James Taylor, BIC (From Daily Echo)

James Taylor, BIC

11:51am Friday 15th July 2011 in Music Reviews By Debbie Moore

IT would be hard to find a more amiable entertainer to spend an evening with than James Taylor.

The legendary singer-songwriter with the unchangingly beautiful voice sings with a smile you can hear and creates an intimate, friendly atmosphere.

This show is a trip down memory lane for James, and we're all more than happy to be taken along.

Most songs are familiar, some more obscure, but every one's a winner, delivered with a story that puts them in context.

There's Jump Up Behind Me, about the time his father drove to New York to rescue a teenage James after a failed band project, Angry Blues, written in the throes of a hangover, and the stand-out My Travelling Star, one of many variations he's written on the theme of being torn between home and the open road.

And when the long-awaited favourites take their turn - Sweet Baby James, Fire and Rain, How Sweet It Is, Carolina In My Mind, You've Got a Friend - they're delivered faithfully and with the same feeling as when they were first recorded, to a pin-drop silent audience appreciating every word and note.

Taylor never leaves the stage, even spending the entire interval perched on the edge shaking hands and signing anything and everything that's put his way.

At the end he thanks us for allowing him and the band to take another turn through town. And the warmth he shows his audience is sent right back.

James, you've got a lot of friends in this part of the world.