BELFASTTELEGRAPH.CO.UK: James Taylor review: His classic songs remain ageless as he takes to the stage in Belfast

By Michael Conaghan

Of all the survivors from that gilded era of American singer songwriters, James Taylor’s voice easily still remains the most resonant.

His songs captured the growing introspection of a hippy movement, which to paraphrase Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane, spent the 1960s expanding their consciousness and the 1970s trying to get rid of it.

But though Taylor entered the Waterfront Hall with the bemused demeanour of an absent-minded professor, as soon as he sat down to sing Something In The Way She Moves – a song that he auditioned to Paul McCartney and a note-taking George Harrison in 1968 – the years just fell away.

It immediately explained the reasons why he has not been consigned to songwriter’s purdah like others of his generation: that voice and those tunes.

Though best known for his ballads such as You’ve Got a Friend, which he famously duetted with his fellow songwriting legend and friend Carole King, with the help of his excellent band he threw in the occasional nod towards southern style swamp rock, most effectively on Country Roads.

Here he even got to throw in some guitar hero shapes and later traded blues licks with fellow guitarist Michael Landau

But we were never too far away from an era-defining song, be it the homesick lament of Carolina, or, towards the end of the evening, the song that encapsulates James Taylor like no other, Fire and Rain.
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It is an apocalyptic lament that remains ageless, and for which the formerly hirsute artist, bedecked in a peaked cap hiding the baldness, seemed to suddenly recapture his youth in all its doomed intensity.

Four stars

source: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music/reviews/james-taylor-review-his-classic-songs-remain-ageless-as-he-takes-to-the-stage-in-belfast-30613910.html

PLYMOUTHHERALD.CO.UK: James Taylor live at Plymouth Pavilions

By CLARE ROBINSON Music Writer

IF THERE were any doubt at all that we were truly in the presence of musical greatness at Plymouth Pavilions last night, we only had to look at the drum kit, occupied by the great Steve Gadd, to know for sure.

One of the most highly regarded drummers, who’s CV reads like a who’s who of the industry, he’s the man whose innovative rhythms inspired Paul Simon to pen 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.

He was just one of an all star band that included jazz band Larry Goldings on keys, Jimmy Johnson on bass, guitarist Michael Landau and Nashville fiddle player Andrea Zonn, with the greatest of them all, of course, James Taylor out front.

Together they delivered over two hours of world class, country/folk/blues, sublimely understated with a few exceptions, notably Steamroller Blues. The pure blues belter was the only song of the night that required Taylor to strap on an electric guitar and saw him and Landau sparring, duetting and larking around the stage in what he jokingly referred to later as a ‘shameful display’, while later How Sweet It Is had fans swaying, singing and dancing in the aisles.

James appeared, strikingly, long and lean as ever, yet with decidedly less hair, but it was particularly gratifying to find that that distinctive, effortless voice had changed not one iota. Together with those same unmistakable acoustic accompaniments it transported us back over thirty plus years.

Something in the Way She Moves opened the show to wild applause from the delighted sell out crowd, after which we were treated to the background story of the song in one of many intimate inter-song anecdotes. The first he had the confidence to perform in public, it was also the first he played to Beatles Paul and George who promptly signed him to Apple.

Later we were told that despite being surrounded by such illustrious company in ’68, he yearned for home and the result was Carolina which we then heard, lush and harmony-rich.

Sweet Baby James, we discovered, was a paean to his baby nephew, the idea for which he had while driving back to Carolina to see him for the first time, on returning from the UK.

James played so many of those fabulous, familiar tunes; Country Roads, Fire and Rain,

Whenever I See Your Smiling Face, Shower The People, yet remarkably, only one, You’ve Got A Friend, penned by Carole King, actually dented the top 40 in the UK.

That, naturally, was reserved for a moving sing-along finale after which he happily shook hands, signed autographs and chatted from the stage.

