JT & BONNIE RAITT FONT TOURNÉE COMMUNE CET ÉTÉ

NEW YORK (AP) — James Taylor might just be the happiest road warrior touring today, so what makes him happier?

Bringing on old friend Bonnie Raitt this summer for concerts that include the ultimate in Americana, some of the country's most storied baseball parks.

"I've loved her music and her for a long, long time," Taylor told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "I've interacted with Bonnie, and happily so, at numerous benefits for numerous causes — environmental, social, political causes — over the years. We're very much in sync in that way. She's an incredible giver."

Among their stops will be Boston's Fenway Park, where Taylor's home-state team, the Red Sox, live and where Raitt last joined him on the road in 2015. And the first time? Well, that was back in 1970, when he invited the Harvard junior and budding blues singer, guitar player and songwriter onstage for a campus gig at Sanders Theatre after the two met through a mutual friend.

"I was nervous to play because I hadn't really broken my chops in for concerts that much," Raitt said by phone from Toronto while on a swing through Canada. "But I was so excited. It was an honor to be both at my school and opening for him. He couldn't have been warmer and more friendly. It was intimidating to meet one of my heroes but he was just so down to earth."

Raitt got her first recording contract and dropped out of school around that time. Though she was based on the West Coast and Taylor on the East, the two stayed in touch over the decades.

"The affection between us is so clear and so palpable. Our two bands love each other. James and I are both social activists and we're really proud that a dollar of every ticket will be donated to various causes," Raitt said.

The two haven't worked up their sets yet but Raitt just may include Taylor's 1968 "Rainy Day Man," from his debut album and one of her all-time Taylor favorites, written by him and Zach Wiesner. It's old-school Taylor, desperate and lonely, focused on making a dope connection soon after he tried opiates for the first time in real life, setting him on a 20-year path of addiction.

Raitt covered the song in 1974 on her "Streetlights" album.

"What good is that happy lie/All you wanted from the start was to cry/It looks like another fall/Your good friends they don't seem to help at all/When you're feeling kind of cold and small/Just look up your rainy day man."

"It's so complex and deep as a point of view, especially for someone as young as James when he wrote it," Raitt said. "He was so insightful and so deeply in touch with the inner workings and the darker side of the human soul and relationships, and so much of that point of view was so beautifully expressed in his music. That song just speaks to me and always has."

The summer tour has the two working together for six weeks, kicking off July 6 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, and winding up at Fenway, Taylor's third turn there, on Aug. 11. Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., Wrigley Field in Chicago and AT&T Park in San Francisco are among their other ballpark stops.

Taylor, 69, and Raitt, 67, will play hour sets, guesting for each other as well. Come fall, Taylor will come off the road, where he's averaged about half of each year for the last three years, to begin work on a new studio album, this one a look back at his musical influences.

"I don't have a release date. We haven't started recording yet. Past experience has shown me that if you set a deadline you're just setting yourself up for a fall. I'm not writing these songs. I'm looking at the songs that basically were the source for my musical education. The way I want to record them is just my guitar arrangements," he said.

His last album of original material was in 2015, "Before This World," some of which explored his road to recovery. The album didn't come easy. He left the family, including twin teen boys, to hole up in Newport, Rhode Island, following a 13-year gap for release of new songs.

Raitt put out a studio album last year called "Dig in Deep" and generally works in five-year cycles for recording,

"It's a lot more fun to be out here on the road playing than it is looking for ideas for a new record," she said. "Some people enjoy writing and it's always satisfying, but really the payoff for me is being able to travel around and make people happy every night, including me."

____

Online:

https://www.jamestaylor.com/

http://www.bonnieraitt.com/

James Taylor and his All-Star Band return to Tanglewood for performances on Monday, July 3, and Tuesday, July 4, 2017 each at 8 p.m. in the Koussevitzky Music Shed. Gates open at 5pm both nights.

Singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt will join James Taylor on stage as a surprise guest for both performances.
The July 4 concert will be followed by a spectacular fireworks display over the Stockbridge Bowl in celebration of the Independence Day holiday.

Taylor's music embodies the art of songwriting in its most personal and universal forms.  He is a master at describing specific, even autobiographical situations in a way that resonates with people everywhere. His iconic songs, including "Fire and Rain," "Country Road," "Something in the Way She Moves," "Mexico," "Shower the People," "Your Smiling Face," "Carolina In My Mind," "Sweet Baby James," "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," "You Can Close Your Eyes," "Walking Man," "Never Die Young," "Shed a Little Light," among others, have had a profound influence on songwriters and music lovers from all walks of life. Mr. Taylor, who regularly performs to sold-out audiences at Tanglewood, has returned to the festival 25 times since his first performance there in 1974.          

As in past years, Kim and James Taylor will donate proceeds from the July 4 performance to Tanglewood.

LENOX — At some point during his Tanglewood shows on Monday and Tuesday night, James Taylor will bring on a surprise guest to share the spotlight before a capacity crowd of about 18,000 ardent fans.

Singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt, an old friend of Taylor's since they first performed together in Cambridge in 1970 when she was a Harvard junior and a newly minted blues singer, is a natural for a joint appearance, since they are about to launch a six-week national tour of 17 cities, including several baseball stadiums. They'll be returning to Fenway Park for Taylor's third annual appearance there — Raitt joined him in 2015.

At Tanglewood, "we'll do a tune or two of hers, a tune or two of mine, it's a simple guest spot," said Taylor in a wide-ranging interview this week.

A limited number of tickets were available for the 8 p.m. shows on Monday and Tuesday, as of Saturday morning. The Independence Day performance, with proceeds donated back to Tanglewood by James and Kim Taylor, is followed by the annual fireworks show over Stockbridge Bowl.

Recalling her first gig with Taylor 47 years ago, Raitt said in an Associated Press interview, "I was nervous to play because I hadn't really broken my chops in for concerts that much. But I was so excited. It was an honor to be both at my school and opening for him. He couldn't have been warmer and more friendly. It was intimidating to meet one of my heroes, but he was just so down to earth."

About to make his 25th set of appearances at the Boston Symphony's summer home since his debut there in 1974 with Linda Ronstadt as the opening act, Taylor emphasized that "Tanglewood has been this incredible part of my professional life."

Since the turn of the century, he has returned annually, with rare exceptions, and he credits his wife, Kim — a former BSO executive and current trustee — "for opening my eyes to Tanglewood and bringing me back here. It's a great connection, one of the best things that's ever happened to me."

With keen anticipation, he discussed the upcoming tour, which begins Thursday at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

"I've been aware of Bonnie and her music since she started," he said. "She was an early musical friend since we performed together on Martha's Vineyard in those great days when it was a destination for artists and intellectuals who wanted a cheap vacation. I've been eager to play with her some more since that first show at Fenway."

This week, Taylor and Raitt have been rehearsing at the 17,000-seat Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y., which can accommodate the elaborate staging needed for the large arenas and stadiums where they'll be performing, including Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., Wrigley Field in Chicago and AT&T Park in San Francisco. The tour ends at Fenway on Aug. 11.

Tanglewood audiences will get a sample of their vocal collaboration because, as Taylor pointed out, "it doesn't have room for the staging we'll be taking around the country, since it's primarily an acoustic musical house."

"The tour staging is not very complex, with some beautiful aspects like LED screens for the amazing colors you want to paint on them," he said. "For me, it's sort of a new visual level for the show."

"The staging can be a beautiful thing to see, but you want to be careful not to distract from a musical evening, that's always what we've done," he added. "We focus on the music and that's what brings the audience back, to hear this band play these songs."

