Carole King / James Taylor Troubadour Reunion Tour
If you're a Boomer, you probably remember what you were doing the summer Carole King's "Tapestry" album filled the airwaves. And during solitary moments in the dorm, James Taylor's rendition of, "You've Got a Friend" (written by Carole King), reminded you that true love isn't always necessarily of the romantic kind.
Well, now Carole King and James Taylor are counting on millions of their contemporaries to join them on a sentimental journey back to the 60s and 70s, when their individual and combined musical efforts gave voice to the inner feelings of a generation. Inspired by a collaboration that began in 1969, with a gig at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles, and revived in 2007 with a reunion performance to mark the 50th anniversary of the Troubadour, King and Taylor have scheduled a "once in a lifetime" world tour that begins in Melbourne, Australia, on March 26, 2010, and travels to New Zealand, Japan, and the United States through the summer. Dates have not yet been set for shows in Europe. Original bandmates, guitarist Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, drummer Russ Kunkel and bassist Lee Sklar, will join them on the tour.
Carole King
With her heartfelt pop lyrics and soulful music, Carole King (often with first husband and longtime writing partner Gerry Goffin) provided rich source material for numerous successful cover artists during the 1960s, with hit songs such as:
- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
- Pleasant Valley Sunday
- Take Good Care of My Baby
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- Locomotion
- Chains, and
- Don't Say Nothin' Bad About My Baby
Her subsequent foray into singer/songwriter territory netted similar success, the apex of which was "Tapestry", the 1971 album that became the "longest charting album by a female solo artist" (wikipedia). King's piano playing has always been a perfect undercurrent for the emotional trajectory of her songs, which she offers in a vocal rendition full of both longing and pop sensibility. Her contemporary, singer/songwriter Karla Bonoff comes to mind as another example of the personal-journey-made-manifest-in-song genre, with a similarly unvarnished presentation and production values, although certainly not with the incredible long-running success that King has found. According to statistics published on her Web site, "over 400 of [Carole King's] compositions have been recorded by more than 1000 artists, resulting in 100 hit singles - many reaching #1."
James Taylor
Beginning in the 1960s, tall and lanky, moody and introspective James Taylor penned and performed songs about his personal dramas and visions, tuning in naturally to the tone of the times. The simplicity of his sonorous acoustic guitar fingering and vocal delivery brought Billboard magazine Top 10 status to songs such as:
- Fire and Rain
- You've Got a Friend
- How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You, and
- Handy Man
His years of struggles, both romantic and psychological, including long use of drugs and attempts to get past them, sometimes slowed but didn't defeat his productivity. He's been quoted as saying, about his mental health issues, "It's an inseparable part of my personality that I have these feelings." And certainly his inner torments were channeled into songs that many of his listeners, confronting their own developmental demons, could identify with. In 1969, Taylor had a six-night run at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles, followed by a memorable performance at the Newport Folk Festival, where he was cheered by thousands of rain-soaked fans. Later that same year, he collaborated with Carole King on his second album, "Sweet Baby James", released in February 1970. It was Taylor's breakthrough production up to that point, garnering critical acclaim and reaching #3 on the Billboard charts.
On his long journey through the decades, he has continued to chronicle thoughts about life and love. Now, in a more stable and peaceful comeback phase, Taylor's more recent performances have included benefits for environmental and social causes such as the 2004 Vote for Change tour through electoral swing states and at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial in January 2009.
A Boomer Odyssey
For a generation old enough now to be sentimental, yet full of erstwhile youthful enthusiasm for the music of their formative years and looking for a soundtrack to accompany them on their next phase of self-actualization, the Carole King / James Taylor Troubadour Reunion Tour seems perfectly timed to remind Boomers of their roots and dreams.
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