Review – Taylor Made

A group of Adelaide musicians lead by Luke Thompson, play some of James Taylor’s (the original JT) most popular songs, chronologically listing details of his personal life and professional successes.

The biographical details were interesting and not overdone and I learnt a lot – like that Taylor was married to Carly Simon – bonus!

The songs chosen from Taylor’s prolific and continuing career were somewhat scattered and didn’t really flow. Genres modulated between jazz, blues and soul, latin, soft rock and pop, neglecting a lot of the songs that are in the style of ‘typical Taylor’.

While I found the transitions sometimes stilted, I was able to appreciate that the musicians are really great, even if their penchant is for jazz.

There were times I got lost in the songs and found myself getting into the gutsy backing vocals and shimmying like the 50 something’s in the audience. But there were other times when I was thinking about what was happening on Facebook.

What I will say though, is that JT’s music has well and truly stood the test of time and any number of his songs could top the charts today. It was a really well executed performance that brought this to my attention, so well done ‘Team Taylor Made’.