He’s played back up to Aussie jazz great James Morrison, but now Justin Taylor is emerging as a solo artist.

Born in Broken Hill, Taylor began playing the classical guitar in his teens picking up a solid-body electric in 1998.

Performing with local rock cover bands Ulysses and No Exit and grunge garage outfit Penicillin, his biggest hometown gig saw him join Morrison on stage to open the 2000 Outback and All That Jazz Festival.

A year later Taylor moved to Adelaide where he began song writing drawing influence from his rock-roots, artists like Ben Harper and surf muso Jack Johnson, as well as his own experiences.

"Most of the early songs were dark… but once I settled in to Adelaide I began to concentrate more on the writing, playing steel-string acoustic and lap slide and the songs started to write themselves", Taylor says.

In 2003 Taylor began recording home demos and launched his own website justintalyor.net.

The ten tracks available for download range from laid-back melodies to fiery displays of emotion and have been well received online and at performances in Adelaide and Broken Hill.

"There’s a little bit of everything in my songs, whether you like folk, rock, reggae or even a bit of funk, you're bound to find something you like. I cast out a wide 'net' when drawing on my influences", Taylor says

"With elements of electric, acoustic and slide guitars there’s a range of motifs at work from 60’s rock to blues to today’s music heroes who have touched my life."