(editor’s note – Phoebe Snow was the originally scheduled opener, but canceled.)

Taylor cheered by 12,000 at SPAC performance

by Chat Blakeman, The Saratogian

James Taylor returned to Saratoga Performing Arts Center for the second year in a row Sunday night and had no trouble demonstrating why 12,000 people are willing to sit under threatening skies for the chance to hear him.

For more than 90 minutes he and the four musicians who back him up presented numbers which never failed to have the audience cheering and clapping in response. Consensus was that the concert was even better than last year’s performance, an appearance which has become almost legend in the mind of some Taylor fans here.

Taylor mixed his songs, pulling many from the early albums which brought him his first public recognition and others from his current album. His songs from the late sixties hadn’t lost any of their convincing power or popularity, as indicated by the many shouts for “Fire and Rain, which punctuated the early part of the concert. Taylor was enough of a showman to save the piece for the latter part.

If Jagger and others play on their sexuality. Taylor’s long suit is his vulnerability. His songs have always spoken of fragile, soon-to-be-lost worlds, and that indeed is where he seems most at home. Such a stance is dangerously close to sentimentality, but when that Taylor voice comes through mellow and rich as a fall afternoon, you understand why he is able to pull it off.

It is after these songs, when the spotlight is his alone, that his personality seems to appear. A sheepish, almost embarrassed grin comes across his face and more than once he brushed away the applause or directed it to the band.

“Blossom”, “Fire and Rain,” “Sweet Baby James” (which closed the show on his second encore), “You’ve Got a Friend,” these are the songs he is best known for and these are the ones the audience waited for.

This is not to take anything away from the band. Several times they pulled out the stops and Taylor, riding the strong rhythms, was easily able to handle it.

“Gorilla,” “Walking Man,” “Down in Mexico” and an almost angry version of “Steamroller” balanced the softer songs which are Taylor’s alone. Guitarist Danny Kootch was especially impressive in “One Man Parade.”

Taylor said after the show that he felt more comfortable this year because he was standing rather than sitting, something that allows him to avoid getting “pinned down in your own thoughts.” He also mentioned that he’d stopped smoking.

Taylor was preceded by Emmylou Harris and assorted friends and musicians. She is no bigger than the guitar she holds, but when the country and western starts coming across, she kicks her heels like a Kentucky colt who spies pasture.

It is amazing to watch that small body sing with such force and direction. She and her band presented a mix of country western, bluegrass and other sorts of foot-stomping, wine-drinkin’ music. She’s got a voice that owes a fair
amount to Baez and Ronstadt, not an unfavorable comparison.

There was a lot of electricity passing between her and the audience. But let’s face it, everyone was waiting for Taylor.

There were no problems with the crowd. Taylor gave them all they asked for.

The Times Record, June 25, 1975

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