When I look back on it, I realize that I did a lot of sessions, which was great, because obviously I can't do them when I'm away on tour or out of town.

One of the most difficult sessions was for my friend Roxy, and it involved sight-reading the lead for five songs about pirates. In general, a background vocalist doesn't often hear a song before arriving at a session, but if you're singing a lead, you usually get a version to study in advance before you go into the studio. In the case of these pirate songs, though, they had just been written the day before, so there was no time for that. The tracks had to be recorded, mixed and delivered to Australia within like 48 hours, so we did the work really under the gun – as it always is in the music business. So, since I'd never seen the music or lyrics prior to arriving at the studio, and since I sang completely in my chest (low) voice (which has always been harder than singing in my falsetto voice), it was a real challenge. These songs were written as demos for a film musical about Peter Pan, so my leads portrayed the character of Captain Hook, ranging from sober to drunk.

I liked having the chance to play a character in the songs, to give the vocals a "personality." That reminded me of my days in the theater in New York. It made me think of also some sessions I did there back then when I sang demos for Broadway show writers that involved more theatrical singing (big, growly, animated) as opposed to the pop and R&B stuff that I do more often.

It was hard work, but I enjoyed myself because it was creatively challenging. It was fun, too, when I got the composer and the sound engineer to join me on background vocals in the "yo ho, yo ho"-type drunken-pirate song.

I sang again for Roxy a few weeks later when she wanted me to do a low-voice and a high-voice lead of a lyric she'd written to the music of the song "Somewhere in Time." I'd been studying this song from a tape she'd made, as lyricists sometimes do, of her singing the melody. Gulp. (Just kidding, Roxy.)

Anyway, the high vocal came out really beautiful, although I haven't heard it mixed yet, but it was fun working with Roxy and Gerry Brown, who produced and engineered it. I hadn't seen Gerry since we worked on Jonathan Butler's record from the mid-1990s, which he produced and engineered. Gerry's done some great records with Brian McKnight, Vanessa Williams, Tony-Toni-Tone and many others. He also produced on Debra Laws' Very Special album the songs "Meant For You" and "All the Things I Love," both written by Roxy and me. Coincidentally, Very Special is being reissued now or very soon, thanks to David Nathan.

[WEBMASTER'S NOTE: One of our Featured Songs for March is David's recording of "Meant For You" from his EXPECTATIONS OF LOVE album. Visit our SOUNDS page to listen to it.]

Being home for the summer also has its advantages with regard to being around for concerts – as an audience member, that is. One highlight was a Suzanne Vega gig I went to at the House of Blues, for which my friend Doug Yowell played drums. Doug lives in New York, but happily I got to see him a few times this year because he was also performing with Duncan Sheik. I've known Doug since he was 10 years old, and as I watched him perform, I marveled at how he's all grown up and how absolutely great a drummer he is. Doug is one of the brothers of my late, very good friend Don Yowell, with whom I wrote many songs. Duncan's band is excellent, and the guitar player who did the show, Jack Petrizzelli, was a great player, and I enjoyed meeting him.

On the other end of the musical spectrum, I went for the first time in my life as an audience member to the Hollywood Bowl. Actually, it was only my second time ever at the Bowl, the first having been in October 2001 when I performed there with James. My webmaster and I saw the L.A. Philharmonic do an all-Brahms program including a piano concerto, which was beautiful. Being at a classical concert feels so different from being at a pop or rock concert. Sitting outside under the stars in a great Bowl box pretty close to the stage was really relaxing, especially knowing that I wasn't there to sing. The Bowl is a trip because people bring these fabulous picnics and make a big production of it, complete with very expensive wines. The people in front of us, in fact, had a non-stop wine fest, and these were mortgage payment-priced bottles of wine. I am serious! As for my webmaster and me, we munched on popcorn, having dined elsewhere before the concert.

