Before leaving home after our break, I got a pleasant surprise when I found out that my friend Jason Scheff, who sings leads and plays bass for Chicago, was performing with Chicago nearby. I'd been thinking of him because I'd been wanting to send him a tape of a demo he sang recently for me called "Back to Me and You." I wrote that and a few other songs last spring with my friend Mitch Roberts, who drummed on my recording of "Promise Me the Moon" (on Back to Blue-Eyed Soul), "Somebody's Angel" (on Demos) and many of my early demos. Mitch and I also wrote "Everlasting" (also on Demos), a song called "Justify," recorded by Ada Dyer on a Norman Connors record that was a big R&B hit, and many more. Anyway, I didn't have a chance to see Jason, but we spoke on the phone.

I did get to spend some time with Sara May, a wonderful woman I've known since I was a kid. She was one of my mom's greatest friends.

The trip to Boston was pretty intense, because I had to cram too much distance into too little time. Suffice to say that I got a speeding ticket.

WASN'T THAT A MIGHTY STORM???
Boston - June 29 and 30 (Tweeter Center, aka Great Woods)

I hadn't been to Boston since 1998, and I loved being back there. I shopped like a wild man and found a beautiful Celtic cross, which I wore during the Great Woods shows.
[see photo at left]

By the way, my webmaster has been dubious about my continual discussions of shopping, so I figured I should explain that life on the road offstage doesn't lend itself to much else BESIDES shopping.

Our first Great Woods show on Friday night is kind of a blur. As usual, the security people in the venue were gems. James' mom was there, and his brother Liv and sister, Kate, were too. I don't recall much about the concert, except that it was relaxed and mellow. I remember feeling really good.

As much as I've forgotten about Friday is as much as I'll probably never forget about Saturday. A really bad storm was forewarned on the news, and we weren't even sure the concert could take place. We went to the venue anyway and ended up holding the start of the show for a little while. When we finally started, the lightning and thunder were HORRIBLE, unbelievably scary. We played for about an hour and 15 minutes, which seemed longer than usual for the first half of the show, just in case we couldn't get the whole thing in. James moved "Knock on Wood" from the encore to the first set and added "Mighty Storm." We had to hold the beginning of the second half for a long time under orders from James' management, the venue AND the National Weather Service, which had issued a Severe Storm Warning. We were finally able to get the concert started again and, thankfully, completed.

The crowd was great and really enthusiastic, especially under the conditions. The rain was so intense that within ten minutes the first five rows were at least eight inches deep in water. James encouraged the audience to dry out their shoes on the stage, and it looked really funny to see so many pairs of shoes across the front of the stage. It reminded me of a time when Kate and Val, after being razzed about how many shoes they each bring on the road, stacked up all their shoes in a huge pile behind the singers' mikes.

James played "Happy Birthday" on his guitar for his wife, which was sweet. That night was also the birthday of my mom, who passed away four years ago this month. With all the thunder and lightning, I kept feeling as though she was trying to send a message of some kind -- to someone!

Despite the weather, I thought that night's show was one of the best we've done. Happy Birthday, Ma.

FOURTH OF JULY
Lenox - July 3 and 4 (The Shed at Tanglewood)

We returned to Lenox, Massachusetts for two shows at Tanglewood, where we'd rehearsed prior to the tour's start. It felt funny to be back in that area in "show" mode rather than "rehearsal" mode. I was feeling the difference (between rehearsal time and performance time), feeling up to speed and mavelling at how recent rehearsal was -- just over a month. It seems longer. We got to see the kids who worked at the hotel and helped us during rehearsal, which was nice.

One thing that struck me about the town our current hotel was in was that the kids there act so old for their age. Lots of 19- and 20-year-olds that I met already have kids of their own. I find it fascinating that there's a kind of 1950s mentality there that's sad and, in a certain way, beautiful -- it's odd, it's double. It kind of showed in the 4th of July parade, with the flags, and uniforms and marching bands -- a feeling of "way back when." There's something very interesting about it -- I don't know how to explain it. These people are kind of living not in a time warp, exactly, but they don't want this "modern-acity," even though they have everything any town in 2001 has. Because of this 50s feel, it's a funny juxtaposition to see these kids with their cell phones -- that makes them seem so "connected," like Wall Street brokers. But there appears to be a real "class" structure of sorts in the town, where the "city slickers" can take advantage of all the cool stuff in the area, but the locals don't or can't. It sort of reminds me of my childhood and the way things were when I was a kid -- it makes me think about those times. Just an observation.

