James Taylor
at Christmas
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Watch this column in coming months for announcement of James's next European tour to include the Olympia Theatre in Paris on April 6, 2008.

Let's start with talking about the Troubadour - tell me a little bit about your history with that club and what it's meant for you in your career?

There used to be three good folk clubs in LA - the Ash Grove, the Golden Bear, and the Troubadour. They were folk clubs in the mid 60's. They were jazz clubs before that, and nowadays they are sort of indie rock halls.

Clubs like the Troubadour were one of the reasons that it was so easy for me to get started in the beginning, because real folk music enthusiasts kept these places going. They really loved the music and loved the culture. There were places in every city, and in a lot of smaller college towns. Generally speaking they would be in the neighborhood of a 100 people in the room, maybe 200.

The Troubadour, with 400 people, was sort of a transitional club. After the Troubadour, you're on to concert venues more than clubs. It was sort of a stage for the line between two phases of my career. And the Troubadour was the place where Carole King and I got started. It's also where I picked up a band that Carole and I worked with - Russ Kunkel, Lee Sklar and Danny Kortchmar (originally known as The Section). Actually, Danny and I had been in bands together since the early sixties.

So how did the idea of doing this reunion concert come about?

Well Carole had a DVD coming out, Welcome to My Living Room and I had One Man Band. I ran into her at the US Open a few months ago where she was performing. Carole said to me--as we always say to one another when we see each other--"When are we going to get together and play again?" Then a couple of people from the Starbucks team suggested doing something in LA, and I saw a press release come through about the Troubadour having its 50th anniversary...

In my One Man Band show, the introduction to "You've Got a Friend" talks about the Troubadour, this band, and my meeting Carole there... and hearing that tune played on stage for the first time there. So I called Carole and said, "Listen, if we're going to play together, let's play together, let's see what it's like." And it turned out that Russ and Lee and Danny were all available and came to do it. So we just put it together. And Charity Partners arranged the benefit aspect of the run, the six shows. It just exceeded anybody's wildest expectations because we raised $125,000 over the run of the show.

How many years had it been since you actually had played together?

We played "You've Got a Friend" when I did a MusicCares event last year, and we were on the bill together probably half a dozen times over the years, but that's all we had done since the late 70's when we had toured the world as a sort of co-billed act and shared a band.

Having worked together last week after so many years, was there anything that happened, musically, that was unexpected or different than what you had imagined?

We just picked up exactly where we left off. Carole and I have a very special connection - partially because I listened to so much of her music growing up - Carole and I have a shared musical vernacular. She has said before that she wrote "You've Got a Friend" after hearing a lot of my music and working with me for a number of months, and that it was very much influenced by me and of course I was influenced by her and artists like her, from "Up On the Roof" to the Everly Brothers songs like "I'll Do My Crying in the Rain", there are dozens of them... songs that are essential to my musical source, that Carole wrote.

Given the reaction, are you thinking of doing more with Carole?

We will indeed! To share a bill, to be co-billed with another headliner, and to be part of a show that is more than the sum of its parts is an excellent situation and I really look forward to it.

As an artist, what was your reaction to performing again with James again, and how has your music changed over the years?

Every time I perform with James I'm inspired anew by our combined musical sensibility. It's always as if no time has passed since we last played together. I've been inspired by James's encouragement and example, I now feel confident enough as a performer to have fun with audiences. For example, the restrained presentation of "Natural Woman" on Tapestry has given way to a more joyous, outgoing interpretation.

What was the most thrilling part of the concert for you?

Are you kidding? All of it! Russ Kunkel, solid as a rock and grand as a lion, playing the style of drumming he invented. Mr. Natural (aka Lee Sklar), bearded now and gray, but otherwise looking the same, and playing better than ever... Danny Kortchmar in his badass guitar stance challenging James and me to play better (Danny always makes us play better!) And after years of performing "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" solo with James's unmistakable tenor always there inside my head, there he was, James Taylor, live, in person, for real, singing: "When the night... meets the morning su-un..." Every audience member applauded James after that. I would have joined them had my hands not been otherwise occupied!