Taylor worked as a farm bailiff and sang for pleasure, as well as in his local church choir, and in competitions. Some time between 1906 and 1908, Grainger visited Norfolk and recorded Taylor, who was already in his 70s, and other singers of traditional songs, onto wax cylinders, using an Edison Bell-made phonograph. In 1908, Grainger was instrumental in the Gramophone Company inviting Taylor to London, where a dozen of his songs were recorded, with nine subsequently being released on a series of seven gramophone discs, on the "His Master's Voice label, as part of a series billed as "Percy Grainger's Collection of English Folk-Songs sung by Genuine Peasant Performers". In the accompanying booklet, Grainger wrote: The British Library Sound Archive describes these releases as: Grainger's recordings and transcriptions of Taylors's singing came to the attention of the composer Frederick Delius, who requested and secured permission to use Grainger's harmonies in his own arrangement of one of Taylor's songs, Brigg Fair. Taylor was a guest at the first performance, at the Queen's Hall in London, and reputedly stood to sing along. Grainger's own folksong-inspired Lincolnshire Posy was dedicated by the composer, to "the singers who sang so sweetly to me".
Later releases and archives
Ten of Taylor's Gramophone Company recordings were released, as Brigg Fair: Joseph Taylor and Other Traditional Lincolnshire Singers by Leader Records in 1972, alongside recordings, of Taylor and others, transferred from Grainger's wax cylinders. Grainger's wax cylinders were copied onto lacquer discs by the Library of Congress in around 1940. The British Library digitised their set of these discs in 2018 and has made them available online.
Personal life
Taylor had a son, John, and a daughter, Mary. Mary was interviewed about her father's singing by Peter Kennedy in 1953. The recording is kept by the British Library and is available online.
Legacy
Some of the songs performed by Taylor and recorded by Grainger became part of the canon of the British folk revival. Martin Carthy recorded several.
Songs
Songs performed by Taylor, and recorded by Grainger, included:
