Photo by Deb Gau Jack Taylor plays guitar and sings on Marshall’s Main Street Wednesday. Taylor, a traveling musician, said southwest Minnesota is a place with positive energy.

MARSHALL — There was the usual bustle and traffic noise at the corner of Main Street and College Drive on Wednesday afternoon. But there was also the sound of music as Jack Taylor sang and played a guitar.

Taylor said he’s traveled across the country as a musician. In recent years, though, he’s come back to visit Marshall a few times.

“It really does recharge my batteries,” he said Wednesday. There seemed to be something positive about the energy in small towns in southwest Minnesota — like a ley line, he said. “It sounds crazy or whatever, but it’s my thing.”

Taylor is originally from South Dakota, and he said he started playing in bands when he was in his early 20s.

“About 10 years ago, I was like, ‘I’ve gotta get back to it,’ “ he said.

Taylor said he had come back to southwest Minnesota a few times over the past two or three years, as a break from traveling. As he sat along Main Street Wednesday afternoon, Taylor said he had a “fairly deep repertory” of songs on his mind that he could play. One example was “Break My Stride” by Matthew Wilder, he said.

“A lot of the fun is just sitting here making it up,” he said.

Taylor said he tried to pick a spot to play where it would be clear he wasn’t panhandling. Where he was sitting, a short way down Main Street from the College Drive intersection, wasn’t a place cars could easily stop.

Taylor said there was a good atmosphere in Marshall and area communities.

“The people are nice,” he said.

He added that communities in southwest Minnesota also seemed to compete with each other to have nice-looking downtown areas. At first, he thought Marshall might have had a specific connection to music, after seeing two different music businesses and a music-themed mural on Main Street.

Taylor said it seemed like currently, society was at a low point for people engaging with music. There weren’t many people forming bands of their own. Connecting with an audience was what Taylor said he enjoyed about playing.

“Really when it comes down to it, it’s the people,” he said.