The plan for the tour is for Taylor, 69, and Raitt, 67, to do individual one-hour sets and then join forces.

"The affection between us is so clear and so palpable," she said. "Our two bands love each other. James and I are both social activists and we're really proud that a dollar of every ticket will be donated to various causes."

Since much of Taylor's appeal to his multi-generational audiences is based on close connections and an intimate atmosphere, he acknowledged that in a large stadium or arena, "it's more challenging to maintain rapport. It's a different kind of performance, the size of the venue does change things. You're still playing to the people immediately in front of you, responding to what they yell out, but there's a sense that you're performing in bolder strokes."

Taylor, who still spends about half the year on the road, counts on the spontaneous feedback from listeners.

"The actual intensity of the emotional connection with the music can't be predicted," he said, "and that's the beauty of a live performance; something the audience creates in their reaction and their appreciation of the music. It's really a spectator-participation event, so the main thing is to acknowledge and emphasize that, and work with the fact that it's happening one night only, in this moment."

"What you lose in trading off intimacy, you gain in the remarkable nature of 40,000 people coming together in a common experience," Taylor said.

"Performing in big places has its own special magic; it's surprising how intimate and how interpersonal it can be."

"In a way, touring is much simpler than civilian life," he wrote recently on his website. "Much easier to see the priorities. It's like being on a boat at sea, a functional existence: everything organized around moving through the water and staying afloat."

This fall, Taylor will come off the touring circuit, retreating to the Berkshire family homestead in the town of Washington, and The Barn, a state-of-the-art recording studio, to begin work on his next album. It's a collection of songs he came to love while hanging out with his pals and the band he formed with his brother, Livingston, during their high school years in Chapel Hill, N.C.

"I've lived with those early songs for such a long time, they've worn such a groove in my brain," he said. "I really want to record some of them, basically a guitar and voice interpretation of these classics." After "picking a whole bunch," Taylor will whittle them down to about an hour of tracks that inspired him as part of his early musical education.

But he's keeping the release date flexible following the lengthy gestation of his most recent album, "Before This World," in June 2015, his first recording of original material in 13 years.

The Concord Music CD, vinyl LP and download was his 17th studio release was the first to hit No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, but he had to hole up in Newport, R.I., isolated from the outside world, in order to finish writing the songs.

"It has to be open-ended," Taylor acknowledged. "I've learned my lesson over and over again. When you set a deadline and book a tour to support it, you always blow through the deadline, finishing the album without a tour after having a tour without an album."

"I don't know how these songs will find their way into my live performances," he said. "I'm going to take it as it comes, we'll have our first sessions in late September and see how many tunes we can get done in a week. Then we'll book another week, start mixing things in, and then we'll talk to a record company."

At the moment, however, Taylor is focused on his concert tour. When asked whether the current political climate affects his performances, he expressed major misgivings, to put it mildly, about the current administration.

But, he declared, "mine is not a political show in any way, shape or form. I don't judge anyone's politics; it's not my role, and I do think my show is a politics-free zone. I'm a citizen, interested and concerned, and I do get involved in the election process whenever I'm invited to. But my typical citizen's knowledge of where the government is going is no more valid than anyone else's. I don't use the bully pulpit."

As any concertgoer who has watched James Taylor perform at Tanglewood over the course of his four-decade relationship with the venue may know all too well, it isn't truly summer in the Berkshires until "JT" comes to town.

The renowned singer, songwriter and arguably the Berkshires' most vocal fan returned to Tanglewood's Koussevitzky Music Shed on Monday and Tuesday night for what has developed into an annual tradition, with a pair of Fouth of July shows offering up his biggest hits alongside new surprises.

Appearing onstage with his customary newsboy cap, Taylor would lead concertgoers on a two-hour journey across a half century-long discography while wearing many different hats at once - both figuratively and literally.

Taylor would kick off his July 4 show with his customary newsboy cap tipped slightly forward, sitting on a stool at the front and center of the stage for a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner before easing his way into some of his biggest hits, including "Carolina In My Mind" and "Country Road."

With his longtime "All Star" band in tow - featuring a list of A-list session musicians such as drummer Steve Gadd and guitarist Michael Landau alongside longtime fan-favorites Lou Marini on saxophone and Arnold McCuller on backing vocals - Taylor would gradually evolve from guitarist to bandleader over the course of his first hour-long set, a role the visibly grateful singer welcomed with open arms.

Songs such as "First of May" and "October Road" would find Taylor's typically gentle acoustic guitar taking a back seat to deliciously dynamic rhythmic interplay between Gadd and percussionist Luis Conte while solos courtesy of Landau and others would find Taylor taking his hat off entirely to "cool off" his bandmates, each of whom Taylor gave ample amounts of spotlight during the show.

At other instances in the show, the Rock n' Roll Hall of Famer would tun his hat backwards - a decision that was oftentimes accompanied not with a gentle acoustic guitar, but a growling, surf green-colored Fender Telecaster and surprisingly soulful, country-meets-blues guitar licks courtesy of the guitarist.

But while Taylor may be no stranger to picking up the pace with an electric guitar in hand, it was his special guest for the night, fellow Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2000 inductee Bonnie Raitt, who got a jumpstart on the concert's yearly fireworks display over Stockbridge Bowl with some fireworks of her own.

Armed with a Fender Stratocaster and microphone, Raitt would first appear on-stage paying tribute to Taylor with one of his own songs, "Rainy Day Man," of which Taylor said her rendition is his all-time favorite.

Raitt would also treat concertgoers to a hard-hitting, slide guitar-filled take on John Hiatt's "Thing Called Love," which found Taylor wearing yet another different hat - sideman - as Raitt's vocals soared above his as the duo traded verses.

Taylor would then return to the singer-songwriter style temporarily with the likes of concert staples "Sweet Baby James," "Fire and Rain" and "Your Smiling Face" before being joined by Raitt once again.

The duo, who will appear at Chicago's Wrigley Field, San Francisco's AT&T Park and Boston's Fenway Park over the course of a 17-city stadium tour, rounded out the concert with what attendees might be able to expect from the pair later this summer, including a tribute to the late Chuck Berry with a Raitt-led rendition of Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" and another of Raitt's favorite Taylor songs to cover, the duet "You Can Close Your Eyes."

Nearly 50 years into James Taylor's recording and performing career, making his 25th set of appearances here, the indefatigable singer-songwriter remains at 69 a phenomenon among pop music artists. JT gave it his all, and then some, Tuesday in the first of a pair of concerts at Tanglewood.

By Clarence Fanto, Special to The Berkshire Eagle

LENOX — Nine-thirty in the morning, with Tanglewood's gates set to open at 5 p.m. for the first show of James Taylor's two-night stand with his home team of fans. And there they were, scores of the most fervent and faithful, lined up for a run at the choice lawn sections.


Nearly 50 years into his recording and performing career, making his 25th set of appearances here, the indefatigable singer-songwriter remains at 69 a phenomenon among pop music artists.

With his top shelf band of All-Stars, JT took care of business once again for an adoring audience — a generous helping of 22 old favorites (plus two encores), including a sprinkling of less often-heard deep tracks.

There were more special lighting effects than in the past, with LED bulbs embedded within white lampshades arrayed across the back of the stage, along with multi-colored spotlights shining with blinding intensity to close hard-rocking renditions of "Country Road," "Handy Man," "Mexico," "Steamroller" and a blazing second-set finale, "How Sweet It Is" that had listeners swaying, singing and dancing, eager for more. Which they got.

