Sunday, May 17, 2009

A Concert Review!

James Taylor - Down Home Tour 2009
James looked great and sounded exactly the same as the first time you listened to Sweet Baby James in 1970. (Well, some of you at least. Not I!) Three things I learned about James last night:
1. I knew he was going to be bald, but I had no idea how TALL he is. He kind of reminds me of Gumby... he has these long legs and lanky arms.
2. He's FUNNY. He was cracking little jokes in between songs all night. Example: Before he started into "You've Got a Friend" he said that when he first started performing it in concert, he didn't realize he'd be playing it every night for the rest of his life.
3. He's got good DANCE MOVES. He shuffled his feet and jumped up & down all night. Very energetic.

After pretty much every song, there'd be a silence which would be filled by: 1) various fans shouting things like "We love you, James!" or "It's my birthday!" and 2) James taking a swig of water proceeded by him throwing the bottle in front of him (one time he accidentally loosened his floor plug-in for his guitar).

The stage: Accompanying James, there were four background singers (one who also played violin/fiddle on several songs), a piano/keyboardist, a lead guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer. James, front and center, would alternate between standing up and sitting on a stool. Overall, the set-up was pretty chill and somewhat intimate.

The setlist:

Kim Taylor (wifey) came out and sang backup for two songs.
Native Texan Shawn Colvin sang with James on the last encore song, "You Can Close Your Eyes". She's from Austin and pretty much a one hit wonder... don't feel bad for not knowing who the heck she is because I didn't know either. (She sang that song "Sunny Came Home" - vaguely familiar.)

All in all, it was a great show by a great singer-songwriter! I'd say the venue was about full capacity. If it wasn't a sellout then it was very close to it.

Couldn't get any decent pictures where I was sitting, but here's a few just for grins... *I think you can click on the picture to see a bigger version!* Last song of the first set: Taking a bow (blonde in the black dress is James' wife): And, last song of the night ("Close Your Eyes") with that Shawn lady. I don't know who let her go on stage looking like that, but she should have looked in the mirror before she came out: And a cute tour t-shirt that I got (I am a sucker for t-shirts): Oh, and "blonde moment of the night" (Heck, I couldn't tell if she was blonde as I couldn't see her, so perhaps it was the "drunk moment of the night") ... in the silence after James came back onstage for an encore (while he was putting his guitar on), some lady shouted "FREEBIRDDDDD!" Definitely got a chuckle out of me. :D

VIDEO CLIP I FILMED:

4 comments:

Nutritious is Delicious said...

So glad you had fun! Cute Shirt!

Gumby?! haha

carolina said...

I saw James Taylor in concert recently (same set list) and was surprised how much he interacted with the audience. You could feel the warmth between him and the fans. His voice is still in great form. Just close your eyes and you are transported back to the 1970's. Same feeling I had when I saw Peter Frampton a few years back. Sure miss the hair, though!

Sean Coleman said...

James is still smooth. Sounds like it was an excellent show.

Whizkid said...

Nice blog Classic. Glad you enjoyed the show.

BTW...James Taylor is 6'4"

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