From his beaming face throughout it was clear to see he was enjoying himself as, of course, was everyone present, and he closed the show promising that it won’t be another fifteen or so years before he returns to Plymouth once more.

Source: http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/REVIEW-James-Taylor-live-Plymouth-Pavilions/story-22886838-detail/story.html

EXAMINER.COM – James Taylor is simply awesome at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Georgia

By Andrew Snook

James Taylor enthralled and captivated a full house at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Alpharetta, Georgia on Tuesday night. About 12,000 avid fans hung on every word and every note as Taylor played a mix of old and new music as part of his US 2014 tour.

In a career that has spanned more than 40 years James Taylor has established himself as one of, if not the most significant American singer/songwriter of his era. He has written and performed some of the most instantly recognizable standards of the baby boom generation.

The packed Verizon crowd was lucky enough to hear most of those standards and more on Tuesday night as Taylor was in excellent form, not only singing the songs but also recounting some personal anecdotes about some of their beginnings.

To say that James Taylor is understated is an understatement. He came on with no fanfare quietly walking toward his stool at center stage until the fans saw him and enveloped him in rapturous applause.

From that point on the audience was one of the most respectful to go to Verizon this summer; watching and listening as the performance unfolded over the course of two sets with a brief intermission.

The full set list is presented below and you can see that the show went from one highlight to another.

James Taylor’s voice is as soulful and sensitive as it has ever been and it’s that delivery of his lyrics that makes his performance just sublime.

The word “awesome” is a persistently overused term in modern American English. But James Taylor is simply awesome! If you’ve not yet seen him perform live try to catch him whenever you can, your experience will be worth it.

Set list – Set one

Something In The Way She Moves
Today, Today, Today
Lo and Behold
Copperline
Everyday
Country Road
Mill Worker
Carolina In My Mind
One More Go Round
Sweet Baby James
You’ve Got A Friend

Set two

Stretch of the Highway
You and I
Raised Up Family
Handy man
Steamroller
Only One
Fire and Rain
Up On The Roof
Mexico
Smiling Face

How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
Shower the People

Wild Mountain Thyme

source: http://www.examiner.com/article/james-taylor-is-simply-awesome-at-verizon-wireless-amphitheater-georgia

USATODAY.COM – James Taylor to perform on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2

By Corinne Canning

Sweet Baby James fans heading to Europe this August on the Queen Mary 2 are in for a treat: Performances by five-time Grammy Award-winner James Taylor.

The 66-year-old musician and his band will play two concerts on the famed Cunard ship during the eight-day transatlantic voyage from New York to Southampton, England departing on Aug. 27. He’ll be using the sailing as a warm-up to his European tour, which begins in the UK on Sept. 5. It’ll also be a bit of a break for him and his family, who will be along for the ride.

“It’s a fascinating way to vacation,” Taylor tells USA TODAY of such transatlantic crossings, which he has done before. “There’s something romantic about departing on a boat and seeing the water, and actually experiencing every nautical mile (of a trip to Europe). It sort of makes a connection back to another time and place.”

Taylor first got hooked on transatlantic sailings back in 2009 when he first tried using the Queen Mary 2 instead of an airplane to reach Europe for a European tour. He had decided to make the change after a container holding the band’s equipment got held up, forcing them to reschedule the opening concert of their European Tour. Waylaid equipment isn’t a problem on the Queen Mary 2, which has plenty of storage space.

Onboard the Queen Mary 2, Taylor will be singing in the ship’s 1,150-person Royal Court Theatre, and passengers will be invited to participate in a live Q&A interview.

“If it’s anything like the last time, there will be a lot of our audience aboard, which is great,” Taylor says. “Everything seems extraordinary [onboard the ship]. You’re basically with your audience the entire time you’re at sea, and I like that. I like our audience, and there’s something very contained about it all. It’s a distinct world unto itself. The theater feels very intimate, and last time we had great energy. Everyone had a sense of how singular it was to be on a boat, headed back to the old country.”

