The Damascus Road Trio
Introducing doug taylor, Baritone
In the 1950's my mom was with a family quartet that traveled to radio stations and sang southern gospel live on the radio so I've always been around that style of music. When I was 6 years old, my dad helped start a southern gospel show in southern Ohio and one of the first groups I remember hearing was The Kingsmen. I bought every record they made and stood in front of the record player for hours trying to hit every note Johnny Parrack and Ray Dean Reese would hit. (yes, I'm giving my age away) In those days I was a member of the Mt. Sterling First Church of the Nazarene in Mt. Sterling, Ohio and we didn’t even have a choir so I wasn’t involved in anything to do with singing myself. In school I was very involved in music but never sang. I was offered a music scholarship after high school but turned it down to pursue my dream of playing sports and to be a firefighter. I also marched and taught a couple of Drum Corp International groups that traveled all over the United States as well as several high school marching bands in 4 different states, which kept me really busy. After I stopped traveling with those groups, I started running sound for a few nationally known music groups as well as playing drums on tour and in studio whenever time allowed.
At this point in life, I had graduated from both police and fire academy and was a fulltime police officer so I didn’t have the time to travel like I did in the past. I stopped teaching music and playing drums all together near the mid 90's when I just didn’t have the time to do so. I got the music bug again a few years later after being asked to help produce a record for a southern gospel group I had worked with before as a sound engineer. They needed background voices on one track so I agreed to help them out and my singing career was off and running. After getting married to my wife in the late 1990’s, I wanted to go back to my roots and make a joyful noise unto the Lord, but no one wanted a totally inexperienced singer. After a few years, I attempted to start my own southern gospel group. The first person to answer my add was Dan Ramirez. Dan stayed with me for about 5 years, and we went through about 8 other tenors and bass singers trying to find the right fit for the group. Danny was also singing with a group called The Mastersmen, and when he left the group to go to a new group he was helping to start, I took his place as the lead for the group. Eventually I left The Mastersmen to make one more attempt to start my own group, this time with a guy named John Steele. After John and I continued to have problems keeping the group together, I went to Danny’s new group, Side by Side to run sound and to help with the production of their first studio recording. Shortly after that, Dan left and I took his place as baritone with that group. He eventually started his own group, The Damascus Road Trio, and just recently decided to retire. In a twist of fate they posted an ad for a baritone, shortly after Side by Side broke up due to scheduling conflicts within the group. After an extensive audition period, I was offered the position and once again, I followed Danny into his old role. With the support of my wife and kids, I hope that I don't follow Dan into retirement anytime in the near future!