The Cavalier daily :: Thursday, March 12, 1970 :: University of Virginia Library

Two recent releases from Warner
Brother-Reprise represent some of
the best "easy listening" in popular
music today. James Taylor's second
album, "Sweet Baby James," and
John Sebastian's first solo effort,
entitled "John B. Sebastian" are
the two, and while they are graced
with a wealth of talent, remain in
relative anonymity to most.

James Taylor's first album was
released by Apple, and the Beatles'
discovery created quite a stir in the
English music scene. Apple Corps
took the time and money to fully
promote the singer/composer and
his popularity became established
as well as critical recognition of his
talents. In this country, however,
Taylor remains known to a fortunate
few, in spite of rave reviews of
that first album and the latest
effort.

Vocalist And Guitarist

"Sweet Baby James" is a departure
from Taylor's first release in
that the concentration is more
upon Taylor as vocalist and guitarist.
The first album tended to be
over arranged and the instrumental
backup was distracting at times, but
this latest gives more of Taylor with
the instrumentalization enhancing
rather than obscuring his voice.
"Country Road" and Suite for
20G" have the fullest orchestration
on the album and are also two of
the better cuts, while "Lo and
Behold," "Blossom" and "Anywhere
Like Heaven" feature a
minimum of accompaniment, and
are excellent songs.

Taylor has an extremely clean
voice which evokes strong emotional
reactions in listening to him.
This is, in fact, probably the most
important aspect of the album.
Taylor is an excellent writer; his
songs deal with life, love and
loneliness and the combination of
his voice and music tend to give the
listener a relaxed, slightly melancholy
feeling. Or he can leave you
with a smile on your face and your
body subconsciously in rhythm with
the music. The music is difficult to
classify as being folk, jazz or blues
since it contains all of these idioms,
but regardless of how you label
Taylor's sound, it is above all
gentle, unhassled and a pleasurable
experience.

Easily Remembered

John Sebastian will be easily
remembered as the force of the old
Lovin' Spoonful. He was vocalist
and primary writer for the group,
and the "good time" sound of the
Spoonful was unmistakably his. He
left the group in 1968 to become a
sole act (anyone remember Mid
Winters last year?) and has had
some success on the club circuit of
late "John B. Sebastian," while a
"solo" effort, features the following
"sidemen:" Dallas Taylor
(drummer of C.S.N&Y). Harvey
Brooks (bassist extraordinaire)
Stephen Stills, David Crosby,
Graham Nash, Buddy Emmons (one
of the best pedal steelists around),
Ray Neapolitan (excellent studio
bassist), Danny Weiss (former lead
guitarist with Iron Butterfly), the
Ihettes, and Bruce Langhorne. All
of these phenomenal musicians are
arranged into a fantastic instrumental
accompaniment behind
Sebastian by Paul Harris.

Blues To Rock

With so much talent on the
record, one might reasonably
expect a strong album, and this one
is. The songs run from soft,
soothing blues to driving country flavored
rock, and over all there is
Sebastian's "good-time" influence.
Every cut is enjoyable from an
emotional and objective point of
view, and it would be impossible to
pick out one or two songs as being
"better" than the others. The entire
album is a unified joy, while each
song easily stands up by itself as a
strong entity.

Sebastian wrote each song on
the album and does all of the lead
singing as well. The album is
incredibly happy; Sebastian has
written about growing up and
falling in love and feeling good and
having hopes and dreams and all of
the things that all of us experience
and conveys all of this through his
music. It is subtle when it should be
and drives when it should. With
certain records it becomes impossible
to regard them from a
detached point of view. This is such
an album for me; it is beautiful.