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James Taylor plays his favourite American standards.

Legendary singer-songwriter James Taylor guides us through more of his favourite songs from the Great American Songbook, exploring the enduring appeal of standards such as Almost Like Being In Love, They Can’t Take That Away From Me and Teach Me Tonight and how the melodies, chord changes and lyrics have had a profound influence on his own catalogue of songs.

We’ll hear how these songs played by his parents were the first level of his musical foundation and provided a soundtrack to James’ early years growing up in North Carolina.This started a lifelong process of interpreting these songs on the guitar and were an education and the bedrock of his musical vocabulary.

We’ll also hear how James built an echo chamber in his home studio to try and emulate the old reverbs on these recordings and that the influence of this catalogue on his own work led to him to receive the biggest compliment of his career, from his idol - Paul McCartney.

An eclectic playlist includes classics from Dinah Washington, Nat King Cole and Nancy Wilson, an original cast recording from the musical Guys and Dolls and interpretations of Songbook favourites by James’ contemporaries including Linda Ronstadt, Willie Nelson and Ray Charles.