Preview / Review
Album Review: James Taylor and Carole King, Live at the Troubadour
This summer amidst poor tickets sales and various other problems that have affected numerous tours, singer-songwriters James Taylor and Carole King have overcome the obstacles and became headliners of a very successful tour – the Troubadour Reunion Tour – which concluded on Tuesday night, July 20th in Anaheim, California. Their joint venture on the road was inspired by their series of six shows over the course of three nights at West Hollywood’s Troubadour club to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Those evenings at the Troubadour were captured for James and Carole’s Live at the Troubadour CD/DVD which was released in May prior to the kick-off of the tour.
For those unlucky souls that didn’t get to experience Taylor and King live in person, their Live at the Troubadour album is a great substitute that you can visit in the comfort of your own home. Most all of the classic tunes that casual followers of James and Carole’s previous works are included here including exceptional versions of “So Far Away” and “Fire and Rain,” as well as a full-fledged duets on the King-penned number one hit for Taylor “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Up on the Roof,” which was a Top 5 hit for The Drifters. Both songwriters are pretty well equally represented here as far as the songs go and it is nice to hear them back each other up as Carole does beautifully on James’ “Sweet Baby James,” which is proceeded by a humorous tale told by Taylor who is particularly talkative. While the pair comes together in song, they rarely have any spoken banter between them on the CD until its conclusion which is slightly odd.
Live at the Troubadour is a nice capture of the talents of two of the greatest songwriters of our time who have created a soundtrack to the lives of those who grew up in the 1970s. It is also a nice introduction to those who may not be as familiar with Taylor and King’s connection and great catalog of work.
Nikita Palmer for Citadel Digital © 2010