A lot of James' fans were staying at our hotel. It's funny to me how shocking it is to some of them when they see us. Some are blase, and some don't even notice us, but it's really unusual for us to be staying in the same place. I guess it's probably because most people who come to see James at Tanglewood are out-of-town visitors.

There's a lot to see and do in the general Tanglewood area, like the Norman Rockwell Museum. Sadly, Arlo Guthrie's "Arlo's Zone" is now closed. There are a lot of pianos throughout the Tanglewood venue, so I got to spend some time playing and noodling around.

The energy was really up on the night of the first show. Cellist Owen Young, who played with us in Boston, too, perfomed with James on "Fire and Rain," and James added "Another Day" from Hourglass to the last night's set, with cellist Yo-Yo Ma joining him for that.

It's fun to have three new songs in the set, and we do background vocals on all of them. I really like singing "Raised Up Family" -- it's really soulful. It seems as though the audience is really into the shows, and that makes it more exciting. They really respond to Luis' percussion solo at the beginning of "Mexico." I feel the horns add so much, too.

GOLDEN MOMENTS
New Jersey - July 6 and 7 (PNC Bank Arts Center)
Saratoga - July 8 (Saratoga Performing Arts Center)

Our next two shows were in New Jersey at the same venue where we played in 1979 with James. That night back then, there was such a bad storm -- a tornado, really -- that we had to hole up in the basement. I can't remember if the show was ultimately cancelled or not, but it was a scary experience. Happily, the weather was good this time around. The first night was pretty mellow, and the second was more up. This venue has great sound.

The next stop, Saratoga in upstate New York, has been one of my favorite towns to visit so far. You can find so much there -- stores with retro clothing and used vintage jazz records, great restaurants, a Borders with tons of books on sale, and a club (whose name I forgot) that's a legendary folk troubadour-type place. Bob Dylan did his second performance ever there.

I did an interview by phone on Michigan Talk Radio with Ron Jolly, the mid-day host, and that was fun. He really had it together and asked such great questions. It's always easy doing interviews where people ask stuff that they really want to know the answers to. I talked about my early musical influences, including my mom, sister and brother, and girl groups. We discussed my feelings about being a background singer versus a solo artist, and we talked about how much I like arranging songs. We also discussed my web site and how "Tales from the Road" has been getting such a good response.

The quality of the people that I'm seeing and talking to has made this tour ever so special. I met an older man in front of a Saratoga hotel who was painting a picture of the building decorated in wreaths for the hotel's Christmas card. I wanted to watch him paint, and I wanted to take his picture, but I didn't want to disturb him, so I took it from far away. We finally talked, and I found out he is 90 years old. He's lived in Paris and painted there and in Spain. Seeing and talking to him made me feel really inspired, like I want to start painting again. It's been so long since I've done any painting, and I asked him if it comes back. In other words, if you stop doing it, is the ability gone? If you start again, will it come back? His advice was, "Keep doing it until it starts looking the way you want it to look." Cool.

Thanks to Joe -- good luck in Tampa! --, Nick in the restaurant, Brad in the gift shop, and the tailor from Italy who helped me so much with my clothes.

This poem is for Julie, Joan, Rosie Simpson ("the Detroit Dusty"), Roger Bass, Pat Lewis, the Jones Girls and the Debonaires and all the kids I sang with in Detroit clubs in the mid- to late-1960s, the Twenty Grand, the Webbwood Lounge, the Purple Pad, WGPR FM halls, etc., the Canadian clubs, the state fair, the Roostertail, and all the little places that escape me... there, when music was at its peak.

