“ Friendship is like Brother Turley in his blacksmith shop welding iron to iron; it unites the human family with its happy influence.”
Joseph Smith
Okay, this is for all you who like me were dumb enough to miss James Taylor and Carol King’s “Troubadour Reunion” world tour. The tour came to Salt Lake and played at the pro basketball arena. That and to a lesser extent the price put me off and I made the choice to pass on it. Big mistake! From reports I heard, the sound was great, my biggest problem with that particular venue. It echoes like crazy, but apparently it was draped off and reduced in size to make for a much more intimate experience than you’d expect and the echo was effectively killed. So I blew it! But take heart, there’s a poor man’s substitute for missing the live concert in the form of the 2007 recording “Carol King & James Taylor Live at the Troubadour”. This recording came about as part of a celebration of the famed venue’s 50th anniversary. CK and JT were among the foremost artists to perform there in its early history. The tour came about as an outgrowth of the set presented on this album. This album is many things, but foremost it’s a celebration of friendship. Starting with the picture on the cover to the interplay between the two throughout the concert it’s pretty obvious that this is truly a reunion of old friends; a love fest without romantic overtones! I’ve really enjoyed this recording both the cd and the dvd which are packaged together. The sound is top notch and the interaction between JT and CK is priceless. If you’re a fan of one or the other or both (and who isn’t!), this is a great deal. For less than $20.00 you can have a front row seat, maybe even better since the camera takes you places you could never go from a typical concert seat. The set list doesn't depart too far from their classic hits. No surprise there, but there were a few tracks I hadn't heard before: "Blossom", "Machine Gun Kelly"and "You Can Close Your Eyes". Probably a more dedicated fan wouldn't be able to say that. Getting back to the sound, I was particularly impressed with JT’s playing. His guitar just sparkles. It doesn’t hurt that he’s using a couple of James Olson’s excellent instruments on all the acoustic tracks. I’ve always enjoyed his finger picking style. You might think that age is catching up with their voices, but not so. They’re vocals are excellent. Give this one a whirl!
More info at: http://www.caroleking.com/home.php
http://www.jamestaylor.com/splash.aspx
http://www.olsonguitars.com/index.html
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| Two James, Taylor and Olson |
4 comments:
Great review! The DVD sounds like a must-have. I was at that Salt Lake concert and remember finding it hard to hold back the tears as they played the soundtrack to my life. So many memories are wrapped up in their songs. "You Can Close Your Eyes" is one of my favorites!
Yeah, you were wise to go. I miss a lot of concerts, but that one was a real regret. I don't know where I've been, but I was only familiar with Linda Ronstadt's version of "You Can Close Your Eyes". It's JT's song and was a perfect close to the concert per the dvd. BTW does my blog header photo look familiar?
Does sound like a good concert. Just so you know, and can fix it. You left the s off of James in your blog title.
Where's spell checker when you need it!
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