Taylor’s also looking forward to interacting with Cunard’s crew. “One of the things that was interesting to me was that a large percentage of Cunard’s crew last time were from the Philippines. It also just so happened that, without my really knowing it, turns out that my music has a big audience in the Philippines, because it’s an English speaking country and it’s very lyric-driven music. Last time we were able to do a special reception for the crew, and I met most of them, anyone who was interested anyways. That was a surprise and a delight. I’m hoping that a lot of the same crew will be aboard this time.”

Taylor adds that he can see why people are so crazy about cruising. “It’s really catching on, this cruising thing. There’s something for everyone… The band and my family and the kids are pretty excited about this [cruise on the Queen Mary 2] coming up.”

source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2014/08/07/james-taylor-to-perform-on-queen-mary-2/13625933/

CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM – James Taylor brings smiles, smooth songs to Charlotte

By Scott Fowler

James Taylor came home again to North Carolina Sunday night, delivering a splendid concert to a near-sellout crowd at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte.

Taylor, 66, grew up largely in Chapel Hill and has been a star in the music world for more than four decades. But his voice remains both strong and velvety, and he has honed an underrated sense of humor after all these years performing.

Before playing his 1970s hit “You’ve Got a Friend,” Taylor described the night he first heard songwriter Carole King perform the song. Taylor got so excited that, he said, “I literally ran to get my guitar and try to learn how to play it. Of course, I didn’t realize then I’d be playing it every night for the rest of my life.”

There were many stories like that throughout a languid, pleasurable night. Taylor also enjoys making fun of himself, as he did when describing a series of songs he wrote early in his career as “nature/spirituality hippie bull—-.”

In fact, Taylor seems to enjoy talking to the audience almost as much as playing, and in concert he frequently turns into a one-man “Behind the Music” special. On Sunday, he described how he played “Something in the Way She Moves” for a small audience including Paul McCartney in 1968 and won his first recording contract, and how he wrote “Sweet Baby James” on a drive from Massachusetts to North Carolina to meet the baby nephew who had been named for him.

As engaging as Taylor can be, however, fans ultimately come to hear the music. His concerts are like mellow family reunions. Taylor is the favorite uncle, re-introducing one beloved relative after another.

He played “Carolina In My Mind” not once but twice on Sunday night, at both the end of the first set and again, briefly, as his final encore. Old favorites “Country Road,” “Fire and Rain” and “Shower the People” drew standing ovations from a crowd that looked to be around 15,000.

Backed by a 10-man band, Taylor also has embraced the video age. While he never will be a showy performer – a major costume change for Taylor consists of putting on a cap – he has added video footage to most of his songs in the second set. The results occasionally overwhelm the live performance but are mostly impressive.

Hundreds of smiling faces of all races light up the screen during “Your Smiling Face.” And “Handyman” is a laugh-out-loud highlight. Taylor introduced it as a “lovely song about a gigolo.” That was followed by Taylor singing live while a comic-relief video plays of a handsome young man who is dressed as a fireman, painter and welder, and flashes a series of way over-the-top, come-hither looks.

Taylor long ago dispensed with opening acts. He simply walked onstage in jeans and a checked shirt at 8:20 p.m. What followed was 21/2 hours that rarely struck a false note.

One quibble: Why make one of the encores the obscure “Wild Mountain Thyme” when so many other Taylor hits (“Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight,” “Secret of Life” and “Only a Dream in Rio,” to name three) were not played?

But with a catalog as deep as Taylor’s, you can’t play everything. And he is ultimately a crowd-pleaser.

At all of his shows, Taylor’s band takes a 20-minute intermission. Taylor claims not to know why, he said, “since all we do is go and stand behind that curtain for 20 minutes and look at our watches.”

But with no telling how many tours he has left, Taylor has decided to stop looking at his watch.

In Charlotte, as he has done on many tour stops, he stayed onstage for much of the intermission, signing autographs and posing for selfies with the fans closest to the stage. Those fans, like almost all the rest Sunday night, went home happy.

