James Taylor at the Maverik Center

I really love James Taylor and I have seen him live many times at many different venues including, rather memorably, the LDS Conference Center with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Utah Symphony.  I try to see him whenever I can and I was so excited when he announced a new tour.  The SLC show was originally scheduled for the last day of school in 2020 so I bought a ticket thinking that it would be the perfect way to celebrate my retirement.  We all know how that turned out!  Fortunately, the concert was rescheduled and I enjoyed it just as much last night.  The opening act was Jackson Browne and, since I had never seen him live before, I was looking forward to his set as much as Taylor's.  He sang quite a few of his more recent songs and I enjoyed them even though I didn't recognize them as much as the hits.  I loved "Somebody's Baby" at the beginning of the set, "Doctor My Eyes" in the middle, and "Running on Empty" at the end.  Another highlight was "The Pretender" because he was joined on stage by Taylor, to the delight of the audience.  Taylor began his set with "Country Road" and then included a few of his lesser known songs in the first half.  Of these, I really enjoyed "As Easy As Falling Off a Log" from his latest album, American Standard (which consists of covers from the American songbook), and I also liked his renditions of "Mexico" and "Steamroller" because his incredibly talented band basically turned these songs into improvisational jam sessions.  However, I have to admit that I absolutely loved the second half of the show because he played his most well-known hits, including "Sweet Baby James," "Fire and Rain," "Carolina in My Mind," and "Shower the People" (one of my favorite songs).  He ended the set with an emotional performance of "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)."  For the encore, he sang a cover of the Eagles song "Take It Easy" with Jackson Browne (which Browne co-wrote with Glenn Frey), a beautiful acoustic version of "You've Got a Friend," and "You Can Close Your Eyes" with his son Henry.  Taylor told lots anecdotes about his songs (at one point he said that his intro to a song was longer than the song itself) and his interactions with the audience were really funny (when multiple people yelled that they loved him he said that it was becoming a bidding war).  It was a wonderful show that was definitely worth the wait!

Note:  There is always one song from an artist's back catalog that I want to hear and with James Taylor it is "Handy Man."  I wasn't too disappointed that it wasn't included last night because I've heard him sing it before.