As heard on Tuesday night, it was a high-flame warm-up for the 17-city tour Taylor is launching Thursday night with old friend and on-stage collaborator Bonnie Raitt, who appeared during the second half as a special guest as heralded several days ago when word slipped out.

In 1981, his 10th studio album, "Dad Loves His Work," was released, with deep personal implications — his father Isaac, a physician, had left the family for a two-year "Operation Deep Freeze" expedition to the South Pole in 1954 and, like father, like son, James was a traveling man at that time as his first-family children, Ben and Sally, were growing up.

Clearly, JT remains a happy road warrior, easily the most active performer of his generation. And the audience — more than 36,000 strong over two nights at Tanglewood — keeps returning, assured that they hear the soundtrack of their youth, musical comfort food of prime quality.

Right out of the gate, he obliged with a mellow "Carolina on My Mind," his guitar-picking technique at the apex of craft and virtuosity. Much of the program featured revisits to the vault for early songs such as "Sunny Skies" (1970), a faux-cheerful relic from his second album "Sweet Baby James," written during his treatment at Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge.

Fast-forwarding to "First Day of May" (preceded by a surprisingly raunchy anecdote about what the date signified for his dad) and the title track from his 1988 "Never Die Young" album, Taylor also revived his classic cover of "Handy Man" and followed up with a snappy travelogue — "Montana" from his 2015 "Before This World" release, "Mexico" and "October Road," another album title track, vintage 2002.

Following a pensive "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," a slice of autobiography from his 1972 "One Man Dog," Taylor brought out his wife, Kim, to join the band's vocal team for an inspired first-set closer — the hymn-like, gospel-flavored "Shed a Little Light."

In these turbulent times, the tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King with its appeal to "ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood" was especially resonant in JT's heartfelt plea "that we are bound together in our desire to see the world become a place in which our children can grow free and strong."

Bonnie Raitt, greeted with great enthusiasm by the crowd, shared the stage for "Rainy Day Man" and "Thing Called Love," as well as the first of the two scheduled encores, Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode." This taste of their forthcoming joint tour demonstrated vibrant on-stage musical chemistry and certainly bodes well for nationwide audiences at baseball stadiums and large arenas over the next six weeks.

The second set mined deep veins of solid gold nostalgia with "Something in the Way She Moves" (Taylor's career-launching audition performance for Paul McCartney and John Lennon in 1968) and a segue from "Sweet Baby James" (again, the cheers for "the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston") to "Fire and Rain," "Shower the People" (Arnold McCuller's soaring solo, never better than this), "Your Smiling Face" and the aforementioned barn burner, "How Sweet It Is."

The customary final scheduled encore, "You Can Close Your Eyes" — an uplifting 1970 lullaby or, in his long-ago description, "a secular hymn" written for his girl friend at the time, Joni Mitchell — was an ideal example of Taylor's carefully planned pacing, respectful of the setting and attuned to his listeners' faithful, long-lasting affinity for perhaps the most genuine, authentic and durable pop performer of his, and our, era.

Contact contributor Clarence Fanto at cfanto@yahoo.com.

James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt’s first show together was in 1970, at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Mass. He headlined and she, still a junior at Radcliffe College, opened.

Their paths have continued to cross over the years. Most famously, perhaps, they both performed at the “No Nukes” protest concerts at Madison Square Garden in 1979. And on Thursday night, Taylor, 69, and Raitt, 67, kicked off a joint tour at the Prudential Center in Newark.

Taylor pronounced it a “dream come true” moments before they performed one of their three numbers together: His tender ballad “You Can Close Your Eyes,” which they sang while sitting close to each other on stools, backed only by his acoustic guitar.

It was Taylor’s third encore. For the first, he and Raitt, backed by his full band, sang Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” as a tribute to the late rock icon, with Raitt on slide guitar and Taylor’s guitarist Michael Landau both taking solos.

They sang that, as well as “You Can Close Your Eyes,” in unison, harmonizing throughout instead of taking different lines or verses. They had performed together at the end of Raitt’s opening set, too, on Raitt’s 1989 John Hiatt-written hit “Thing Called Love,” trading verses and harmonizing on the choruses. And though it wasn’t a duet, Raitt made sure to include her cover of Taylor’s “Rainy Day Man” in her set.

The collaborations made the evening unique, though on a more basic level, the tour is simply an opportunity to see two formidable artists, both backed by top-notch bands, in the same evening. And by teaming up, Taylor and Raitt can play bigger venues – arenas and stadiums – than the amphitheaters and theaters where they usually can be found.

“This is a trip,” Raitt said, staring out at the vast expanses of the Prudential Center.

In his nearly two-hour set, Taylor sang the mellow masterpieces he is best known for: “Fire and Rain,” “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Sweet Baby James,” “Carolina in My Mind” and so on. But he also had plenty of room for more upbeat hits such as “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” “Your Smiling Face,” “Mexico” (with more of a salsa feel than in the studio version) and the gospelly “Shed a Little Light,” and he worked in some less familiar songs, including “Montana,” “Sunny Skies” and “Jump Up Behind Me.”
Virtually everyone in his large band -- including such session giants as the drummer Steve Gadd, the percussionist Luis Conte and the saxophonist “Blue Lou” Marini -- got at least one spotlight solo, with some enthusiastic praise from Taylor and even a photo display, for each musician, on the video screens. Taylor made much use of those screens, showing lots of old photos and video footage of himself during songs, and well as other video sequences meant to complement the material. It added a busy visual component to music that was calm and centered and soulful, and I wonder if the show would have been even more powerful without it (or with the screens used more sparingly).

Raitt had less time to work with, but still included lots of trademark songs (including “Something to Talk About” and an achingly slow “Angel From Montgomery”) and covers ranging from Los Lobos’ “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes” to Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” and INXS’ “Need You Tonight.”
In addition to original material, Raitt's set included

She also ventured into reggae for “Have a Heart” and dove deep into the blues for an acoustic “Love Me Like a Man” and a blistering electric “Spit of Love.”

“Thank you,” she said after “Spit of Love.” “Glad I got that off my chest.”

Before “Angel From Montgomery,” which was written by John Prine, she mentioned that she, Taylor, Prine, Emmylou Harris, Maria Muldaur and many other singer-songwriters all started out together around the same time, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“Who would have thought that 50 years later, we’d all still be doing it?” she asked.

WHO: James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday

WHERE: Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, N.Y. 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com or jonesbeach.com.

HOW MUCH: $56-$156.

Eric Erickson review

"Last night, the tour got of to a smashing start in Newark!

Bonnie Raitt was sensational…her band cooked and her voice is as strong and lithe as ever. And that slide guitar!! Her appreciation at being on the tour is really evident. She made a remark about how they’ve been playing theaters recently and the size of the Prudential Arena “is really something”. James did “Thing Called Love” at the end of her set.

After an intermission of more than half an hour, the new video system was put into action. With multiple, moving screens, it is really impressive. It starts with a video montage of performances and interviews from throughout JT’s career, many of which we’ve seen either on his web site or on YouTube. At the end of the montage, JT is introduced by several people, including President Obama and Lily Tomlin. Throughout the show, the videos tastefully and cleverly enhance the music. It’s pretty amazing how the live video shots are woven into the pre-recorded stuff. Except for a couple of small glitches, it ran incredibly seamlessly.

