James Taylor - Jabberwocky Club, Syracuse, NY, 2-6-1970

I have a particular fondness for solo acoustic performances, so when it comes to live James Taylor music, it's not a big surprise that I especially love his solo acoustic concerts. Unfortunately, those are few and far between. In 2007, he released a nice live album called "One Man Band" that features just him on guitar plus a keyboard player. But other than concerts around the time of that live album, the only other time I know of when he played in that format was at the very start of his career, in 1970. It's probable, like Bonnie Raitt when she started out, that he simply couldn't afford a band to support him yet.

There are a couple of excellent solo acoustic concert recordings by Taylor in 1970. This is one, and I plan on posting the other at a later date. We luckily have this one because the Jabberwocky Club was essentially run by students at the local college, and they regularly broadcast the concerts on the local college radio station, WAER. (Speaking of Raitt, I've posted a concert of her at the same club from 1971.) We're very lucky to have this pristine recording, because although Taylor had put out one album in 1968, it had essentially flopped. His next album, "Sweet Baby James," would be a smash, sell millions, and go on to be included on many best albums of all time lists. But this concert took place a couple weeks prior to the release of the album, so he was relatively unknown. (That probably helps explain why he was playing at a club of only a couple hundred people at the time.)

Once Taylor hit the big time, he began the usual trend of playing songs from his latest album plus the greatest hits from previous albums. He's been frustratingly predictable, with few unusual song choices. But in early 1970, he simply didn't have that option, because he didn't have much material yet. As a result, he peppered his concerts with lots of interesting cover versions. I've already posted an album that compiles his 1970 cover versions, which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/06/james-taylor-acoustic-cover-songs-1970.html

Eleven out of the 21 songs on that album are the exact same performances as on this concert. But it's worth hearing the concert in full. For one thing, the covers are just one third of all the songs played here. But also, this includes all of his banter. He has entertaining comments before nearly every single song.

Actually, both the concerts on February 6th and 7th were recorded and broadcast. The two concerts were so similar that I've only included the February 6th show, plus three songs at the end that were only played on the 7th. It seems probable that only the second and third sets of each night were saved for posterity. I've removed a couple of references to the end of the set in the middle of this recording, because it otherwise would be a bit odd to hear him talking about only playing one or two more songs in the middle of it.

I made a few edits to this. As I often do, I broke the banter into their own tracks, then boosted the volume for those. Also, there was a fair amount of hiss. I didn't fit in a problem during the songs. But for the banter, the hiss really stood out during the silent parts. So I applied some noise reduction, but only to the banter. I also made a couple other minor fixes, like when the applause faded out too quickly.

This concert is an hour and 37 minutes long, including the three songs at the end from the show one night later.

01 talk (James Taylor)
02 Rainy Day Man (James Taylor)
03 talk (James Taylor)
04 Diamond Joe (James Taylor)
05 talk (James Taylor)
06 Things Go Better with Coke (James Taylor)
07 talk (James Taylor)
08 Machine Gun Kelly (James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 Anywhere like Heaven (James Taylor)
11 talk (James Taylor)
12 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
13 talk (James Taylor)
14 Circle Round the Sun [I Know You Rider] (James Taylor)
15 talk (James Taylor)
16 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (James Taylor)
17 Carolina in My Mind (James Taylor)
18 talk (James Taylor)
19 Sunshine Sunshine (James Taylor)
20 talk (James Taylor)
21 Dixie (James Taylor)
22 talk (James Taylor)
23 Hallelujah, I Love Her So (James Taylor)
24 talk (James Taylor)
25 Blossom (James Taylor)
26 talk (James Taylor)
27 Sunny Skies (James Taylor)
28 talk (James Taylor)
29 Brighten Your Night with My Day (James Taylor)
30 talk (James Taylor)
31 Pretty Boy Floyd (James Taylor)
32 talk (James Taylor)
33 Yesterday (James Taylor)
34 talk (James Taylor)
35 Steamroller (James Taylor)
36 talk (James Taylor)
37 Country Road (James Taylor)
38 talk (James Taylor)
39 Duncan and Brady (James Taylor)
40 talk (James Taylor)
41 Hush-a-Bye (James Taylor)
42 Something in the Way She Moves (James Taylor)
43 talk (James Taylor)
44 Taking It In (James Taylor)
45 talk (James Taylor)
46 If I Needed Someone (James Taylor)
47 talk (James Taylor)
48 Sweet Baby James (James Taylor)
49 talk (James Taylor)
50 People Get Ready (James Taylor)
51 talk (James Taylor)
52 Something's Wrong (James Taylor)
53 talk (James Taylor)
54 Knocking 'Round the Zoo (James Taylor)
55 talk (James Taylor)
56 Satisfied Mind (James Taylor)

https://www.imagenetz.de/f9eWu

The cover art photo is of Taylor in concert in 1970, but I don't know which concert exactly. Although I couldn't find a photo of him at the Jabberwocky Club, I did find the club's logo, so I added that in. Also, his nose was covered by the microphone, and it wasn't a good look. So I used Photoshop to move the microphone back a bit, then pasted in a different nose to fill in the missing spot.