ain't no doubt in no one's mind that love's the finest thing around

"I didn't have a home, but that doesn't keep you from being homesick sometimes."

Here's the intermission from "Babies & James" so I feel like it's only appropriate that we get a little bit of this.


Indeed, I feel like I can't talk about my parents or my family without talking about James Taylor & this song in particular. When I talk about the music of my life, I talk a lot about how Duncan Sheik was the first music I ever chose for myself that's stayed with me my whole life. Jimmy T is the other book end to that. James Taylor is the first music passed down to me. It's the first music I can remember.


I end up telling this story a lot too, as part of my personal mythology, although sometimes I wonder if my mom just made it up-- that Rick Marotta, JT's drummer, told my parents when I was six months old that when I was 16, he was going to marry me. I think it worked out better that he didn't, but JT's music is certainly, permanently in my orbit.


He's kind of like a kaleidoscope for me, in that-- move the pieces around just a little-- a different day, a different version-- and he can remind me of each one of my family members for different reasons.


Most importantly, the thing about JT, the thing that I think I look for more than anything else in musicians is a kind of interpretive story telling. Details. Ad libs. The extra things. I believe that the soul lives there. And for me, he's the tops. The number one interpreter of songs.


Oddly enough, one of my favorite versions is with the Dixie Chicks, (they wouldn't let me embed) some other truly fine interpreters of songs. For fun, I also recommend JT's live version from Edinburgh Castle for Hogmanay 1997

The conclusion of "Babies & James" tonight when I get home...