Rick Suchow: Bass

James Taylor: Covers
Hear Music (2008)


Like a perennial stream running through the Berkshire Mountains, few sounds in popular music are as timeless as James Taylor's voice and guitar. On his latest outing, Covers, James reaches deep into his catalog of personal favorites, and for the first time releases an entire album of songs penned by others. The results are outstanding, as JT, backed by his long time crack team of bandmates, delivers the goods.

"I've done covers of other people's songs since the beginning", says James, "so this is not unchartered water for me. I've always thought that writing an original song and reinterpreting someone else's were similar processes." Opening with a pair of lesser known gems from Motown's stock, "It's Growing" and "Road Runner", and spinning through widely varied styles of the American songbook with songs by Leonard Cohen, Leiber & Soller, Jimmy Webb and others, Covers is at turns rocking and reflective, painted with shades of down-home country, uptown funky and backwoods folksy, with James' trademark acoustic 6-string accompanying his seemingly effortless vocals .

Those familiar with his work over the years will likely hear the genesis of several James Taylor originals in these selected cover versions, probably beating in James' musical DNA for some time now. John Anderson's "Seminole Wind" and "Some Days You Gotta Dance" recall both "Copperline" and "Slap Leather" respectively, from JT's 1991 outing New Moon Shine. Even Smokey Robinson's leadoff nugget suggests a slowed-down reading of a previous interpretation by James, Buddy Holly's "Everyday". Speaking of Holly, James closes the album with a superbly executed hard-edged delivery of the Holly-Petty classic "Not Fade Away", but not before he gives us stunning renditions of Webb's "Witchita Lineman" and Cohen's "Suzanne", a recurring name in the Taylor songbook.

Co-produced by Dave O'Donnell and recorded mostly live-- in a converted barn in the woods of Western Massachussettes-- Covers has all the feel of an intimate ensemble performance. "It's remarkable and unusual today to put 12 musicians in the same place at the same time," James explains. "It's a type of 'live' recording sadly seldom seen in these days of the overdub. You get an immediate energy and it's a whole lot of fun. It sweeps you up and it carries you along and when it's done, it's done."

Covers will sweep you up and carry you along, as James Taylor adds another classic recording to his four-decade discography.

CREDITS:
Produced by Dave O'Donnell & James Taylor

James Taylor: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Steve Gadd: drums
Jimmy Johnson: bass
Michael Landau: electric guitars
Larry Goldings: piano, electric piano, organ
Luis Conte: percussion
Lou Marini, Jr. flute, clarinet, saxophones
Walt Fowler: trumpet, flugelhorn, additional keyboards
Arnold McCuller: vocals
David Lasley: vocals
Kate Markowitz: vocals
Andrea Zonn: vocals, fiddle
Yo-Yo Ma: cello (1 song)
Caroline Taylor: vocals (3 songs)
Jeff Babko: piano & organ (2 songs)