Multiple Grammy and Dove Award winners Russ Taff and Steve Taylor will appear in one electrifying night together on The Almost Farewell Tour. Taff will be both supported and backed on all dates by his longtime friend and collaborator and his Some Band.
"Maya Angelou said, ‘This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before,’” says Russ Taff. “That’s the way I feel about this tour – it’s going to be so unique and different than any I’ve done. Steve and I did a concert together several months ago and we blew the roof off the place. Steve was stunningly good, it’s been years since I’ve had that much fun on stage! I’m so grateful I get to tour with Steve, I’ve been a fan for a long time. In fact, I remember Mom playing Steve Taylor records when I was like two-years-old. Ha ha ha, kidding Steve, ha ha ha!”
“I’m mostly doing this tour as an excuse to hear Russ Taff sing every night,” says Steve Taylor. “But I’m also looking forward to re-assembling Some Band and playing songs I haven’t performed in a few decades.”
The Almost Farewell Tour follows the recent release of Taff’s acclaimed new album, Cover Story. Executive produced by Taylor (Sixpence None the Richer, Newsboys), produced by John Mark Painter (Fleming & John, Ben Folds, Sevendust), and mixed by Matt Wallace (Faith No More, The Replacements), Cover Story marks perhaps the most singularly special album in Taff’s extraordinary four-decade career, chronicling his remarkable life’s journey with impassioned performances of timeless songs by such masters as Bob Dylan, U2, Prince, Simon & Garfunkel, and more. Highlights include renditions of Depeche Mode’s “People Are People,” Blind Willie Johnson’s “Tear This Building Down,” and an intensely powerful take on The National’s “Demons.”
From a troubled childhood in a small Pentecostal church in California’s San Joaquin Valley to the top of the charts, from impossible heights of creative success to his hard-won battle with the bottle, Russ Taff has told the story of his extraordinary life countless times over the course of his career – but never quite like this. Taff has of course had a landmark career by any standard, earning six GRAMMY® Awards, 16 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and induction into the Gospel Music Association (GMA) Hall of Fame an unprecedented three times — as a solo artist as well as a member of both The Imperials and The Gaither Vocal Band.
Praised by Billboard as “the single most electrifying voice in Christian music,” Taff has inspired like-minded artists from Kings of Leon to MercyMe with an influential singing style and body of work that includes such landmark albums as his GRAMMY® Award-winning solo debut, 1983’s Walls of Glass, 1985’s breakthrough Medals, and 1989’s chart-topping smash, The Way Home. Co-written by Taff with his beloved wife Tori, classic songs such as “We Will Stand,” “I Cry,” “Not Gonna Bow,” and “Farther On” have related his spiritual journey with stunning power and deeply personal detail, how he was brought low by trauma and addiction and raised up again through the power of love and faith. In 2018, Taff’s story was further told in the acclaimed documentary, Russ Taff: I Still Believe, which saw a nationwide release in over 700 theaters. Taff has continued to be exceptionally candid regarding his private struggles over the years, most recently including an in-depth interview on Mark Laita’s hugely popular Soft White Underbelly podcast that has received more than half a million views via YouTube.
Hailed by Prism as a “renaissance man,” musician/filmmaker/writer/producer/entrepreneur Steve Taylor has created a remarkably diverse body of work over the past four decades. Taylor’s recording career began in 1983 and spans both solo work – including such GRAMMY® Award-nominated albums as 1984’s Meltdown and 1993’s Squint – as well as founding the groundbreaking alternative rock band Chagall Guevara and fronting the supergroup Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil. In 1994, Taylor’s wide-ranging songcraft was celebrated with the all-star tribute album, I Predict a Clone: A Steve Taylor Tribute. Meanwhile, Taylor has proven an in-demand producer with a track record that includes 1997’s Platinum-certified self-titled third album from Sixpence None The Richer (highlighted of course by the 3x Platinum, worldwide #1 hit single, “Kiss Me” and the Gold-certified “There She Goes”) along with three Gold-certified albums for Newsboys, 1994’s Going Public, 1996’s Take Me To Your Leader, and 2003’s Adoration, all four of which earned GRAMMY® Award nominations.
Taylor’s work as a music video director and filmmaker saw him make history as the only artist to twice win Billboard Music Video Awards for self-directed music videos and also includes iconic music videos for such artists as Sixpence None the Richer, Newsboys, Fleming & John, Rich Mullins, and more. Taylor has also crafted a remarkably award-winning body of work as the director, writer, and producer of numerous feature films, documentaries, animated TV series, and more, including producing last summer’s acclaimed theatrical release, Sketch, with Tony Hale for writer/director Seth Worley. He has written essays on music and film for Talkhouse.com, and currently serves as Director of the School of Theatre and Cinematic Arts, Assistant Professor, and Filmmaker-in-Residence at Lipscomb University in Nashville, where he resides with his wife, the artist D.L. Taylor, and their daughter.
