James Taylor

Gary Blanchard

Gary Blanchard

beloved, local musician
I was never a big fan of his music, but I picked up a Greatest its CD that has been getting a lot of play. Some of his lyrical choices just blow me away and the music can really blend with the music. I may need to do some deeper digging. The lines that are really hitting me right now are from Sweet Baby James:
The first of December was covered with snow
and so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
The Berkshires looked dreamlike because of that frosting
With ten miles behind me, and ten thousand more to go.
 
I was never a big JT fan either, but he is an excellent tunesmith. And his voice, one of the most distinctive from the 70s.

What kind of turned me around is the duet he did with Mark Knopfler, “Sailing to Philadelphia.” That track is amazing.
 
micwalt said:
How the hell have you not been a fan???
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That is a question I don't have an answer to. I was aware of his music, but it just didn't seem to connect before. Perhaps I was too influenced by Fire and Rain and You've Got a Friend; not bad songs but not outstanding. (And yes, I know that YGAF is a Carol King song.) All I know is that the quality of his writing just now sunk into my brain.
 
JTs generation could certainly play acoustic guitar better than subsequent generations (talking about popular music). Both he and Paul Simon had flawless technique.
 
I was abandoned in the woods and raised by a pack of feral punk critics so I will probably never be able to hear him without thinking of 'luuds and a chronic rebop deficiency, but that may after all be my loss.
 
I like the old greatest hits stuff fine, though it has been overplayed for me over the years. Just don't make me listen to his Christmas album.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
I like the old greatest hits stuff fine, though it has been overplayed for me over the years. Just don't make me listen to his Christmas album.
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Christmas albums are generally doomed by the weight of the standards; I know, I have done two. At least the second had some originals on it.
 
For me he falls in the "he's really talented and this is really well-done but I really don't want to listen to this" category.
 
I'm not the biggest JT fan, G/F is and bought tickets to see him when he passed through my neck of the woods. At his age and what he's been through in life, his voice is still amazing and his guitar playing is fantastic.
upload_2018-9-24_12-7-47.jpeg

Bad Photo from performance in S. FL
 
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