Live by James Taylor (Popular)

Personnel: James Taylor (vocals, guitar); Michael Landau (guitar); Don Grolnick (piano); Clifford Carter (keyboards); Jimmy Johnson (bass); Carlos Vega (drums); Valerie Carter, David Lasley, Kate Markowitz, Arnold McCuller (background vocals). Engineers: Nathaniel Kunkel, John Godenzi, Randy Hutson. Recorded live in the fall of 1992. Although he is a seasoned and well-loved live performer, James Taylor had never made a live record before 1993, when he released this two-CD set. Culled from a series of 14 concerts, these 30 songs capture the genial Taylor digging into an impressively rich bag of songs, with crowd-pleasing results. It's an extremely faithful recording--no overdubs--and the band is top-notch, with a standout backup vocal section. Taylor proves he doesn't mind serving up old chestnuts even after performing them for decades, and delivers the goods with such staples as"You've Got a Friend"and"Fire and Rain."The first CD concentrates a bit more on classic-era James Taylor--CD 2 leans a bit t...