"ODE TO DETROIT"

Many a tear will fall
Before we wash away
Many a heart will break before
We all learn the right words to say
Learn that love is the only way
Yes it is so true
How could I have got so lost in looking for these blues

Brilliant flashing of lightning
So as God could wake me up
To see that my cup already runneth over
To know that I am "movin' on up"
See, Curtis Mayfield said it, "We're a winner and it's all right"
Chicago streets are paved with soul and
The blood of human rights
(People get ready 'cause there may soon be a fight)

Now Detroit on the other hand
Is stuck back in nineteen sixty seven
The riots and the lies, the Algiers Motel
It was tagged an incident, that's oh so clever
Even John Hersey wrote a book
To try and quiet all the unrest
But the Hamtramack policemen still all went free
Flowing on the blood of Freddie Demps' friends
Hey you get off my mountain
Hey you get off my cloud
Even Tony Hester passed away before I could tell him
That I loved him out loud

I left Detroit so early on that
I missed the new revival, but I am
Going back some summer day to
Walk John R. Beaubian and brush
If my legs will let me while I'm able

No one, nobody is gonna tell me
That people gonna burn up their own homes
Because one summer day "it just got too hot"
That's untrue, it's a lie, it's a joke...
But there are some of us who know it, or
Part of the truth at least
I'd change my heart and I would change this face
But it would not erase the heartache and I would not find relief

It's true I ain't always right, altho'
I am usually not too far wrong
I think the only way to stop the hurting
Is to leave or die and just be gone
But there's no time for such silly nonsense
I have so much to do... maybe if I am lucky I will
Find me a runaway chile I can save and then be a daddy to

I loved that Motor City
I loved it just like my mom
I loved it 'til I realized that
I was thought of as some high yella ofay Uncle Tom
Detroit you had such vision
There on West Grand Blvd.
How in the hell can so much Michigan music
Be left there just layin' in their yards...

I think I will go back to Wildemere or Davison
Find Old Golden World and Rockin' Robbie D
Frantic Ernie and Martha Jean the Queen are gone
I cry so hard my vision blurs, I am blinded, I cannot see
'Cause there is a secret there somewhere, some kinda answer as
To why I sing this rhythm and blues and you would think by now
I'd be done with it Detroit, you old soulful lady
You funky black man city, you stopped in time it's such a pity
I am glad I'm in Florida these days
Working on a tan and fixing to get pretty

It's so hard when you are a little boy
All dressed up in a grownup's clothes
How Detroit is gonna wind up in my lifetime
Is something that I'm sure I'll never really know

David's next report will be posted on Tuesday, August 7.

At this point in the tour, some of the cities we visit and the concerts we do get mixed up in my mind, so I can't always remember what happened where. But I do know that I have met so many great people everywhere we go, and I wish I could mention all of them.

In Hershey, I spoke with a very nice guy named Scott about trout fishing, and he promised to take me fishing with his son one day if I ever come back to that area.

I've been taking lots of pictures with a disposable camera, and some are really good -- they look a little like watercolors. Who knows, maybe someday I'll have a whole series or collection for show in a "gallery of my choice" (ha ha). My favorites so far are one of the PNC Bank Arts Center ceiling, one of a wonderful old house, and another of an old man. [see photos at left]

July 13 and 14, Jones Beach Amphitheater, New York

We returned to the New York City area for two shows at Jones Beach, and on a day off, I did some recording with Phillip Ballou. As I've mentioned before, I've known Phillip for a very long time, and he's worked with James over the years. Every so often, he's given me some of the gospel records that he's produced, and I have really liked the feeling of them. I'd been thinking of working with him on a gospel project. When he came to see us at the Madison Square Garden Theatre show, he gave me a CD by two older black women, two sisters, that I really liked, and that gave me the impetus to actually make the idea of a gospel recording into a reality.

My plan is to do a special collection that will include songs my mom taught me in church, songs we sang at home, and songs mom sang in the dance halls and saloons where she worked as a piano player.

Just as a side note, my mom did this great style of piano playing called stride, which has sort of a bluesy feel. She was influenced by the Andrews Sisters music and swing, but the stuff she played was a little more bluesy, where you accompany yourself. She played and sang music that people could dance to or sing along with, songs like "Blacksmith Blues," "Wishing Ring," "Billy," "Music, Music, Music" and Christmas songs.

