MAKING TRACKS: Carole King & James Taylor

 

After a decade of writing pop hits for everyone from Little Eva (“The Loco-Motion”) to the Shirelles (“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”) to Steve Lawrence (“Go Away Little Girl”) to the Drifters (“Up on the Roof”), Carole King stepped out on her own as a solo performer in November 1970 with a series of performances at the famed Troubadour in Los Angeles. Supporting her at those gigs was an up-and-coming singer-songwriter named James Taylor.

 

History was being made, as King was workshopping songs that would wind up on her decade-topping album, Tapestry, including “You’ve Got a Friend,” which would provide Taylor with his first number-one hit. Taylor and King returned to the Troubadour to revisit the magic of that residency in 2007 on the occasion of the venue’s fiftieth anniversary.

 

The reunion went so well that the duo released the proceedings as a live CD and DVD package and signed up the musicians—Taylor’s original group, the same fellows who backed up King on Tapestry—for this year’s “Troubadour Reunion” tour, which stops at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., on July 3-5. But if you don’t have tickets already, you’re out of luck—these shows sold out within days of going on sale. [JULY 2010]

 

THE GOODS

Carole King and James Taylor

Live at the Troubadour
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