Robert Taira Wilson
Robert Taira Wilson
at Morgan Salon
April 11, 2025
I love stepping outside the jazz world, and I’m always rewarded when I do. I was richly rewarded when I sank into a seat at Morgan Salon to hear singer-songwriter Robert Taira Wilson. Simply stated, Wilson’s a singer-songwriter who plays lovely guitar and sings his own unique compositions. But more complexly, he’s like the best singer-songwriters—worldly, ironic, sensitive, intimate, and thoughtful. He puts his observations, reflections, and insights into his heartfelt songs, each a delight to hear.
Starting out the two sets with just guitar, “Through the Fibre” explored the pandemic years, how we communicated, or failed to, and how we survived that strange time. With a steady flow of guitar chords that seemed to echo the back-and-forth feelings of lovers, the song captured an odd moment in human history and what it meant in our hearts.
“Dragonfly” showed off his fluid guitar playing. The chords fit lovely lines like, “I would have fallen for free,” and “That’s why I call you my dragonfly.” The song is about love, but not just about love. “Forget Me Not” was another calm, fluid, heartbreaking memory of lost love, steeped in melancholy, an ongoing mental tussle of “forget it all” or “forget me not.”
“Kishibe,” about the Osaka neighborhood he lived in Osaka, was another mesmerizingly reflective song with a driving vocal and a great guitar hook, though all his songs have great hooks (that didn’t look easy to play from where I was sitting).
It’s gutsy to write a song entitled “Blackbird” (with so many past references), but the song was a magically allusive and lyrical reflection on another past love, on the natural world, on seeing how things are, and on seeing oneself. The spectacular video he made for the song, which was projected on a screen in the Salon, was made from 3000+ sketches Wilson did himself. He was initially an art student, which was evident in every sketch, so the video’s lambent images captured the watery, unclear way we live in remembrance.
“Morning Light” brought in Wilson’s band, appropriately, to help fill out a song about staying up all night after “closing time, end of the pantomime.” The song caught the sleepy beauty of a morning after staying up all night talking, making love, drinking, and “Wishing that the night would last forever.” The bass, electric guitar, and keyboards opened up layers already there in the song. The bass gave it more drive, and the guitar more tone and color.
These moments of deeply felt life experiences form his poetry and music. There was tremendous songwriting craft there, but the naturalness of expression was so intense that it felt like he just reached out to the world, plucked out the words and melody, and offered them to the listeners.
“The Volunteers” upped the musical intensity, without giving up the passionate pondering of his other songs. “Another” was perhaps the most upbeat song of the evening with a great set of rhyming lyrics about starting over and finding “another” despite the memories and despair over ever “Loving another like I love you.” “Feel the Rain” was the one song that fit into standard pop structure, but it still had its own energy and intricacy far from any pop limitations.
Wilson’s a performer and songwriter who captivates and pleases. Delightfully, his songs stay in your head for long after his show or an afternoon listening to his well-made videos. Catch him live, though, and see how his presence brings his song stories further alive. He clearly has many more stories to tell and the poetic and musical creativity to tell them.
https://www.roberttairawilson.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/roberttairawilson