It's kind of a cliché to say that you learned to sing in church, but for me it's true. I didn't go to summer camp, and we didn't sing that much in school, so church was sort of my conduit for music. It was there that I had my first experiences performing, the first time I ever stood up to sing in front of people.

This project, which is incomplete at present but will be finished at some point, focuses on songs that I love to sing but that also are a tribute to my mom. Ever since my mom died four years ago, and my sister Judy a year after that, my feelings of loss have crept out in so many areas of my life, particularly in my songs and poems. Music was so much the connection between my mom and me, so singing and recording these songs sort of helps me be at peace with their deaths. It is giving me some closure.

I'm also doing this recording in part for my nieces and nephews, most of whom have never heard these songs. It's my hope that music will have for them the power that it has had for me, the power to comfort, encourage and strengthen. When I was growing up with a father whose own demons wreaked havoc on our family, the negative vibe that I lived with was countered by music. Being able to turn to music doubled its power and helped me so much.

Phillip and I and a great gospel/pop piano player named Joe Jabier, who's played for Judy Collins and many others, got together and recorded at a studio in Brooklyn. I sang some songs from a church hymnal, some of the songs my mother taught me, and a few others, including some Christmas songs.

We recorded "Open My Eyes That I May See" (the first song I ever sang publicly in church), plus "Softly and Tenderly," "How Great Thou Art," and "Do, Lord," which we always sang at home and which I often used as an audition song during my theater days. I also sang it at Catch a Rising Star in New York City, where I performed a lot during the 1970s.

We had nice weather for the Jones Beach concerts -- it was really pretty, and it didn't rain. On the first night, Phillip came to the show and joined us on background vocals for "Knock on Wood." On the second night, Ben Taylor, James' son, was there, and he sang with Arnold and James on "Knock on Wood." They sounded great.

R & R
July 15 - 19, Martha's Vineyard

After that, we had five days off, so I went to Martha's Vineyard for a short vacation. Summers on the vineyard are so great, and I hadn't been there since 1997.

Of course I went to Midnight Farm, a great store co-owned by Carly Simon and my friend Tamara, who is so sweet. No trip to the Vineyard is complete without a visit to Midnight Farm. [see photo at left, which links to Carly's official Web Site] While I was there, a woman shopper recognized me and bought one of my CDs (which Tamara sells in the store) and asked me to autograph it, which was nice of her.

In a funny coincidence, one of the first people I saw as I was getting off the ferry was Ken Lockwood, a singer for whom Arnold and I did a background session in L.A. a few months ago. Although Ken did some work in Los Angeles on his recording, he'd moved to the Vineyard to complete it because he felt he'd be more focused there. During the session, we had talked about hooking up on the Vineyard some day, not even thinking of a particular time. I spoke to him about a week before I went to the Vineyard, but we didn't know if we'd be there at the same time. As it turned out, we were!

It was nice seeing Ken again, and I'll always appreciate that he told me about a group called Lavender Light recording a gospel version of my song "Roll Me Through the Rushes." We had breakfast the next day, and he took me to the studio where he recorded, a place called Jim Parr Audio, run by a great guy named, yes, Jim Parr. It's a fantastic studio and would be a great place to go to make a record one day.

In other synchronicities, Danny Kortchmar, with whom I've worked many times over the years (including for years with James), was coming in to Jim's studio the next day to produce a group. And Don Was, who produced my Raindance LP, had just been there. (James' daughter Sally Taylor mentioned to me a week or so after this that Don told her he'd bought a copy of my Back to Blue-Eyed Soul CD at Midnight Farm because one of the cuts, "It's a Crying Shame" from Raindance was on it.)