CRYPTICROCK.COM – James Taylor seizes the moment at Jones Beach, NY 7-16-14

The summer of 2014 has been loaded with some of music’s storied artists touring across North America. Part of the endless list of concerts sprinkled throughout the calendar of July and August is Rock & Roll Hall of Famer James Taylor. Regarded as one of the best songwriters in modern times, Taylor has won five Grammy’s and touched the heart of millions of listeners with his soft singing and folk rock guitar style. On Wednesday July 16th, Taylor and his All-star band including guitarist Michael Landau, bassist Jimmy Johnson, drummer Steve Gadd, and horn player Lou Marini arrived at packed Nikon at Jones Beach Theater for an intimate evening of music.

With no supporting act on the bill, Taylor and his band took the stage while daylight was still present on this perfect mid-summer’s eve. Approaching the center stage with his acoustic guitar draped over him, he opened with “Something in the Way She Moves”. Anxious to show their excitement, fans applauded immediately upon the song’s conclusion and one fan even approached the stage to present Taylor with a handwritten note and flowers. The singer humbly took the gift and then confessed the opening was the first song he ever felt comfortable playing in front of people. Mixing things up Taylor offered a good balance of classic catalog pieces alongside newer songs such as “Today, Today, Today”. The track possesses a country twang and sing along feel that sounded delightful while giving fans some new original material for the first time since 2002′s Open Road.

Articulating his classic smooth vocal delivery, Taylor showed he still has the sound that listeners have drawn to for over four decades now. Offering up rarely heard tracks like “Lo and Behold” along with “Millworker”, originally from Stephen Schwartz Broadway musical Working, the night was enchanted and full of surprises. Showing his inviting personality to the audience, Taylor elaborated on back stories about each track, making the amphitheater shrink down to the feel of a quaint coffee shop vibe. Keeping the positive feelings flowing, fan-favorites such as “Carolina in My Mind”, “Sweet Baby James”, and “You’ve Got A Friend” concluded the opening set on a high note, leaving the audience wondering what would come next.

After a brief intermission Taylor brought things back to present day performing more recent compositions like “Stretch of the Highway” and “You and I”. While some in the audience may have not been all too familiar with these fresh new songs, it was a gift to hear Taylor perform newer tracks and show his songwriting skills have failed to dissipate over time. He had a good feel for what the audience wanted and moved through the second act easily with more classics like “Handy Man” and the massive hit “Fire and Rain”. Provoking smiles among the theater, fans as young as ten years old could be seen enjoying the performance as well. Continuing to keep the show personal and affectionate, Taylor came across as a sincere man who loves to bring enjoyment to his audience through music. Closing out the set, he played a great string of songs including the upbeat summer Drifter’s cover “Up on the Roof”, “Mexico”, and “You’re Smiling Face”.

Exiting the stage for a moment, only to be overtaken by roaring cheers; Taylor came back out for a spectacular encore beginning with “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)”. Having everyone on their feet, no one sat down for the remainder of the show as the band played ”Shower The People” and concluded with tranquil “Wild Mountain Thyme”. Diverse and stimulating, the song selection of Taylor and his band could not have been better. There was something for everyone here and justifies why Taylor’s poetic songwriting career transcends generations. The blanketed feeling of relaxation and reprieve from the hustle and bustle of everyday life was certainly checked at the gate and left there thanks to Taylor’s amazing performance.

source: http://crypticrock.com/james-taylor-seizes-the-moment-at-jones-beach-ny-7-16-14/

TORONTOSUN.COM – James Taylor pure perfection in T.O.

By Jane Stevenson

The only thing more inviting than a comfortably cool summer night in Toronto by the water is the warm, velvety sound of James Taylor’s voice.

That particular instrument really never gets old and apparently can still draw a major crowd after 40-plus years in the business given the sold-out audience at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre who turned out to hear Taylor, now 66, on Thursday night deliver a two-hour-plus show of hits and even some new songs, including one written in and about Toronto.

