I would like to take a moment to tell you why he is so awesome. Concert is supposed to start at 8 so we figure someone would open for him and we'd hang out and he might show up around 9 or so. However, having the time nazi for a father we were in our seats at about 7:45. We were just talking and I was taking awkward pictures of Scotty who had just taken 2 Vicodin for a migraine when a couple people in the front row gave a little squeal. I look up and amidst all the sound/stage guys and back up singers who were wandering around the stage is the man himself, James Taylor. In a blue striped T-shirt and a pair of jeans he walked around and greeted all his equipment guys while the audience kept on talking to one another. Eventually he sauntered over to his guitar and pulled up a stool and just started playing. People started to clue in and cheer and the band eventually got all set-up and joined him but he didn't seem to care either way; slight contrast from The Cure concert I went to a couple months ago.
He started his set playing some cover songs. Glenn Campbell, George Jones, Buddy Holly, and even some Dixie Chicks all the while his 55ish year old overweight buddy with shoulder length blond/grey hair sang back up and bounced around on one of the back platforms singing along with him and playing the occasional air-guitar as his polka dotted green tie flipped up and down. My dad said the guy had been singing with him for about thirty years. The drummer took a swig of his beer between each song and James Taylor (I just can't bring myself to separate his first and last name)cracked jokes about him throughout the show. A potentially amateur atmosphere quickly turned into an unpretentious exhibit of some of the greatest talent I have ever had the chance to hear.
The greatest part of the night for me had to be the comments that my mom giggled out throughout the show however. In the middle of Carolina she turns to me and says in true Tursh fashion, "Ohhhh this takes me right back to Heritage Halls!" And after Steam Roller, "Oh wow he didn't sing the mother f'er word!" With her pastel plaid button up shirt, capris, and red crocodile shoes with socks she bobbed her head and clapped along with the best of us.
I don't usually blog about the stuff I do but I was blown away last night. I love James Taylor because my dad used to sit at the end of my bed and play his stuff on the guitar for hours and hours. When I was about 16 yrs old he got really irritated with me for messing around with his guitar one day and said that it was his best friend and he didn't know what he would do without it. I thought he was being over dramatic but there is something about a soft, pure melody on an acoustic guitar and James Taylor has that figured out. He didn't play Blossom for me last night but I can forgive him because he played "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma and because the show was amazing.
