Maria Diane Taylor (born May 21, 1976) is an American singer/songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama. She is also a member of the duo Azure Ray, with Orenda Fink, and Now It's Overhead, both on Saddle Creek Records. She plays several instruments, including the piano, guitar, and drums. Taylor plays with the high E-string removed from her guitar. Taylor previously dated Bright Eyes singer-songwriter Conor Oberst. She is married to Ryan Dwyer and has two children.
Taylor started her musical career at the age of fifteen in the band Little Red Rocket with Orenda Fink which released two albums on Geffen, Who Did You Pay (1997) and It's in the Sound (2000). The group disbanded during the merging of Geffen with Universal Music Group.
Taylor later moved to Athens, Georgia along with her musical collaborator, Fink where they formed the band Azure Ray.
Taylor released her first solo album 11:11 on Saddle Creek Records on May 24, 2005. The album features Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Gretta Cohn of Cursive, Andy LeMaster and Mike Mogis as both musicians and producers. Grey's Anatomy named its March 31, 2011 episode Song Beneath the Song after a track from the album and also featured the song on the original soundtrack. Taylor later recorded a new song for Grey's Anatomy's 2005 Christmas episode entitled Christmas After All. Her second solo album, Lynn Teeter Flower, was released on March 6, 2007, also on Saddle Creek. A Good Start, the first track, was subsequently named one of NPR's 10 best songs of the year for 2007. The Ballad of Sean Foley was co-written with Conor Oberst. The following year she released an acoustic album titled Savannah Drive with Andy LeMaster which includes stripped-down versions of songs from her first two albums, plus one new track, Tell Me.
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