Tamara lent me her car, so I got to drive around the island for an afternoon. I went to Menemsha Beach, where I bought a gorgeous antique teapot with sailboats and lighthouses on it, and to Gay Head, where I ate scallops, saw the lighthouse and stopped by the Outermost Inn for a quick visit with Hugh and Jeannie Taylor. One of my favorite restaurants on the Vineyard is Le Grenier, and I ate there one night. [see photo at left, which links to LeGrenier's Web Site]

I did my requisite shopping rounds and went to Take It Easy Baby, one of my favorite stores, and got a great pair of pants at the Army surplus store. I also got some sun, and I felt really relaxed. It rained a little bit, but it didn't matter because I was having such a good time.

CAMDEN & BUFFALO & DETROIT & CLEVELAND & PITTSBURGH
July 20, Tweeter Center, Camden
July 21, Darien Lake PAC, Buffalo
July 23, Pine Knob, Detroit
July 24, Blossom Music, Cleveland
July 26, Post Gazette Pavilion, Pittsburgh

The next tour date was in Camden, and I was surprised at how different the area we stayed in looked since I'd last visited. I went searching for an IHOP that wasn't there anymore, and I found myself wishing, sort of, that the world wouldn't change so much, that it would be just how I want it to be forever. Oh well.

There were a few other musicians and groups staying at our hotel, including Brian Ferry's Roxy Music. I ran into a young man of about 20 years old in the lobby wearing a shirt that said "Disco Still Lives" on it, or something like that. He asked if I was with Roxy Music. Ironically, I had sung back up with Luther Vandross and another guy on three Roxy Music songs from their 1978 Manifesto record, "Ain't That So," "Cry, Cry, Cry" and "My Little Girl." So I sang a few bars for this guy, and he was in total shock because he recognized my voice from the song (it was very prominent on the record). After this little impromptu "performance," I told him I had to go do my own gig, and he wanted to know who I sang with. When I said, "James Taylor," he said "Who???" I mentioned "You've Got a Friend" and "Fire and Rain," and a light bulb went on in his head. He told me he'd just gotten into disco this year, which was scary. A surreal moment.

Our show in Buffalo was near the Six Flags amusement park, so I went there and won a stuffed animal, two coffee mugs and an alien head. I actually felt like an alien that day, because the heat was just starting to kick up, and it was SO HOT.

In Detroit, we had a day off, so I went to visit my friend Pat who was a stagehand apprentice when I was in the Detroit Hair company many years ago. We've kept in touch over the years by hook or by crook. He and his wife and their beautiful three-year-old son (who I'd never seen until then) live on a lake, and we all went for a spin on a pontoon boat that day. I also got to see my cousins Patty and Jim.

(By the way, I would have lost a million dollar bet -- or at least a spelling bee -- because up until just now, I mistakenly thought the name for the boat we went on was "plantoon." Thanks to HS for setting me straight.)

If the heat in Buffalo was bad, it was worse in Detroit -- hotter than hell, I thought. Some friends of mine who were coming to the show at Pine Knob (which was outside, of course) decided not to come after all because of the weather conditions.

Despite the heat, I do love performing at Pine Knob, where I've played with James before. I even did Hair there, on that very stage, when Arnold and I toured with the show in 1971, 30 years ago.

Our Detroit show had a killer audience, probably one of our best audiences on this tour. They came to have a good time, they wanted to rock, they were up on their feet, and they were real music people. Detroit is a real musical city. Cleveland rocked too, with a kick-ass audience. You don't have to pull the energy out of them so much.

When I was discussing this with a friend, she said she'd been reading JT fan comments on the James Taylor Online Web Site about rowdy audiences. Having only been to see James Taylor shows at indoor venues in Los Angeles, she was perplexed and wondered about all the descriptions she'd read of people getting up and dancing and talking during the show and running up to the stage and running around in general. I explained that at indoor venues in cities like Los Angeles and New York, audiences are much smaller in number and more reserved and immobile. At an outdoor venue in just about any other city, though, the vibe is completely different and the audiences can number 20,000 or more. There is a totally different energy in the crowd, which isn't necessarily bad or good, but there is a lot more movement and noise from the audience. I sometimes get dizzy if I look out on the lawn because there are people moving around on it all the time. You can also hear a lot of crowd noise. As I said, the outdoor venues lend themselves to that -- it's the nature of that kind of venue.

