James Taylor and Me

Tonight I got paid a massive compliment by one of the audience members in the bar. She told me that I sound just like James Taylor. I was pretty pleased with this cos I love the smooth buttery voice of Mr Taylor. This hasn't always been the case, though (or so I claimed).

When I was younger, my brother-in-law was a huge James Taylor fan and I used to taunt him about listening to elevator music because of it. Now as an obnoxious teenager, I'm really not sure I even knew who James Taylor was, let alone knew what he sang. I just knew that it was a good way to taunt my brother-in-law (and you all thought I was such a nice child...)

Of course, I later discovered his greatest hits album and quickly learned to love the man's voice and his songs - there is something about putting that album on that automatically makes you feel calm and happy. There was a period when it was on very high rotation in the car stereo.

Now, several James Taylor songs have worked their way into my repertoire - Fire and Rain being my favourite to sing. In fact, it was while I was singing it tonight that one of the patrons said quite loudly "He sounds just like James Taylor!" I was very flattered indeed but I suspect that my brother-in-law might snigger a little.

And rightly so...