Oh, and the band was good, too. Arnold McCuller has some sort of brace on his leg (he nearly toppled over at one point), so he wasn’t as mobile as usual. JT sang strong and was as goofy as ever. The set list was the same as Tanglewood, without Line ’em Up and Handy Man, adding You've Got a Friend and Shed a Little Light, and Bonnie Raitt did Rainy Day Man during her set, without JT.

The sound was good, except for a lingering hint of feedback, which flared up a couple of times. But the voices were out in front and every little detail was audible. Despite the 15-20,000 seat capacity, it had a really intimate feel.

You folks attending future shows on this tour are in for quite an event!"

In recent years, both Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor have swung through Atlanta with some regularity – she most recently in October and he in May 2015.

But for these two musical storytellers to share a bill is a special occurrence, and even though their Tuesday night appearance at Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth marked only the fourth date of their combo tour, their decades-long friendship ensured an effortless unveiling.

At promptly 7:30 p.m., Taylor, in a typical professorial outfit of slacks, blazer and newsboy cap, popped out to introduce Raitt, whom he called “deeply soulful,” before ceding the spotlight to the ever-feisty redhead and her taut quartet.

For about an hour, Raitt wound her slide guitar around nearly a dozen songs, including a slithering take on INXS’ “Need You Tonight” and Chris Smither’s growling roots-rocker “Love Me Like a Man.”

Slender in black, pink and teal, Raitt, that swatch of pale hair her eternal identifier, brought blues (her longtime bassist James “Hutch” Hutchinson served as her only accompaniment on the Smither’s song), reggae-pop (“Have a Heart”) and infectious sass (“Something to Talk About”) to her set.

While Raitt always seems to be waiting to reveal a knowing smirk, she’s also a reliably thoughtful and introspective performer.

Early in her set, she dedicated Taylor’s “Rainy Day Man” to Atlanta singer-guitarist Caroline Aiken, who was in the audience, and prefaced “Nick of Time” by stating, “This is for all of those we had to say goodbye to too early.”

After singing and playing keyboards on that rumination on aging, Raitt, 67, was visibly moved as she noted, “I was thinking about my friend Gregg Allman on that one. Too many, too soon,” she said.

She followed that with a persuasive commentary about the freedoms that American women enjoy – and sometimes take for granted – before releasing her warm, husky voice on the wistful “Angel from Montgomery,” which earned a deserved ovation.

Raitt, like Taylor, clearly adores her band, and she called them out several times throughout her set (along with Hutchinson, she was joined by long-timer George Marinelli on guitar, Mike Finnigan on keys and Ricky Fataar on drums).

For her final song, she added a band member – Taylor – who appeared to have a blast rolling through Raitt’s hit version of John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love.”

That wasn’t the last fans would see of the tour mates – stick around for the encore to witness more Raitt/Taylor magic – but it was an endearing transition into Taylor’s own classics-filled set about 20 minutes later.

Taylor’s nearly two-hour show was a lesson is masterful storytelling – both in conversation and lyrics – and enduring songs.

Yes, maybe some of those ballads are a little TOO soothing when presented in a batch, but when you’re the guy who has written “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely” and “Fire and Rain,” you pretty much have musical carte blanche for life.

Taylor’s clean stage made ample use of a video screen that glowed with scenic backdrops, close-ups of the musicians on stage and, during “Sunny Skies,” his adorable pug, Ting.

Those who have shared concert time with Taylor know that he’s as famous for his dry wit as he is his subtly terrific guitar work. (If you missed his 2015 interview with Howard Stern, it is well worth your time.)

“It means a lot to me, that last one,” he said after “October Road,” the title track to his 2002 album. “This next one means nothing to me.”

He was kidding, of course, as he and his ace band dove into “Steamroller,” complete with musical breakdowns by Walt Fowler on trumpet and Larry Goldings on organ. Taylor, 69, duck-walked across the stage to catch guitarist Michael Landau uncork a stinging solo, then goofily improvised lyrics and pulled a few bluesman faces to end the song.

Throughout the set, Taylor’s voice was creamy and emotive, pausing in the right spots to allow saxophonist Lou Marini to present a sleek solo in “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely” and following the percussive thrust of Luis Conte on “Mexico.”

He also told the origin story about “Something in the Way She Moves” from his Apple Records debut – a particularly noteworthy sidebar considering several members of Paul McCartney’s band were in the audience (Macca plays the venue on Thursday).

“I played this for Paul McCartney and George Harrison in 1968 and the world changed for me that day,” Taylor said. “It was like walking through a door and the rest of my life was on the other side of it.”

The lullaby “Sweet Baby James” (a lone concertgoer with a cigarette lighter flicked it overhead during the ballad) and the emotional see-saw that is “Fire and Rain” – with some delicate drum rolls added for effect – maintained the mellow mood, but Taylor prepared a string of uptempo singalongs to ensure the audience left with smiling faces.

Ranging from the set's first song “Carolina in My Mind” to the final encore, an acoustic duet with opening act Bonnie Raitt on “You Can Close Your Eyes,” Taylor’s masterfully delicate guitar work stamped each song as his mellow voice slid through the lyrics.

“Nashville! It’s been a while,” he said at the conclusion of "Carolina in My Mind." “It’s all about this incredible band,” he added gesturing to the players behind him, including a percussionist, two horn players, a keyboardist, three backup singers, an additional guitarist and a violinist. “It’s the light of my life to get to play with them.”


For violinist Andrea Zonn, the show was a homecoming. Zonn lives in Nashville and much to James’ confusion, was recently honored by the Nashville Cats at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

“A Nashville cat?” he asked. “Apparently when you are a significant part of the music scene here, they make you a Nashville Cat. Who decides that?”

While Taylor’s performance style is often less is more – his preference for his band and stage set is more is best. Taylor’s band includes more than a dozen musicians and his stage is a technicolor multimedia extravaganza with the largest flat screen stretching from the floor to the ceiling and running the length of the entire stage.

The combination of the singer’s sharp wit, stage set and soft style made the evening reminiscent of an intimate, elaborate living room concert in which the singer told jokes and talked to friends between songs.

“I was abroad for a year,” he said, pausing. “That never sounds right. When I was overseas.”

The joke was the set up for his classic “Sweet Baby James,” a song he wrote on his way to see his newborn namesake nephew upon the singer’s return from England.

“I went to see the little varmint myself,” Taylor said. “I thought, ‘This calls for a cowboy lullaby, a Gene Autry kind of thing.' ”

Taylor barraged the audience with cute photos of his pug during “Sunny Skies” and recalled the song that started his career – “Something in the Way She Moves.” Taylor explained it was the first song he ever wrote, then clarified it was his first song he wrote that he would play in public. It was also the song that led him to The Beatles. Taylor said he played “Something in the Way She Moves” for Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

For the first three-quarters of Taylor’s show, fans loudly applauded and cheered at the end of each song, but they were stingy with standing ovations. “Sweet Baby James” received the first and set off a chain reaction. While fans sat down between songs, they couldn’t help but pop back when Taylor transitioned into “Fire and Rain.” No one sat during “Shed a Little Light” and he followed up with “Shower the People” and “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).”

Raitt came back out for a Chuck Berry tribute with “Johnny B Goode.” The song appeared to be the last in his show before he signaled he would do one more. Fans lit up the arena with cellphones for the first time of the night during “You’ve Got a Friend.”

Taylor couldn’t resist one last tune – he pulled Raitt back onstage to close with “You Can Close Your Eyes.” They walked out of sight hand in hand.

He struggles more in the Southwest, where he has to take care to keep his vocal cords from getting too dry.

"When you're young, your health will forgive any abuses," Taylor says. "As time goes by, you learn not to play into nature's hands so much."