The so-called, “night to remember,” as referenced in the song’s lyrics, “actually happened to my percussionist,” explained Taylor, still lean and lanky, and dressed in all blue – blazer, checked shirt and denims – an outfit that nicely offset his blue eyes.

Yes, Sweet Baby James is in the middle of recording a long-awaited new album – his last one was 2008’s Covers – and chose to share a few morsels with the receptive crowd including one called Today, Today, Today and that Toronto-centric tune whose title I didn’t catch but whose lyrics include, ‘O Canada.”

Opening the show with fan favourite Something in the Way She Moves, Taylor joked it was a good concert icebreaker for him after he first performed the tune in front of Paul McCartney and George Harrison in 1968 before he was signed to Apple Records in his big break.

“I know I can play it when I’m nervous,” he joked.

Yes, in addition to have an impressive back catalogue and killer voice, Taylor is also funny and seems genuinely at ease on stage and with his audiences.

For example, while introducing his song, Millworker, from a Broadway musical called Working that closed after five days he kidded: “I’m afraid it didn’t (work).”

And of the intermission that separated his two sets, Taylor joked: “I’m not sure why we do this. We just stand on the other side of the curtain for 20 minutes.”

Backed by his All Star Band, which expanded to as many as 10 players including sax legend Lou Marini (The Blues Brothers), the show was big on expert musicianship, long jams, gorgeous harmonies and played out on a stage dominated by skyscraper shaped lights on either side of Taylor and a massive video screen at the back.

First set highlights from the Chapel Hill, N.C., raised singer-songwriter included the hometown and family odes Country Road, Carolina On My Mind and Sweet Baby James and his famous Carole King cover, You’ve Got A Friend, which he recalled hearing for the first time when they were both playing L.A.’s Troubadour inspiring him to learn how to play it immediately.

“I didn’t know (then) that I would be playing it every night for the rest of my life,” he said.

In the second set, the Sparks of Rhythm cover Handy Man and Taylor’s own Shower The People were glorious, thanks to the three-part harmonies of his backup singers Arnold McCuller, Kate Markowitx, and Andrea Zonn (also on fiddle), while Taylor was at his craziest, bluesiest best on Steamroller Blues.

The most poignant song of the entire night was, no surprise, Taylor’s classic, Fire and Rain, and audience participation reached its zenith as the concert came to a close with Mexico, Your Smiling Face, and a cover of Marvin Gaye’s How Sweet It Is before he ended the show with a beautiful Scottish traditional.

Just lovely from beginning to end.

source: http://www.torontosun.com/2014/07/25/james-taylor-pure-perfection-in-to

NJ.com – James Taylor a friendly, comforting presence at PNC

By Tris McCall

‘It’s a perfectly adequate set in many ways,” said James Taylor to the crowd about the music he was about to play. This was Taylor the self-deprecating jokester, poking fun at the customary hyperbole that accompanies classic rock performance by dramatically underselling his concert, in language more appropriate for a schoolteacher or a carpenter.

Taylor, 66, who returned to PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, Thursday, for his near-annual summertime concert (he’ll also be in Camden on Tuesday), has never been boastful, and he hardly needs to play the salesman. He remains one of the most reliable entertainers in American popular music — a storyteller and sit-down strummer with a voice rich as Carolina soil. His voice is as expressive as it has ever been, and his cut-glass acoustic guitar patterns continue to sparkle. If the old master does not move around onstage as easily as he once did, a sedentary delivery suits the work of a writer who has always put the quest for composure and serenity at the heart of his songs.

Taylor’s music is renowned for its intimacy and modesty, yet he travels with a large group with an audacious handle. The 11-piece Band of Legends consists of accomplished session players with reputations for versatility — including drummer Steve Gadd, who has supported Paul Simon and Eric Clapton, and fast-gun guitarist Michael Landau, sideman for Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell, Michael Jackson and other world-famous artists. Taylor’s two-piece horn section featured a Blues Brother (“Blue” Lou Marini) on woodwinds and an acclaimed fusion trumpeter (Walter Fowler) who doubled as an organist.

