Concert Review: James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt at the Xcel Energy Center

Poster for James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt.

On Friday night James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt brought their songs to the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul in front of a supportive and enthusiastic audience. The show was Raitt’s first since undergoing emergency surgery at the end of April. She looked and sounded good, and she played some awesome guitar during her hour-long set. 

Taylor came out onstage to introduce Raitt, which was a nice gesture. It was clear to see throughout the evening what a close bond the two musicians have. I’m not that familiar with Bonnie Raitt’s music, but I enjoyed hearing her in person, and she puts on a very good show. Raitt’s songs were mainly the blues-rock that she’s most famous for, and her killer band did a great job backing her up. I was excited to learn that Ricky Fataar played the drums in Raitt’s band. To me, Fataar will always be the silent Stig O’Hara from Eric Idle and Neil Innes’ Beatles parody The Rutles. Cool fact: Fataar also played drums for the Beach Boys in the early 1970’s.

I can’t remember the first time I heard of James Taylor. Since we share a last name, I feel like I’ve always known who he was, simply because he was one of the most famous people with my last name. I didn’t listen to his music until I was an adult, but I really enjoy his songs. As I wrote in my review of Paul Simon’s concert, there’s something about Simon and Taylor’s voices that is warm and comforting. James Taylor always feels like autumn to me—he balances the excitement of summer with the wistful melancholy of winter. 

My wife and I saw James Taylor sing “America the Beautiful” at Obama’s second inauguration, but I hadn’t seen him in concert before. Taylor is an engaging performer with a low-key charisma who draws you into his songs and stories. In the video montage that preceded Taylor taking the stage, he said in an interview, “When I write songs I don’t present a version of myself, I’m presenting myself.” I thought that was an astute comment about his musical style. 

Taylor’s set list drew heavily from his classic 1970’s albums, and included just about all of his best-known songs. Highlights included a smoking version of Taylor’s blues parody “Steamroller,” which he said “takes longer to perform than it did to write.” Taylor opened with “Carolina in My Mind,” one of his classic songs, and a beautiful evocation of home. 

The band backing Taylor did a superb job of making his melodies come alive, and Taylor is an inventive enough singer that he’s able to vary his phrasing without making the songs sound totally different from the studio versions. Taylor’s voice has also held up amazingly well over the years. At 70, he doesn’t seem to have lost any of his top range, and his voice still has the same high tenor sweetness that it did back in the 1970’s. 

Taylor sang several songs accompanied by his backup singers, and it was lovely to hear them harmonize together. One of the highlights was “Shed a Little Light,” a lovely gospel-inflected song from Taylor’s 1991 album, New Moon Shine. Taylor also performed excellent versions of “Mexico,” “Up on the Roof,” and “Shower the People,” three of my favorites from his catalogue.

The encore was superb, as Bonnie Raitt came back out to join Taylor and the band for a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.” Taylor then sang a lovely version of “You’ve Got a Friend,” and serenaded Raitt with “You Can Close Your Eyes.” It was a fun evening with one of great singer-songwriters. 

Album Review: James Taylor, "Before This World" (2015)

Album cover for "Before This World," James Taylor, 2015.

James Taylor, 2015. No, I'm not related to him.

James Taylor’s music has always reminded me of autumn. There’s a wistful, elegiac feel to it, a certain unhurried melancholy that reminds me of the leaves changing colors. Taylor’s songs have always been warm and accessible, and his sensitive lyrics show his deep compassion.

Taylor’s new album, “Before This World,” was released in June, and it’s his first album of new material in thirteen years, since 2002’s “October Road.” In the intervening years Taylor hadn’t disappeared, as he released a Christmas album, an album of covers, and two live albums. But his songwriting muse seemed to have dried up, and in interviews promoting “Before This World” Taylor has spoken of consciously taking time off to write another album, saying he wasn’t sure he would ever record another album of original songs. I’m happy he took the time to write “Before This World,” as it’s an excellent record. 

“Before This World” isn’t a departure from Taylor’s well-established musical style, but that’s not a bad thing. As Taylor said in a recent Rolling Stone interview, “I’m not the type of musician who reinvents himself over and over again. I am a slow evolution of a style of recording and writing, and I do think that in ways I get better at it.” Taylor’s beautiful high, yearning voice hasn’t changed very much over the years, and it’s a comfort to hear him again.

The songs on “Before This World” show Taylor’s range as a songwriter, as he covers topics from the war in Afghanistan to the Red Sox victory in the 2004 World Series. All of the songs are excellent. Sure, “Angels of Fenway” might be a little cheesy, but if my favorite baseball team hadn’t won the World Series in 86 years, I’d probably write a sappy song about it too. My favorite songs on the album are “Montana,” “SnowTime,” and the gorgeous medley of “Before This World/Jolly Springtime.” “Montana” is a lovely ballad, as the narrator tells us of his affection for his home. “SnowTime” is about finding the spirit of summer, even when you’re in Toronto and it’s the middle of winter. As Taylor sings, “Someone summoned up summer just strumming on an old guitar/and every note was the antidote to December.” “Before This World/Jolly Springtime” is a medley of new Taylor songs that both sound like they could be old folk songs. Sting adds a lovely harmony vocal to “Before This World,” which also features Yo-Yo Ma on cello. “Jolly Springtime” has some of my favorite lyrics on the album, as Taylor sings, “Thin, thin, the moment is thin/ever so narrow the now/everybody say got to live in today/don’t nobody know how.” 

“Before This World” had a huge first week on the charts in June, and amazingly enough, became Taylor’s very first Number One album. Taylor has scored a Top Ten album in every decade since the 1970’s, 12 Top Ten albums in all, and now he finally has a Number One. That’s a pretty nice accomplishment. 

The last song on “Before This World” is a lovely version of the old Scottish folk song “Wild Mountain Thyme.” As I listen to the song again for this review, the next song that starts playing on my iTunes is “Something in the Way She Moves,” recorded in 1968 for Taylor’s first album, on the Beatles’ Apple label. Amazingly, Taylor’s high, pure voice sounds just about the same on both songs. It’s good to have him back again.