Those lines sound almost like the lyrics to a Taylor song. Time and nature come up time and again with him. Those themes - along with familial connections - have informed his music for 50 years now. And at 69, he's still reflective about what makes a song work.

He's been a more measured craftsman in the second half of his career. Taylor made 12 albums of original songs between 1968 and 1988. He's made just four since 1991. But to hear those four is to hear an artist who spends a lot of time making his craft sound effortless. He also sobered up in the mid-'80s, so Taylor has been more engaged with the world, too.

"You join the world when you come to terms with addiction, that's for sure," he says. "I found out I hadn't learned any skills or social cues or the habits you're supposed to pick up between 18 and 35. When you're addicted, you short-circuit all those life lessons. Playing catch-up is difficult and humiliating. But that's what I've done."

Taylor released "Before This World" in 2015 and will bring those songs along with his modern standards to the Toyota Center on Tuesday. Though it's easy to see albums merely as collections of 10 to 12 reflections from a writer issued every couple of years, Taylor's work holds together in an interesting way. His voice hasn't failed him in the decades since he sounded weary and wise as a 20-year-old kid on "James Taylor" in 1968, which lends an ageless quality to his songs about the passing of time.

Popular music criticism has its own shorthand, a series of genres and styles, canonized acts and others that are dismissed. Taylor has, over time, been codified as the prototyical confessional '70s singer-songwriter, a designation that merely reflects his ability to sell a song with a patient tempo through his voice and guitar.

Pictured with a guitar, the image of Taylor screams - or whispers, rather - "folkie." But that's not the whole story of who he was early on. His music flashes some of the blues that enchanted the '60s folk scene, but each album contains a couple of songs that suggest a writer enamored with the evolution of songwriting from Tin Pan Alley to Broadway to the Brill Building.

"My working definition of folk is a broad one," he says. "You're really the product of your environment rather than any other academic tradition."

For Taylor, that environment was New York in the mid-'60s. He was born in Boston, but his family moved to North Carolina when he was a child, where he picked up the cello, later trading it for a guitar.

Taylor's '60s experience is well documented: a failed attempt at college, a deep depression and a period in a psychiatric hospital.

"That gave me something sort of in a way, in that it canceled all expectations my parents might've had for me," he says. "I was free. Which was a terrifying thing but also wonderful. I was free and in the world. Luckily, it didn't kill me."

It came close, though. Upon his release, he headed to New York and found a fertile folk scene.

He picked up good creative habits and bad personal ones from just a few of his musical guideposts: Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker, Odetta, Joan Baez, Tom Rush, Eric Von Schmidt, the Kweskin Jug Band.

"I understand the scorn people have about it," he says. "And the humor, 'A Mighty Wind' and all that. But there was all this incredible stuff you could hear from Scotland, Ireland, the Caribbean. Amazing forms of music that were accessible in these folk clubs, that people were running as a labor of love. Nobody got rich doing that. And I benefitted from all of that."

And Broadway was also there. Just listen to "Mean Old Man," to cite just one song. Taylor calls Broadway "and the Brill Building the pinnacle of the most sophisticated music we have in this country."

Did you see yourself as creating some sort of hybrid of all this music?

To an extent, maybe. We're tempted to categorize things and give them labels and think in broad terms about culture. All this pop culture is where it's at. And I think we all go shopping in pop culture for our own personal myth. Each of us assembles a personal mythology that uses things, that borrows from pop culture. You do it whether you're writing songs or going to a job interview. Some guy thinks it's a good idea to channel Eddie Murphy or Sylvester Stallone. (Laughs.) That's an old example, I suppose. But still … you dance with your new bride at a wedding to a song that means a huge amount to both of you. You take a trip across the country with some college pals, and a few of the albums you take stay with you.

So we're not fake, exactly. But we're constructed in some way from what we consume?

I think these things accompany memories, and they stand for something. So we build these mythologies to express ourselves and to identify ourselves. Songs can be useful for that. Songs can be useful. I think that's the best thing you can say about a song is that it's useful.

If you go strictly by the statistics, Taylor's usefulness was greatest between 1970 and 1981. He put 14 songs in the Billboard Top 40, and these really formed the vessel he'd sail for years: "Fire and Rain," "Country Road" and interpretations of songs by others, including "You've Got a Friend" and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)."

A high-profile music marriage ended in a high-profile divorce.

He got his life together and sobered up. The pace of his work slowed, but the results were often rewarding. Taylor speaks of the Japanese cultural practice of Living National Treasures, a designation for people who dedicated their entire lives to crafts or trades in traditions that spanned generations. He's quick to stipulate, "I'm not comparing myself to these artists by any measure. But I just admire that they've given themselves so fully to these art forms: bonsai or carving or what have you.

"I think the contribution of any one person is pretty incremental, but what a wonderful thing to do what you love and contribute in some small way to it and essentially form your life around it."

Taylor released "New Moon Shine" in 1991 at age 43. His reflections were precisely presented in song form: thoughts, anxieties and enjoyments. In song, he returns every so often to the subject of his father, a man in whom he sees similarities and differences. A father himself, Taylor sounds surprised at the support his father, a professor of medicine, offered when Taylor decided to go play in a band instead of going to college. But his father was also an alcoholic.

"I've always assumed he wasn't so red hot about the life he'd had," Taylor says. "Maybe that's why he encouraged me. He didn't want me to follow in his steps. He wanted something better. That's how I feel about my kids, even as terrifying as it is to see your kid on the road."

This measured and reflective Taylor doesn't turn out hits the way his younger self did. But the richness of his writing through his 40s, 50s and 60s has been rewarding. Each piece of a song appears meticulously placed.

So I wanted to ask you about "Copperline." You could've used any snake in that song, but you chose the hognose snake. There are issues of meter to consider. But it's also a weird snake in that it plays dead when threatened.

Yes, it plays possum, so to speak. I remember walking with my dog down by a stream below our house where there are typically a lot of snakes. And we came across this hognose snake. My dog Hercules was a snake killer. He survived a few bites and learned how to kill a snake. He let it strike, then he'd dart in, grab it by the middle section and shake it to pieces. He was always on the lookout for snakes. So we came across this hognose snake, and it was clearly dead. He sniffed and pawed at it. I pushed it with my toe. It was a dead snake. We continued on down to the creek a ways, but when we turned around and came back the snake was gone. So it fit that song. That idea of lying low and biding time. That's the metaphor there. I've never really spoken to anyone about that particular metaphor. Playing dead is a way of keeping your cards close for a moment.

Which brings up this duality I detect in your music. There are these elements that represent both the familial roots in the Northeast and also a rural quality from your youth in North Carolina.

I think you're right. I think that's true. I definitely identify as a North Carolinian, particularly when I'm away. When I was there, I guess I didn't feel any sense of it aside from being attached to the landscape. Identifying with the physical nature of the Piedmont area of North Carolina. The trees, the bugs, the snakes, the weather, the agriculture and the fields. But there's also this other feeling when I'm not there; it's largely due to my mother. She was a progressive Yankee transplanted to North Carolina because her husband worked there. Admittedly, we were in a relative oasis as far as North Carolina goes, being in a university town. But my mother wanted us to know there was life elsewhere. She communicated that to us. And it's interesting - as soon as I left, I identified as a native son.

I think we often connect more with a childhood home after we put some distance between us and it.