The concert could have degenerated into a skills exhibition. Instead, each musician acted as a colorist, adding nuance and depth to decades-old hits such as “Carolina on My Mind” and “Your Smiling Face.” It is meaningful that almost all of the players have roots deep in jazz, even if they didn’t always let that influence show. Their interpretations of Taylor’s hits were at once more relaxed and more ambitious than the ones frozen in perpetuity on lite radio. Bassist Jimmy Johnson gave the sly “Handy Man” a slinky groove; Gadd brought drama and intensity to “Fire and Rain” without calling attention to himself. When the band cleared space for percussionist Luis Conte to solo during the crowd-pleasing summertime anthem “Mexico,” it felt more like a concession to amphitheater expectation than a desire to show off.

If this seems like an overabundance of talent hired to play songs that are designed to showcase their simplicity, consider that Taylor has always been guarded. Since the outset of his career, he’s appeared to be nursing a deep hurt that responds to no salve, and his humor — he really is a very witty man — feels like an attempt to keep a hostile world at bay. Interaction with his band helped him warm up; appreciative reception from the crowd got him comfortable. By the second half of the 24-song show, he was mugging his way through “Steamroller,” singing nonsense syllables and acting the part of a grizzled bluesman. Fully oiled, he saved his best playing for the encores: he decorated the bridge of “Shower the People” with a glittering ring of guitar notes.

These were the songs that listeners paid to hear. But Taylor is one of the few singer-songwriters of his generation who continues to make strong new records in the 21st century — even if those records do not acknowledge that the 21st century has arrived. Lesser known songs provided some of the concert’s finest moments. The friendly lope of “Stretch of the Highway,” a recent composition, set the tone of the show’s upbeat second half. (Taylor spent most of the 15-minute intermission at the lip of the stage, shaking fans’ hands and posing for photographs.) “Millworker,” a character study written for a late-’70s musical, demonstrated the communicative power of Taylor’s voice, clear and controlled as a telegraph signal.

Taylor hauled out the obligatory stage-eating video screen for the concert’s home stretch, but for the first half of the show, the set design was as tasteful as the music. Rows of multicolored filament lightbulbs hung over the band, giving the performance area an antique appearance. The illumination was accidentally amplified by the fireflies who wandered over from the Holmdel woods. They must have heard Taylor strumming and figured there’d be a campfire. There wasn’t. It was a perfectly adequate July idyll anyway.

SOURCE: http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2014/07/james_taylor_a_friendly_comforting_presence_at_pnc.html

CMT.COM – CMT All-Time Top 40: James Taylor

Country Stars Count Down Their Favorite Artists

Singer-songwriter James Taylor has been named in the No. 24 position on CMT All-Time Top 40: Artists Choice, a list of the most influential artists in history, chosen by country stars themselves.

Each week, another honoree is revealed on CMT Hot 20 Countdown.

After his first hit “Fire and Rain” in 1970, Taylor became a preeminent figure in folk and rock music known for gentle, meaningful songs like “Carolina in My Mind,” “Sweet Baby James” and “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight.”

His finger-picking guitar style and smooth vocal ability are now recognized as a touchstone in country music. In 2007, Taylor and the Dixie Chicks teamed up for an episode of CMT Crossroads, and Taylor Swift has even said she was named after the sensitive songsmith.

A five-time Grammy winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. But long before that, the country music community had taken interest.

“You know when somebody is just a gift to the world,” Pam Tillis told CMT. “Every once in a while, God goes, ‘Check this one out.’ You know they’re just touched. They just get some gifts that don’t get handed out every day.”

Lady Antebellum, Brett Eldredge and Craig Morgan also picked Taylor for CMT All Time-Top 40.