I've found that many people like being up on the lawn. It's like a tradition, and some people are really into whatever that lends to the music. They've told me, "We don't care about seeing well, we just love the lawn -- that's our favorite place. We don't like the seats in the theatre, because it's claustrophobic and too much like a movie theatre." I found that so odd, but I guess to each his/her own tradition.

I was happy that my niece Tina came to our shows in Cleveland and Pittsburgh. We added "Blossom" to the second half of the set in Cleveland (at the Blossom Music venue), and the horn players played on it too, which sounded good.

In Pittsburgh, we got a rainstorm that cooled things off. Sally came, and she ended the show with her dad when they sang "You Can Close Your Eyes." She sounded so much like Carly -- it blew me away.

I'll finish this "Tales" by saying that Arnold was just awesome at the show in Cleveland, which is where he's from. I think it was very emotional for him because he had family at the concert. He always sings great, but he put a little extra in that night. When you have family at a show, when you have people you love there, somehow you find yourself "getting the power, getting the spirit." In Cleveland, I really noticed things in Arnold that I remember from back when we met in 1971, so long ago. It was intense, and it was nice -- it was just another dimension. The audiences just love Arnold so much, and his new CD, Back to Front, is great -- be sure to get yourself a copy at one of the shows or on Arnold's Web Site.

"SO GOOD FOR SLEEPIN'"

And the weather is...so good for sleeping
And this day...so good for sleepin'
And this life is so good for secrets we are keeping
And heaven is so good for religion
And those small little football pills are so dangerously good for sleepin'
Unisom unison three-part chord four-part whore
Just carry them around in your bag never take them
They are for security purposes like the jet without the lag

Mama's aim was true, no time now to drag your shoes
It is left to right one step at a time
You can't earn a dollar 'til you make your dime
It's ten times ten to equal one
It's ten years in the pen for the ultimate fun
Maybe those guys there -- they got it right good
Free rent and constant cable
I would do the time but I am just not able
Plus in there, they don't let you wear your sable

...and I didn't go home enough until she was gone
Like the little white spots on the spotted innocent fawn
They grow up and they are gone
Ma said it's my time now, my job is done
In ninety five I said to her once in a small rage, "I am not the chosen one"
And it's not my responsibility for your everyday fun
And she hollered when I left, "Please stay
I have this undecorated Christmas tree and it is almost Christmas Day"
We were not fighting she knew it just wasn't safe for me
They're half crazy they want my skin
They think I know something they think I drink gin
If they only would see I drink milk from a tree
I know nothing of life I'm just trying to be me

And these tickets are hell... concert and speeding...
Credit cards and numbers, relatives and promoters that could yell
I want six with passes slick as molasses
And sandwiches and no hassles backstage on eight twenty four
Or I'll ring your bell and bang your door

And all of ninety six was calling me back
Then when ninety seven came Ma got the ultimate relax
Now she's with Roy and Mabel and my Uncle John...and Jason
And Aunt Rhody and every dead Don
And how could I forget Judy, maybe she's not all the way to heaven yet
It's so hard to believe, it makes me so upset (heave I heave...)

When your people wanna up and leave, you cannot wait there and guard the door
They float in configurations of four times four
There on the floor
As their spirits soar
Screaming like Peggy Lee "Is that all there is"
I wanted so much more...

And this cup of tea
Is so good for sleepin', so good for dreaming
It is best to be believing that you are never in charge
You are never that large or important
You need to unwind
You need to be you... your basic road mulligan stew

If I only knew now what I shoulda known then
I would sit here with my Mama and we'd joke and pretend
We'd hold hands, kiss and giggle
Play hi diddle diddle
Laugh 'til we piddle
Then... shoot alcoholics off barstools like the ultimate revenge
You know it's just a poem an arcade game you know it's all pretend
Now Mama's gone, she is at peace, she's OK, she's all right at least
Now it's me who's left here waiting... for the largest... the ultimate light
Life is better when you don't put up a fight

This was written first day in Saratoga, NY, 7/08/01, at Borders Books in the tea shoppe.

David's next report will be posted on Monday, August 27.