of a hermit,” Mathews said. “I don't get out too much, but when I do, I seem to run into somebody every other time, especially at the grocery store. It's a friendly place."
As for his time on the show, he said it was a really fun experience.
“But definitely," Mathews said, "I wish I had my head on my shoulders a little bit more at the time and kind of look at how to approach the music industry the way that I am now."
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Alexandria's Taylor Mathews forges a music career in Nashville
