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One Man Band

by

James Taylor

 
One Man Band

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Avg: 4.0 (377 ratings)

Sweet Baby James mines his mellow gold in an (almost) unplugged setting.

  • We Say...

    Review by Barney Hoskyns

    "James Taylor Marked for Death," proclaimed Lester Bangs in the title of a splendidly bracing 1971 manifesto in the protean '70s fanzine Who Put the Bomp? Back in the protopunk wars of the early '70s, we were all supposed to revile James Taylor and his kind — JT represented all that was smugly narcissistic about singer-songwriter bards of the time. Forget the fact that James may have been a worse junkie than Johnny Thunders: this music was wallpaper balladry for the new consumers of the post-counterculture.

    But we all mellow as we "ripen and rot" — to quote Annie Hall — and what sounded wimpily self-satisfied in 1975 now soothes and even moves. A stripped-down performance from the old Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, One Man Band has local boy Taylor revisiting 19 of his greatest songs. JT's pretty picking — backed by keyboardist Larry Goldings and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus — is perfectly caught by the crystalline recording, which beautifully frames his honey-smooth voice.

    From early pastoral gems — "Country Road," "Carolina in My Mind" — to later marvels like "Never Die Young" and "The Frozen Man," One Man Band might just melt the heart of the most hardened punk-wars veteran.

  • They Say...

    Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

    Don't take the title of James Taylor's One Man Band literally -- this 2007 concert recording may be stripped-down but it's not just James and a guitar, he's supported by keyboardist Larry Goldings, whom Taylor dubs his "one-man band" in the liner notes, as that's all the backing band he has here. Fair enough. But this isn't just a question of clever semantics: as it turns out, Goldings has quite a presence on this intimate album, recorded at a three-night stint at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, MA during July 2007. During this 19-song set, Taylor gives Goldings plenty of space to grace the songs with solos that show up his jazz chops. This freedom, coupled with Taylor's deceptively easy delivery -- he has a casual authority that comes from touring the same songs steadily for years -- gives this album a unique character among Taylor's catalog. This also makes for an album that relies heavily on standards. All the songs you'd expect are here, all the songs James always plays on tour, but there are also a couple of surprises, like "Chili Dog" from 1972's One Man Dog, which are quite engaging. Perhaps these tunes are a shade too familiar to sound fresh, but given such lovely readings they certainly sound as comforting as a reunion with an old friend for those listeners who haven't been keeping up with Taylor but might pick this up via its release on Starbucks' HearMusic label. So, this can rope in casual fans who will be quite pleased, but this is different enough from 1993's double-disc Live -- as polished and professional as live albums come -- to make this quite interesting for diehards, too. [One Man Band also contains a two-hour concert DVD.]

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