“James Taylor is probably the artist I grew up on the most,” said Lady A’s Dave Haywood. “Learning how to play guitar, that’s what my dad was always playing and singing. And from a songwriting perspective, as well, we just love and worship songwriters. … James Taylor is one of those guys that creates and crafts such good, warm songs.

“It’s not like you go to an arena to see this big production for an artist like that,” Haywood continued. “It’s such an intimate experience — his music and his records. You put on a James Taylor record, and it feels like he’s sitting right there in your living room. And that’s what I love about him. You feel so close and so intimate. He is probably my favorite acoustic (guitar) player and probably favorite artist.”

Whether they know it or not, Tillis says Taylor has helped shape musicians from around the globe.

“Every guitar player in the world that’s alive right now has got some James Taylor in their repertoire,” she said. “Every singer-songwriter that I know — and I know a lot of them — has been influenced by James Taylor. It’s just some of the most beautiful music.”

For Eldredge, Taylor’s songs are the best way to re-energize.

“It’s like you want to go to that beach and hang out with James Taylor in ‘Carolina in My Mind,'” he admitted. “He is unbelievable and has so many great songs. It’s like, if I just want to relax and escape the world a little bit and just feel good. The king of feel-good music, I think, is James Taylor. The soothing voice that he has and just the delivery of how he tells the story is brilliant and relaxing.”

Even Morgan, the fun-loving country boy next door, picked Taylor as his all-time favorite.

“No one tells a story better and then puts it to music as well as James Taylor,” he said. “I love the stories and how well the lyric was married to the melody.

“I think, as a songwriter, I would say his music influenced my writing more than anybody else.”

MASSLIVE.com – James Taylor closes out two-night stand at Tanglewood in Lenox

By Donnie Moorhouse

LENOX — James Taylor closed out his two night stand at Tanglewood on Friday night with a two-set, three hour performance at the Koussevitzky Shed. Unlike opening night, the Independence Day performance was not impacted by weather.

“We have been tracking Hurricane Arthur all day on the iPad,” said Taylor at the outset of the show. “It has cleared the Berkshires.”

When the show began streaks of sunlight cast long shadows in the shed and gave hope, if little warmth, to the throng on the lawn. It would be a dry night at Tanglewood.

Taylor opened the performance backed by bass, guitar, and drums along with his four backing vocalists. That ensemble would grow as the set list expanded to include horns, keyboards, and a percussionist.

The set began with “Something in the Way She Moves,” a song Taylor said he used to audition for Paul McCartney and George Harrison that would get him signed to Apple Records.

He was in a storytelling mood and Taylor shared that some of the songs from the
evening, including “Lo and Behold” were written “right across the path there at Austen Riggs” the Stockbridge psychiatric treatment facility where he spent time in the late 60s recovering from drug addiction and depression.The song was the first that featured the horn section and came off with a gospel feel.

Taylor tried to put a charge in what he termed as a “mellow” song list with a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Everyday.” He closed the first set with “Sweet Baby James,” and “You’ve Got a Friend” which featured both his wife Kim and son Henry on backing vocals.

After a 20 minute intermission Taylor returned and signed autographs while the band offered a groove-based soundtrack. Upon completing his rounds, Taylor strapped on the guitar for “Stretch of Highway.”

The second set was more hit-based with songs like “Handy Man,” Fire and Rain,” and “Up on the Roof.” Taylor and guitarist Mike Landau did a formidable job of approximating the blues with “Steamroller Blues,” a song that also came with a disclaimer.

“That song is becoming an increasingly shameful display,” he said, after gyrating and gesticulating rock star-like throughout the song.

Taylor closed with “Mexico” and “Whenever I See Your Smiling Face,” and returned to encore with “How Sweet It Is.”

As the band was preparing to exit the stage, Taylor hurried them back into position for a second encore of “Shower the People,” and a stunning version of the Scottish folk song “Wild Mountain Thyme.”

Sounding almost apologetic about the canceled fireworks display, Taylor stretched the encore a bit further, leading the crowd in an Independence Day-inspired rendition of “America the Beautiful.”