James Taylor Sings James Taylor (1970)

    I usually don't put long videos on the blog, but a lazy Friday morning seemed a great time to share this.
    In November 1970, the BBC did a special with James Taylor. Most of the time it's just him and his guitar (with a little piano) telling stories and singing. If anyone questions what the big deal was about JT, I direct you to this video where it's plain to see the connection he makes with an audience. There are not just songs sung by a shy dreamer, but one who by the age of 22 seen a lifetime of experience. He had spent 9 months in a psychiatric hospital, taken up and quit heroin (although he would fight that battle for the rest of the decade), had six months in recovery, had vocal chord surgery, and a motorcycle accident which broke both of his hands and his feet. There has been a host of singer/songwriters over the last 40+ years, some good, some not so good...but the genre (at least in the male category) begins here.