ROLLINGSTONE.COM – Watch James Taylor Celebrate Boston Red Sox in ‘Angels of Fenway’ Video
By Andy Greene
It was a tough weekend for Boston Red Sox fans as hated rivals The Yankees came into town and swept them in a three-game series, but hometown hero James Taylor was at Fenway Park Sunday night to try and cheer them up. He threw out the first pitch, sang “America The Beautiful” and even got in the broadcast booth with the ESPN crew midway through the game.
He also debuted a video for “Angels of Fenway,” the leadoff song from his upcoming LP Before This World set for release on June 16th. The song is centered around the 2004 World Series, a far more joyous Red Sox/Yankees series for Boston fans that found the Sox miraculously coming back from a three-game deficit to win four in a row. The tune focuses on a grandmother born in 1918 (the previous time the Red Sox won) that lives just long enough to see the 2004 victory.
Taylor spoke to journalists shortly before unveiling the video. “Of the 170 or so songs I’ve written, this is one of only a handful that I actually set out to write,” he said. “I had the beginning for a long time, but the lyrics didn’t come until about a year ago. I borrowed a friend’s house in Newport, Rhode Island and it started to come through. I feel really good about the tune.”
On August 6th, Taylor will return to Fenway Park to play a show alongside Bonnie Raitt. “We’re old friends,” he said. “She has such a connection with Boston herself. We are going to get together and try to meld our sets a little bit, figure out how we’re actually going to make this thing work. The response has been great. Doing this in Fenway is a career-long dream. We’ll hope for a day like today. It’s really an excellent turn of events.”