Condon’s Taylor Hardie is running down a dream. The 2013 graduate of Condon High School is moving to Nashville in hopes of playing guitar in the city’s famed recording studios and in the honky-tonks on Broadway.
Hardie is the son of Larry and Jackie Hardie of Condon. Taylor says that he picked up the guitar when he was in grade school.
“Kent Anderson taught me the basics when I was 7 or 8 and I’ve been playing ever since,” Taylor says.
Currently, Hardie lives in Lake Oswego and works as an IT Security Auditor for Deloitte, one of the world’s leading firms for auditing and consulting services. Hardie says that he will keep his job at Deloitte and will transfer to Nashville while he continues to improve as a guitar player and performer.
Taylor says that he has wanted to move to Nashville for several years. It is a dream that his wife, Talia has come to accept. “It took some time but about three years ago I talked her into it,” Taylor says with a smile.
Taylor and Talia met at a party while they were students at Oregon State. Talia is originally from Baltimore and the couple had planned to be married in Stevenson, Washington in 2020. Due to the global pandemic, their wedding was postponed – so the couple went to Las Vegas and were married by Elvis on July 3rd. It was a spontaneous act that is atypical for Hardie, who is normally disciplined in his life decisions.
The upcoming move to Nashville has been carefully planned and Taylor says that he and Talia have a five-year plan.
“I want to be as good as possible at guitar,” Hardie says. To do so, Taylor will need to devote considerable time to practicing and performing. In some ways, the pandemic has helped him to make more time for the guitar.
“I used to wake up at 5 AM to practice and then commute to work, then I would practice again at night” Hardie says. Working remotely has given him extra hours as his commute has been eliminated from his schedule.
Still, Taylor realizes that the amount of time needed to become an elite guitar player is substantial. Moving to Nashville, he believes, will help him to get the practice he needs and to be in a city that has music at its forefront. Hardie hopes that in five years he will be able to leave his job and to make a living as a musician.
With big changes coming soon, Hardie was in Condon last week and played open mic at the Liberty Theatre. Those in attendance and who watched on livestream got to see the young musician perform his original songs in the historic venue.
Hardie started by playing “Where I Come From,” a song for his hometown. He was comfortable on stage and casually played the acoustic guitar, leaving the electric in its case. Hannah Fatland joined him onstage for a few songs. “I used to work here when I was in grade school and high school,” he told the crowd. “Sad to see it go as a movie theater, but it makes for a nice music venue.”