I know exactly what you mean. I knew I needed to get out, but there's always that Thomas Wolfe idea about home and longing for it. That's what "Copperline" is, longing for another time. Going back and remembering something from a different vantage point. What was I, 45 when I wrote that? When you go back and revisit things from childhood, everything suddenly looks smaller than you remember it. Things have developed and changed. And you think it's never for the better. That's a song about looking back and remembering.

Taylor was actually 43 when he released "Copperline" on "New Moon Shine." It's not a halfway point for his career, at least not yet, but that album and "Hourglass," released six years later, found him in a deeply reflective mood about the passage of time that has carried him to the present.

Just the title "Hourglass" is maddeningly evocative, a measure of time spent. Or time left. Depends on how you look at it. Depending on mood and the song, Taylor sees it both ways. But a line on one of his new songs, "You and I Again," jumps out for its simple and earnest plea: "I wish I could just slow the whole thing down."

"The longer you live, the faster the time seems to go by," he says. "The past 20 years to me just seems like yesterday."

He wrote the song with his wife, Kim, in mind.

"We found each other after I had … I won't call them 'failed' marriages because they were to wonderful people, and I'm deeply grateful to those people and those times. But I was maybe 48 when we met, and you find yourself wishing you had more time, that you'd met earlier. And you find yourself wishing you could go back and relive this wonderful thing. It's a song about possibility. We had this incredible sense that we'd known each other before. I don't have any belief system that emphasizes that idea, but I felt that way.

"And that's the nature of a song. One of the reasons you hoist these flags is to be recognized and to be larger than life and this hope, an impossible hope, but this hope for immortality. But the other is this idea of looking for a partner, looking for a home. Maybe it's a little bit of a sappy, sentimental song. But that's where I was when I wrote it."

Funny, then, that the theme echoes "Believe It or Not," which Taylor recorded more than 30 years ago.

"You're the one who brought up the hourglass," he says. "That's what you do on a ship: When the sand runs through the glass, you turn it back over. Over and over. Albums can be that way. They're about an hour long, then you start them over or move onto another one."

It didn't occur to me until after we'd stopped talking that the song Taylor brought up, "Believe It or Not," ends with the line, "While my friends around me were calling, 'today, today, today, today.' "

"Before This World," his latest collection of new songs, begins with the song "Today Today Today."

There's a touch of fatalism in the song's imagery: "The time has come to say goodbye."

But it's also a song of resilience. Of a guy who endured depression and addiction ("somehow I haven't died") and broken familial connections.

He's doing the same thing, just with more wisdom.

"The way ahead is clear," Taylor sings. "My heart is free from fear. I'll plant my flag right here.

"Today, today, today."

Now batting … James Taylor.

And don’t be surprised if the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer hits a home run when he visits the home of the San Francisco Giants — AT&T Park — on July 29.

After all, this guy has been on a winning streak for, well, pretty close to a half-century now — and we don’t see it coming to an end anytime soon.

Of course, he’s best known for his work in the ’70s, softly crooning on such lovely offerings as “Shower the People,” “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight,” “Fire and Rain” and the chart-topping single “You’ve Got a Friend.”

Yet, he’s continued to find success in each decade that’s followed. Amazing as it might sound, Taylor’s scored his first-ever No. 1 album with 2015’s “Before This World.”
We recently spoke with the 69-year-old Taylor, who sounded like he was counting down the days until his concert in San Francisco. Bay Area favorite Bonnie Raitt is also on the bill.

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Q: Hey, James. Glad to talk to you in advance of your San Francisco date.

A: It’s always been sort of a treat to make it to San Francisco, for me.

Q: That’s good to hear. Why do you feel that way?

A: I don’t know what it is. It feels like a smart population — into the arts, into music. So much of the popular culture that I sprang from was generated in San Francisco in the ‘60s and ’70s that I’ve always had affinity for it. Big Brother and the Holding Company. Jefferson Airplane. Country Joe and the Fish.
The list goes on and on. The Merry Pranksters. And the city has famously got a extremely strong gay community, which is precious. To me, it feels like a special place — still a unique American city. It has it’s own feeling. You get a sense of uniqueness, when the rest of the world is homogenizing more and more.

Q: You’re playing AT&T Park out here, which makes me wonder if you ever imagined, back when you were making the rounds on the folk-music circuit, that you’d one day be playing a baseball stadium?

A: It surprises me, too. I always thought of my music as a generally intimate kind of experience, because a lot of it is so personally referred — in some cases, kind of relentlessly self-referred. But that’s where I write from.
What happened was I had this ongoing relationship with the Boston Red Sox, which is my baseball team. Also, Boston is my hometown — so it’s one of my strong spots. Eventually, we decided to take the plunge and play Fenway Park. And that turned out so well — I played it with Bonnie Raitt, too, that year. That was three years ago. Last year, we added Wrigley Field. So, this year we’ve added the ballpark in San Francisco as well as the one in Washington, D.C. It’s great. I was surprised at how musical an experience you can have in such a big place.

Q: Do you have to take a different approach to playing a stadium than you would a smaller venue? I mean, will there be any big U2-style special effects or Motley Crue-worthy firework displays at the show?

A: Well, we don’t have fireworks. But we do pay a lot of attention to how we stage the concert and how we light it. And the main thing, of course, is how it sounds. It’s a very musically focused thing (but) we work with a lot of imagery and pay a lot of attention to the visual component. And that’s something that’s developed as we’ve played larger places.

Q: Plus, you’ve got Bonnie Raitt on the bill, which is great. Should we expect some collaborations between the two of you during the show?

A: Yeah, you should. We’ve toured some in Europe together and we sing in each others’ sets. Bonnie — she’s just so deeply soulful and so musically hip. And she has the best sense of humor of anyone I know. She has roots in the Bay Area too and definitely has a strong following there.

Q: Oh, hey, I forgot to congratulate you on the success of “Before This World.” After 50 years in the business, how does it feel to finally score your first No. 1 album?

A: It was a real treat. I look it as something that could have happened with any of the previous seven albums, because of what they eventually sold. But the way I look at it is the record company did its job in this case – Concord Records, who I have released my last three or four projects with. They did a great job. They had their ducks in a row and they released it right.

Q: You certainly made fans wait a long time between releases, given that you’re last batch of new material came way back in 2002.

A: In the period of time between 2002, when we released “October Road,” and 2015, when we released “Before This World,” I actually released five other albums. There was a Christmas album, which I collaborated on with (pianist-producer) Dave Grusin. It was something I had resisted for years, but it actually turned out to be so much fun.
I also did an album with Carole King — a live album from the Troubadour in Los Angeles — as well as (a recording of) a scaled-down show, just piano and guitar, that I did with Larry Goldings, my piano player. That was called “One Man Band.”
We also released two covers albums, of material that I had sort of grown up with. Those were the sources that educated me in my musical life.Q: So, you weren’t just sitting around playing video games, is what you’re telling me. You were busy.

A: That’s right. And all along, of course, about half the year is touring.

Q: Speaking of your “Covers” project, I really like the overall selection — Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne,” Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman,” etc. But I was particularly happy to see you include John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind” in the mix. You don’t often see Anderson get the type of credit he’s really due.

A: I agree. I think John is underestimated. And I love that tune. It’s such an emotional connection to the Everglades. It’s a very strong song. I love it.

Q: Wait a second … I know what you’ve been busy doing since you released “October Road.” You’ve been busy picking up tons of awards and honors. Seriously, you have really added to the resume in recent years.

