MUSIC
LIV AND LET LIV-E
Singer-Songwriter Livingston Taylor on the True Essence of Live Performance an energetic fellow and quite the character.
BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
I
N CELEBRATION OF HIS 54TH YEAR Like you, Phil was always surrounded by a of performing, Livingston Taylor is number of cool session players. What was it back on the road. Touring behind five like in the Capricorn world in those days? decades of insightful material, the singerThere were always lots of musicians around. songwriter recently released a retrospective We would record during the day and the box set appropriately titled LIVe - 50 Years of Allman Brothers would record at night in the Livingston Taylor Live. same studio. So they’d be wandering out around The collection contains 87 live recordings, 10 in the morning and I’d just be wandering in. culled from gigs in 1969 through 2016, and It was a busy place and I remember it was pretty packaged with the 2018 documentary film rudimentary, but you’re right, Phil Walden “Life Is Good” and a commemorative picture assembled some really wonderful players. Pete book. 2021 also marks the 50th anniversary Carr and Johnny Sandlin. Robert Popwell on of his second album, Liv, originally issued by bass. Oh my goodness, it was such a good time Capricorn Records of Macon. to be recording. In addition to travelling the world singing songs and telling stories, Taylor has been a Everything was changing in the world. With professor at Berklee College of Music for the each new decade the culture shifts a little, but past 30 years, teaching thousands of students the early ‘70s in particular brought a massive the fine art of stage performance. His former culture shift. students include Gavin DeGraw, Clay Cook of Without a doubt. I wrote few songs of the The Zac Brown Band, Charlie times, but mainly mine were Puth, and Susan Tedeschi. mostly self-examining, selfAs a member of the explaining, self-justifying. talented Taylor family of rock As is the case when you are and folk-based musicians, young, you’re obsessed with including sister Kate and Sunday, Nov. 14 • 6PM yourself. Life was compelling brothers James, Alex and and explosive and I think the Eddie’s Attic Hugh, Livingston was born in songs reflected it. I’m not Boston and raised in Chapel eddiesattic.com sure if I’m a better songwriter Hill, North Carolina. The now, but my technique is erudite artist is best-known vastly better. I know how to for his Billboard charting hits “I Will Be In Love build a bridge. When I’m getting into trouble, I With You,” “First Time Love,” “Good Friends” know how to get out of it. So with that kind of and “I’ll Come Running.” freedom, I can go in lots of different directions. INsite recently spoke with Taylor by phone from Massachusetts. Now that you’ve expanded the horizons of technique, have current events seeped in at As the pandemic kept you busy with the all? Or do you still center things around your online Livingston Taylor Show, was the recent own introspection? downtime the longest you’ve been away from Well, sometimes a song can cover both the road? aspects. For instance, I just wrote a song Since the age of 16, I’d never been away longer called “It’s Still a Hell of a Ride.” I wrote it as a and I just felt terrible. I like being with people. reflection on coming out of the fallout shelter When you do things, you want to play them and looking around at the world again. for people. I like to interact and reconnect with people. And if you can’t do it, then why bother? Do you think it will find its way onto a new album at some point? The infrastructure of the live experience Oh yeah. I imagine that’ll happen in the next is quite evident on The Best of Liv(e) set, year. Making records is like giving birth to a including a track or two recorded at baby. You don’t until you can’t not. It’s funny, I Eddie’s Attic. won’t even think about it for a while and then That’s right. Eddie’s is one of those great places all of a sudden, it’s the only thing I can think that, for whatever reason, just works for me. It’s about. When it’s time to produce, it occupies all the perfect size, concentration of people, room my thoughts. density and general enthusiasm. Some places just have that magic. Your early records still hold up to modern standards and you consistently pull tracks Atlanta has always been a great market for from the catalog for the live shows. “Good you. But the south in general has been a good Friends” has certainly served you well. place for you in many ways. I sort of view that as a signature song, not Oh, I love the south. I was raised in North unlike Jimmy Buffet with “Margaritaville” or Carolina and my father was a Carolinian. my brother James with “Sweet Baby James” or My mother was a Yankee, causing much The Beatles with “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” consternation with my father’s family. ‘Ike is Those early songs really define who we are and marrying a Yankee!’ I am just very at home continue to stay with us throughout our lives. I there. Atlanta’s a great city and Georgia’s a great like the notion that song is the definition of who state, what can I tell you? I am and how I’ve always seen myself.
LIVINGSTON TAYLOR
You made your first three albums for Maconbased Capricorn Records. How did you meet those folks? I had become friends with a fellow named Jon Landau who of course, later went on to produce and manage Bruce Springsteen. But Jon was going to Macon, Georgia to do an article on Otis Redding. He also wanted to produce a record for me. So I went with him. Phil Walden at Capricorn signed us to a record deal. He was PG 10 • November 2021 • insiteatlanta.com
Did you ever envision yourself as a pilot in the early days? It actually took a moment of self-reflection for it to happen. The year was 1989 and it was my 39th birthday. I had been drinking a lot of alcohol. I looked in the mirror on my birthday and I said, ‘I’m going to stop drinking when I’m 40.’ That thought lasted about 10 seconds. Then I said to myself, ‘No, I’m not. That just means I’m not going to stop drinking.’ So I stopped that
instant. Then I went to the airport and started flying. Now I’ve flown for over 30 years. I’m up here in New England and I was flying today, actually. I’m an instrument pilot, so I was flying through the clouds and the rain today. That would seem to be very daunting. It not for the faint of heart and it’s not for the unskilled. You want to know what the heck you’re doing if you’re going up in the sky, in the clouds. Have you had any close calls? I’ve never injured myself in an airplane. But I’ve flown in some very adverse situations. I’ve iced up badly a couple of times. One time I lost an engine and I only had one engine. So that required gliding into an airport, landing and then writing a massive check to get a new motor. The real issue is not damaging myself or anybody with me. Wrecking an airplane isn’t a problem, you can get another one of those. At this point, which is more challenging, stage performance or flying? Absolutely nothing is more pleasant to me than being on stage, in the presence of my audience, to approach that microphone at the
beginning of a show. I love to fly too, don’t get me wrong, but performing is heaven. You’ve taught performance for three decades now. Do your students need to have at least a bit of natural talent? Or can you make even the most untalented person ready for the stage? I can make even the most untalented person ready for the stage. What you do is, above all else, you teach that it’s not about you. You go on stage not to be seen, but to see. You sing a song not to be heard, but to hear where people are in the presence of your creativity. If you can find those mutual places of comfort, it’s very pleasant. But the problem is that people ask their music or their creativity, to do too much. So you’ve got a nice little song. You go on stage and you might say to this nice little song, ‘I want you to make me popular, rich, beautiful, the center of attention.’ But the little song just goes, ‘I can’t do all of that, I’m just a little song.’ The problem is never with the creativity. The problem is with the expectation that accompanies it. You just need to show up on stage and speak your vision clearly. And if the audience doesn’t accept it, you forgive them and you forgive yourself.
