Country music devotee and music writer Gerry Taylor had 35,000 recordings in his collection | CBC News

The music community in New Brunswick has lost a longtime music columnist, collector and historian.

Gerry Taylor died Monday at the age of 90 in a Saint John nursing home.

“This one kind of threw me for a loop,” said Reg Gallant, a Saint John musician and a member of the New Brunswick Country Music Hall of Fame board of directors.

“I just happened to pick up my phone [Tuesday], and I was looking through my emails. And Ivan [Hicks] had posted that Gerry passed away, and well, it hit pretty hard.”

Taylor’s influence on country music in the province stretches from the 1950s, when he began writing about upcoming concerts, jamborees and other music events in the province, to his final column for the Telegraph-Journal, published in December 2020.

His collection of music, which included vinyl records, 8-tracks, cassette tapes and CDs, grew to more than 35,000 recordings. 

Taylor was  inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989 — the first non-musician to receive that honour, his website says. He was one of five people who helped form the nonprofit in 1983, and he was a vice-president on the board for about the last ten years.

“Country music, that was his first big love. But whether it was country or folk or rock or whatever it was, if it could make Gerry’s column, he put it in there,” Gallant said.

Gallant met Taylor in the late 1980s, Gallant said, but he knew Taylor long before then because of his music column, which began before Gallant was born. 

Taylor’s music column showcased bands and musicians and gave them the kind of exposure they couldn’t get elsewhere else because he had such a huge following, Gallant said.

When Gallant released his first solo album in 2004, he planned to play at the Harbour View High School auditorium. He wasn’t sure how many people would show up. He had his own loyal audience, and they were excited to see the show, but Taylor’s column really helped, he said.

“Twice as many people showed up” because they read about it in Gerry’s column, Gallant said. “He was extremely vital to our musical success.”

“Just about anybody you talk to will probably tell you the same thing. There’s nobody out there that didn’t hold Gerry in high esteem because he did so much for everybody.”

Gallant was inducted into the New Brunswick Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009 by Taylor himself. 

Well-known fiddler Ivan Hicks, president of the Country Music Hall of Fame and member of the North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame, said Taylor believed the best music wasn’t only found on a Top 10 list.

Taylor believed that if someone told a story in their music they thought was important, something they were passionate about, then people could relate to it, Hicks said.

“He was very, very adamant about that.”

In the last two years, Taylor had health complications, Gallant said, but he remained as honorary vice-president of the hall of fame “as a consideration for what he’s done” for the country music community.

“I’m still reeling,” Gallant said.