LITTLE ROCK — Don’t tell singer-songwriter James Taylor to “break a leg” before Friday’s Verizon Arena show.
He recently did that.
Taylor broke his left leg and injured his left shoulder March 15 on the first day of a family vacation with his wife, Kim, and their twin sons Henry and Rufus, in Park City, Utah, but according to press reports at the time, doctors made a splint for the broken bone in his calf - at Taylor’s insistence - that allowed him to still get in some skiing later in the week. So he’ll certainly be ready to sing and play guitar Friday night.
Earlier in March, President Barack Obama awarded Taylor a National Medal of Arts in a ceremony that also honored Van Cliburn, Meryl Streep, Quincy Jones, Sonny Rollins and Harper Lee.
Taylor has sold more than 40 million albums over the course of a career that began in 1967. He has won five Grammy Awards and in 2000 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Taylor’s newest recording, released in May 2010, was Live at the Troubadour, a CD/DVD package of the Taylor/Carole King show at the legendary Los Angeles club in 2007.The two musicians went out a year ago for 57 dates in the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, performing for 700,000 fans, inspired by their return to the club that had been such a fertile ground for Taylor, King and other singer-songwriters who launched their careers in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Music trade magazine Variety wrote of the duo: “Taylorand King reminded us about the intensity of the song, that the artistically rich and commercially viable are not mutually exclusive and how one tiny club continues to be a birthing room for some of [Los Angeles’] most memorable music.”
In the Taylor/King album liner notes, Taylor wrote: “The Troubadour in 1971 wasn’t the beginning, but it was a big step into the light for both of us. When we reunited for the Troubadour’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2007, it felt like yesterday. It was, and still is, all about the music and the celebration of performing together.”
In June, Public Broadcasting Service stations broadcast the concert as part of their fundraising activities.
Taylor’s central Arkansas show - set in Verizon’s smaller, more intimate theater configuration - is billed as James Taylor and His Legendary Band. The members of the band are Larry Goldings (keyboards), Chad Wackerman (drums), Mike Landau ( guitars), Jimmy Johnson (bass), Lou Marini (saxophone, flute, clarinet), Luis Conte (percussion), Walt Fowler (trumpet), Andrea Zonn (fiddle and vocals) and vocalists Arnold McCuller, Kate Markowitz and David Lasley.
Taylor has been a regular of late at Carnegie Hall, presiding over several shows there honoring the famed New York concert hall’s 120th year. On April 12 he performed some of his own hits and introduced other performers, including Bette Midler, Barbara Cook, Dianne Reeves, Sting and Steve Martin, plus two choruses and an appearance by former President Clinton.
It was the first of four evenings of music, all featuring Taylor and dubbed “Perspectives.” The April 20 show, “Roots,” focused on music that Taylor heard as a youngster. On May 6, Taylor will play with some of his favorite guitarists on an evening called “Guitar Conversations” and the series concludes May 9 with “Quintessential James Taylor,” an anthology of Taylor’s proudest achievements.
In an example of life imitating art, or vice versa, Taylor appeared on a March 16episode of Mr. Sunshine, a new ABC-TV situation comedy about everyday life for those who work in an arena setting - the sort of placewhere James Taylor appears on tours and performs from time to time.
Born in Boston in 1948, but reared in North Carolina where his father was a doctor, Taylor came of age when The Beatles were nearing the end of their pop career, as they branched out into running their own label, Apple Records. One of their earliest artist signings was Taylor, whose debut record in 1968 included “Something in the Way She Moves” and “Carolina in My Mind.”
In the time between his debut album and the 1970 follow-up, Sweet Baby James, Taylor suffered from depression so deeply that he committed himself to institutions, and then added a heroin addiction to his troubled lifestyle. His song “Fire and Rain” refers to his experiences in psychiatric institutions and a friend’s suicide, but Sweet Baby James was a massive hit, with sales of more than 3 million copies and a Time magazine cover story. In 2003, the album was named No. 103 on Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list.
His success led to film director Monte Hellman casting Taylor, along with Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, in his existential film, Two Lane Blacktop, a portion of which was filmed in the western suburbs of Hot Springs.
Other Taylor hits include “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Country Road,” “Shower the People,” “Mexico,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),”“Handy Man,” “Sweet Baby James,” “Walking Man,” “Copperline,” “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight,” “Your Smiling Face,” “Her Town Too” and “You Can Close Your Eyes.”
In November 1972, Taylor married fellow singer-songwriter Carly Simon and the couple had two children, Sally Taylor, now 37, and Ben Taylor, now 34. Taylor and Simon divorced in 1983 and Taylor was married to Kathryn Walker from 1985 to 1996.
He was married for the third time, to Kim Smedvig, in 2001. They had their twin boys through a surrogate mother and in vitro fertilization.
According to some entries on Taylor’s website, son Ben is on Taylor’s tour as an opening act.
James Taylor 7 p.m. Friday, Verizon Arena (theater configuration), East Broadway and Interstate 30, North Little Rock Admission: $47, $71.50 (800) 745-3000, www.ticketmas ter.com
Weekend, Pages 36 on 04/28/2011