A: I don’t know really what to make of it. It’s, of course, deeply gratifying. And the two that I was awarded by the president — Barack Obama — mean a huge amount to me. I think of him as really what a president should be. He had a huge amount of push-back and combativeness and obstruction — and he managed to accomplish so much in spite of it. It’s really because I think his character is — unimpeachable comes to mind. That medal of the arts and the medal of freedom were real surprises. (Note: Obama presented Taylor with a National Medal of the Arts in 2010 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.)
And who could’ve guessed that the French government would want to make me a knight? I was amazed. Also, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Grammy Person of the Year.

Q: Yeah, that’s a jaw-dropping resume.

A: Sometimes, I think they are trying to tell me to retire. But, really, all kidding aside, it’s definitely gratifying.
You know, like you said before, there are so many (underappreciated) artists like John Anderson — and like Bonnie Raitt, as far as I’m concerned. I think she’s underappreciated. I think she should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, without a doubt.
There are people who are undervalued. And there are people who are overvalued. And I may be in that last camp.

Q: What do you credit your longevity to?

A: A lot of it is just good luck. But, also, focusing on live music — playing live and touring. Being a member of a musical community that I work with. That, and the good fortune not to have died four or five times when I was really reckless. A lot of it is just the grace of God that I am still around.

Q: You mentioned Obama earlier, so let’s get a little political. What are your thoughts on how things are going in the country today?

A: I’m worried. I don’t understand what’s happened. It’s doesn’t come as news to anybody what my politics are, because I worked on both of Obama’s campaigns and I toured for Hilary (Clinton), too.
The point is that I think we have to find a way forward. You can’t go back. There is no back. Time only moves in one direction. You want to turn back time to the ’50s? Well, that’s not so great for a lot of people. When you hear the word “again” in a campaign slogan — watch out. Because they are talking about something that cannot be delivered.
There’s real work to be done, in terms dealing with real concerns we have about the future. To pretend we don’t need to do anything about global warming or the effects of human activity on the planet that we live on — the biosphere — it’s just irresponsible. And it sends the message that corporate profits are really the priority and not our children’s future.
I don’t know. I’m worried. And I’m baffled, too. I don’t understand how the same country that elected Barack Obama twice can then give us the result that we just had. It staggers me.

Houstonians had other entertainment options other than live music on a Tuesday night, with the red-hot Astros barreling towards the playoffs and playing at Minute Maid just up LaBranch Street from Toyota Center. This was apparent, as the arena was not sold out for two legendary performers. Many fans were still wrapping up their early-bird specials as James Taylor sauntered onstage and greeted the crowd with, “Houston, welcome to the James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt Summer Tour. You got the right ticket."

He then brought his tourmate and her band up onstage. The 11-time Grammy winner’s flaming red mane with the white spot up front makes her look more like a Marvel superhero than a badass blues guitarist.


Before the band broke into a folksy-rock cover of INXS's “Need You Tonight,” Raitt spoke of being back in the land of Urban Cowboy, reminiscing about being in the classic film: “My liver is just now starting to recover.” If her liver was having issues, it had no effect on her voice or guitar playing; both were flawless and impeccable.
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As the band started playing a mashup of Chaka Khan's “You Got the Love” and “Love Sneakin' Up On You,” a handful of people too smart for their own good left their seats to go to the restroom and/or grab a drink before the massive intermission crowds hit, but they missed a big surprise — the last song of her set, when Taylor came out with an electric guitar to accompany Raitt on “Thing Called Love.” The two legendary singer-songwriters meshed perfectly together, neither of them stealing the spotlight from the other.

Taylor emerged from the break to take a seat in front of the incredible stage, a large LED backdrop supplemented by several smaller screens of various sizes that floated across the stage. The great storyteller thanked everyone for bringing him back to Houston and started the set with “Carolina On My Mind.”


Someone screamed “Sweet Baby James!” Taylor said, "we will play that" and held up a huge set list, at least three and a half feet tall, and pointed towards the bottom. “It’s down here," Taylor said. "We are up here still, but I’ll remind you when we get there.” The 69-year-old performer seemed to truly be in his element during the “Steamroller” jam session moving across the stage like one of those whippersnappers at the Warped Tour. Upon catching his breath, he thanked the crowd for indulging the group during a "shameless display of pseudofunk."

The crowd was seated for most of the show but gave standing ovations after “Sweet Baby James” and “Fire and Rain.” Taylor must have thought this was the old Summit building, because he took the Toyota Center to church during the gospel sounds of “Shed a Little Light.” Like a trail of annoying sugar ants, by then people had started streaming up the stairs. It was definitely past some bedtimes.

Taylor brought out Raitt again for the encore and shredded the guitar during a Chuck Berry tribute of "Johnny B. Goode." Taylor then sung “You’ve Got a Friend” and appeared to walk offstage, only to grab Raitt for one more unexpected closing tune. As the duo sat signing, “You Can Close Your Eyes Now.” tears streamed down many faces while some couples held each other tenderly. As fans left the building just after 11 o’clock, the weary faces gave proof of the energy they emitted during the show, even if they sat through most of it.

James Taylor's performance at the Smoothie King Center Thursday (Aug. 3) was all about the graceful acceptance of the passage of time.





The 69-year-old singer's voice and phrasing were perfection. His blue eyes, often visible on the big screens that backed the stage, were as lively and intense as ever. His gentle, melancholy songs still swelled the hearts of his New Orleans fans, many of whom are at the same stage of life as the singer.

As an onlooker wryly put it, it was a crowd that didn't need to worry about babysitters anymore.


Taylor didn't try to defy the clock, as some aging performers do. He wisely embraced it and thereby allowed the audience to embrace it, too.

When the digital backdrop of the stage displayed old photographs, Super 8 movie footage, and landscape postcards, it was as if Taylor was wistfully paging through a family album as he sang.


When he tipped his newsboy cap to the crowd time and again, he revealed that the flowing brown locks of his youth are long gone. It was a gesture of solidarity.

When he waxed about his life-changing audition for Paul McCartney and George Harrison 48 years ago, many of us considered the impact the Beatles era had on our own youths, and those moments, as Taylor put it, when you step through a door and there's a whole new life on the other side.

When he sang the lullaby "Sweet Baby James," written for his newborn nephew who could be 40 years old by now, or the lament "Fire and Rain" for a childhood friend who took her own life, he made sentimentality OK.

When he played "Steamroller," a hard-rocking statement of sexual prowess, he self-effacingly ridiculed his own theatrical bravado.  

And when Taylor and the ever-splendid Bonnie Raitt joined for a fiery, countrified version of "Johnny B. Goode" dedicated to the king of rock 'n' roll Chuck Berry, who died this year, he acknowledged the twilight of an era.

Was the show nostalgic? Yes, abundantly so.

Taylor, Raitt, their veteran bands, and the audience were all bugs happily trapped in the same piece of amber.

But was it a nostalgia show? No.

Nostalgia is escape. Somehow, quite magically, Taylor and company time traveled while staying firmly footed in the moment.

There were a few touches of Crescent City-centricity to distinguish the show.

Raitt jokingly complained that she had put on 5 pounds during the tour's day-long stay in New Orleans. Taylor acknowledged that he and at least one member of his band had visited the venerable Meyer the Hatter shop on St. Charles Avenue.


Ivan Neville joined Raitt on stage, providing a few beyond-funky organ fills. And an audience member shouted "where y'at" at Taylor near the end of the show, to which he poetically replied, "I'm right here inside of this meat suit."

 

“When you run out of sexy, you have to go for cute,” singer-songwriter James Taylor told the capacity crowd at Blossom last night as he justified showing pictures of an adorable pug on the video monitor behind him as he played the folk-y, whimsical “Sunny Skies.”

