James Taylor speaks with the wonderment of a child just opening his eyes, yet with the knowledge of the 60-year-old New Englander he is.
The legendary singer-songwriter seems appreciative of the way things are — in his life, on the land near his home, in the venues he regularly frequents — but he has an intense affinity for how these things became the way they are.
Talking from his Portland, Ore., hotel room last week, Taylor mused about Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the site of his two Colorado shows on Wednesday and Thursday.
“It definitely goes on the list of my favorite places to play,” Taylor said with clear Massachusetts enunciation.
But he moves directly into what interests him more: The history of Red Rocks, going back to the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration.
“We play a number of those WPA/National Recovery Act theaters and venues,” Taylor said, recounting some of his favorite spots around the country including the Jones Beach Amphitheatre in New York and the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. “I like playing those and thinking about how they were ‘get the nation back to work’ kinds of things.
“It’s amazing to play those places because they’re often in remarkable places. . . . There’s also something about the FDR era, the thought of how and why they were built and the gangs of unemployed people being rounded up and brought out there to build these places.”
They’re venues with a history. And they’re among Taylor’s favorites to play for a reason. The Post caught up with Taylor last week during a lengthy conversation that spanned topics as varied as his home in western Massachusetts, his “Band of Legends” and his obvious affinity for translating other people’s songs, which is the focus of his current tour.
Q: You live near Boston, right? What inspires you about the land around your home?
A: We’re about two hours outside of Boston, three from New York. We live in a state forest that was . . . a planted forest, a Civilian Conservation Corps effort. They brought people out of New York and Boston to large camps there, and they would plant tracts of various kinds of trees with the idea that they’d be timber down the line.
Then the war broke out, and everybody was employed because of the war effort, and they never made it back to do the second phase on the timber. It’s interesting to me that some 60 years later, we’ve got these large tracts of forest that should have been thinned 12 years after they were planted — two-thirds of them should have been axed. Now you can’t get it right. Leave them standing, and many of them will die of disease. Cut down half of them, and the other half will blow over.
Q: You say it’s a forest, and it sounds pretty wild.
A: It’s a surprisingly wild place. We have bear, wildcat, bobcat, mountain lion … coyotes, foxes and more.
Q: You recorded the forthcoming covers record on your property, right?
A: Yeah, in a converted barn for 10 days. Many of the arrangements were things we’ve been playing for years. Others were songs I’ve always wanted to try. When it came to the overdub phase, which usually takes a month for vocals and other overdubs, it took us two days because we basically cut these songs live.
Q: Given the experience and talent level in the band, I’m guessing you guys had a lot of fun recording in that style.
A: Absolutely. It was the middle of winter and everything happened at the same moment and in the same space. It takes a band that listens and has played together for many years to be able to listen and perform like this.
Q: You have a rich history with everyone in the “Band of Legends” (Luis Conte, Michael Landau, Jeff Babko, Lou Marini, Arnold McCuller, Jimmy Johnson, David Lasley, Walt Fowler, Andrea Zonn, Kate Markowitz, Steve Gadd and Larry Goldings). What’s it like when you all get together?
A: When it catches after we’ve been out for a week and things start to click, it’s like a freight train and a ballet at the same time. There’s room in the music, flexibility, and yet there’s a groove that won’t quit. You couldn’t derail it.
Q: What are these concerts like?
A: I’m definitely the headliner, and we’re playing my set — but it’s a band. Given the album we just finished making, I wanted to celebrate. I wanted to name everybody on the stage, so we made these old- fashioned, big-band-like podiums — just how they used to identify the band members.
Q: What are some of the great songs that people will recognize on the record?
A: There’s “Not Fade Away,” the Buddy Holly tune, and “Summertime Blues,” the old Eddie Cochran tune. Some of these were songs that would come up every seven to 10 years, songs that we would use to close a show or for an encore or something to get the crowd on their feet.
We recorded “Midnight Hour” and “Knock on Wood,” and they sounded great, but they didn’t make it on the record. I didn’t want more than 12 songs on the album. It needs to hang together as a program, a body of work. We could have probably jammed 15-16 songs onto the thing in terms of CD technology, but I didn’t want it to lose its way. I’ve come to a place where I think 12 songs are as much as you want to play.
Q: Are there lesser-known songs on there too?
A: With Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne,” I’ve played that for years as a sound check song. Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” is on there. I learned the tune, arranged it for the guitar and put that on there. Andre plays fiddle on there, and it turned out really well. We cut a version of Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog” — and everybody knows Elvis’ version, but Big Mama Thornton’s version is a soulful 12 bars, and we started from that version, that groove. It had singers and horns on it, but it’s so loose — it’s a moment that has to go on.
Q: You’re adept at covering other people’s songs. Where do you start when you have a song that you like and are thinking about covering?
A: Writing a song and re-interpreting someone else’s songs is a similar process. . . . Playing music and listening to music are close to the same thing too. I listen to it, and I hear it as if I’m the first person in the world hearing it. The place it comes from is so out of my control; it’s such an uncontrollable thing. In many ways, that’s what re-interpreting somebody else’s song is like. I sit down with it, play it on the guitar — like with “Handyman.” It took me 15 minutes to come up with guitar part.
The lead song on the covers album, the Temptations version of “It’s Growing,” is very different from the original, just as my “Up On the Roof” is very different from the original. My version of “Mockingbird,” I wrote a second verse to that song — a verse that doesn’t exist in the original version. I still think of it as Charlie Foxx’s tune, and I didn’t expect any money from it. But sometimes re-interpretations of a song will have an element of rewriting a song.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