That statement accurately summed up his approach to the two-hour concert.

At one point in the early 1970s, Time magazine declared Taylor was the face of “The New Rock,” which they proclaimed to be “bittersweet and low.” These days, Taylor, who cordially told stories about his past and delivered them with perfect comic timing (his ability to stammer and pause at just the right moment reminded us of standup and actor Bob Newhart), shamelessly revels in revisiting his past glories, preferring the "bittersweet" to the "low." Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Clearly, the audience at last night’s concert loved the approach and gave him more than one standing ovation.

Wearing a gray snap cap and brown sport coat, Taylor sauntered onto the stage last night with his eight-piece All-Star Band (the group would expand to a 10-piece when the two-man horn section would join it) to deliver his 1971 hit “Carolina in My Mind.” With three backing singers cooing alongside him, Taylor capably played the tender ballad.


On his current summer tour, Taylor has played the same set night after night, but he altered his set list for last night’s show to include the tune “Blossom,” appropriate given the venue, and told the audience he felt it was “amazing to come back” to the place after all the years. He also altered his set list to cover the Jimmy Webb track “Wichita Lineman,” which he dedicated to the late Glen Campbell, who recorded the song back in 1968. His rendition of the track had a real tenderness to it and served as a fitting tribute to the great Campbell.

He introduced “First of May” with a funny song about his father, apologizing in advance for his use of profanity. The tune featured a vigorous mid-song drum and percussion solo but came off as a bit too freeform as the band lost the tune’s thread about halfway through.

With colorful graphics projected on the video screen behind the stage, Taylor turned “Mexico” into a cheesy sing-along and then hammed it up for the blues jam “Steamroller,” telling the audience, “Some of these songs mean a lot to me. Not this one.” By the track’s end, he was singing gibberish, much to the crowd’s delight. A New Age-y sax solo emphasized the schmaltzy side of the ballad “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely,” but some gritty electric guitars brought his rendition of Carole King’s “Upon the Roof” to life.

Taylor would close the set with a series of hits, starting with “Something in the Way She Moves,” a Cat Stevens-like song that possessed a simple beauty as Taylor’s understated vocals made it resonate. He introduced “Sweet Baby James” with the story of how he wrote it for his brother’s newborn child. The lullaby had a waltz-like quality with its elegant accordion and electric guitar textures.

A stripped down rendition of “Fire and Rain” worked particularly well and an exuberant Taylor even ad-libbed and scatted at the song’s conclusion. His gospel-inflected rendition of “Shed a Little Light” brought the capacity crowd to its feet. With its images of rainfall, “Shower the People” came off as a bit too sentimental, but his jazzy rendition of “Your Smiling Face” was truly spirited as was the set closing cover of Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).”

The encore included a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” and opener Bonnie Raitt joined Taylor on the tune. She effectively played guitar and traded vocals with him.


Raitt, it should be said, delivered a particularly well-received hour-long opening set that featured a beautiful rendition of the John Prine tune “Angel from Montgomery.” Taylor joined her as she sang John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love,” a song that allowed her to show off her guitar skills, which she’s still got. Her solo on the tune was downright nasty. She and her band received a standing ovation at the set’s end and she graciously thanked the audience for its response while reminding everyone about our responsibility to "save the planet." She continues to be a class act.

As Bonnie Raitt noted onstage last night, it’s not easy turning Fenway Park into a coffeehouse. But that’s exactly what she and headliner James Taylor did over the next three hours.

Packing the ballpark for the third summer in a row, Taylor delivered a warm and cozy evening, down to the reassuring cappers of “You’ve Got a Friend” and “You Can Close Your Eyes.” Genial and chatty between songs, he shared some career memories, including a priceless one about auditioning for the Beatles at Apple Records: “I opened this door and my whole life was there behind it.”

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The songs were mostly familiar hits from the ’60s and ’70s, but they didn’t always sound the same. Taylor’s current band is a sophisticated jazz-rock outfit who took the songs closer to Steely Dan territory. He even had the drummer, Steve Gadd, who played those amazing fills on Steely Dan’s “Aja.” The band gave a Brazilian carnival feel to “First of May,” one of the few newer songs; and added a Caribbean lilt to “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight.” Closing the main set, Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is” sounded more like vintage Motown than Taylor’s hit version from the ’70s.

Though he resisted most Fenway performers’ temptation to namecheck the Red Sox at every turn, Taylor did please the faithful with “Angels of Fenway,” a song celebrating their World Series victory in 2004. And there was still time for him to slip into the sensitive troubadour mode of old, as the mid-set offered gentler acoustic versions of “Sweet Baby James” (which he finally revealed, was not about himself but his brother Alex’s son) and “Fire and Rain.” A couple of deeper tracks from that era also scored, including the song from the Apple audition, “Something in the Way She Moves.”

Bonnie Raitt also kept her set on the more intimate side, toning down the scorching slide-guitar workouts she plays on rockier nights. But she did salute local folk/blues hero Chris Smither with “Love Me Like a Man,” and did an especially heartfelt version of her longtime showpiece “Angel From Montgomery.” And when Taylor joined her to wrap the set with John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love,” they knocked that one right out of the park.

When James Taylor played Fenway Park for the first time two years ago with Bonnie Raitt in tow, it demonstrated that a pop star with the heart of a folkie could fill a stadium as easily as a coffeehouse, no problem. On Friday, Taylor returned to the ballpark for the third August in a row, and with last year’s show having proven the first was no fluke, he greeted a perfect summer evening with a confident warmth befitting what is manifestly a man who is content.

Taylor once again brought along Raitt, whose hour-long opening set spanned her 4 1/2-decade career. Comfortable in her own abilities, she never had to push hard to make her point. In her hands, “Need You Tonight” remained as sultry as INXS’s original, but there was something more knowing in it; a dead stop followed the line “There’s something about you, boy, that makes me sweat,” and the silence said plenty. The fingerpicked acoustic blues of “Love Me Like A Man” covered similar territory from a different direction altogether.


Raitt was essentially on her own for that song, but she otherwise benefited from a fine band that could sound supple and sultry whether on bluesy funk like “Unintended Consequence Of Love” or the slick pop of “Nick Of Time.” When they joined Raitt during “Angel From Montgomery,” the song slowly lifted above the ground. Her own electric slide guitar, meanwhile, was as versatile and expressive as her voice: pleading on “Have A Heart,” insinuating on “Need You Tonight,” playfully resigned on a Taylor-assisted “Thing Called Love.”

Taylor’s set began with the gentle, welcoming swell of “Carolina In My Mind,” kicking off his Fenway return with a song about imagining himself somewhere else. (He’d revisit that theme, with a more festive perspective, later during “Mexico.”) A few songs — like a sharp “Something In The Way She Moves” and a softly atmospheric, slightly unmoored “Fire And Rain” that floated a little uneasily — mined the tension between his folk-leaning formative days and his adult-contemporary hit-making years to sharp effect.


Mostly, though, the balance tipped toward the latter, with songs like “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight” and “Up On The Roof” falling between ’70s soft rock and slack feel-goodery. But just as drummer Steve Gadd peppered the pleasant stroll of “Country Road” with heartbeat-quickening jolts, Taylor kept things sharp by never going long without tightening the slack. He brought Raitt back for a stomping and raucous “Johnny B. Goode” where she tore up two ferocious solos, and they ended alone on stage singing “You Can Close Your Eyes.” Their distinct voices didn’t quite mesh, but it was simple and pure and lovely, which was all that mattered.