And then I went to L.A.'s other top outdoor summer concert venue, the Greek Theatre, to see Bonnie Raitt and Lyle Lovett. I hadn't been to the Greek in way more years than I want to remember – probably since the Flag tour in 1979 with James. Arnold (McCuller), who toured this summer with Lyle, had invited me and some friends to be his guests at the concert.

The entire evening was just completely amazing. Bonnie really kicks ass. She is at her all-time best, she just shines! She looks great, sounds great, plays great, and she seems so confident. It was the end of the tour but she seemed no worse for the wear.

Again, it felt nice, although unfamiliar, to be in the audience, as opposed to being on stage performing, but it's also a funny feeling sometimes, especially when I hear songs I've recorded as a background vocalist. That was the case a lot with Bonnie's set, like on "Have A Heart" from Nick of Time, which she opened with. She also sang "Something to Talk About" and "I Can't Make You Love Me" from Luck of the Draw, which I sang backgrounds on too, but I was affected most when I heard the opening chords of "Angel from Montgomery," because that goes back to 1974 when I first met Bonnie. Most people don't ever realize that I'm singing background on that track from Streetlights. It's such a special song. On most of Streetlights, I sang backgrounds in my high voice, but on "Angel," I sang in my low voice, so my sound isn't as recognizable. I remember that it was so great to sing on that track with legendary singer/songwriter Lou Courtney, and also that it felt great that Bonnie recorded one of my songs ("Got You On My Mind") on this album.

Lyle's whole set was extraordinary. With all his musicians, it was in some ways like a revue with a lot going on. It looked and sounded fabulous with all that energy on stage. The four singers each did step outs, and Arnold played a big part in the show. He mainly sang with Lyle, but he also joined Bonnie on a few songs. I love how he performs with a really joyful flash, very sophisticated versus how we're visually more laid back when we sing with James. It's kind of like the difference I just mentioned between singing theatrical songs rather than pop.

Speaking of James, I worked with him in October for a Tonight Show appearance singing backgrounds (with Arnold and Kate Markowitz) on "Whenever You're Ready" from October Road. This opportunity, happily, gave me a chance to shop for a new shirt. The jacket I had, but I needed something that matched, and I wanted a couple of options. It's always good to bring a few choices to the studio in case James or wardrobe wants a certain "look." (I always try to "think thea-tah," you know!)

I've gotten a lot of comments from people who love James' October Road album and the background vocals by Kate, Arnold and me, plus I've had some nice compliments on my background vocal with James on the "October Road" song. I was really happy that he got a Grammy nomination for it.

I did a live chat on the James Taylor Online web site in September just after October Road was released, and the "chatters" there were really excited about the album, too. This was my fourth chat at JTO, and it never ceases to amaze me how many fans there are around the world. We had people from all over the U.S., plus England, France, Australia, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Canada and even Peru! I guess it really is the "world-wide web."

I talked about a lot of things, from working with James to my solo stuff, but the most unusual question, by far, was "What is your favorite food?" One of my answers was Starlight Mints, which led to a whole, largely wacky discussion about this fine confection. To commemorate this occasion, we're including a photo of some Starlight Mints just for Caitlin and everyone else who has never seen them.

[WEBMASTER'S NOTE: Click HERE to read a transcript of David's live chat.]

I worked again with Arnold a few weeks after the Tonight Show at a session for David Sanborn's upcoming album on Verve produced by Stewart Levine. David wasn't at the session, but Lani Groves and Valerie Pinkston joined Arnold and me on the song. I hadn't seen Lani in a long time, not as long ago as when we sang together on a few songs for James' Never Die Young, but it had been a while. Lani is such a great singer – she's the voice you hear at the beginning of Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine of My Life," and I really love working with her and the way our voices sound together. Valerie, who sings a lot with Luther Vandross, is also a tremendous talent.

We worked a really long day, nearly seven hours. The track we did was a remake of an old song, so first we listened to the original record to hear the vocal parts. We each tried out different notes as we listened, and little by little we learned the arrangement together. Then, they played Sanborn's recorded track and we slowly and carefully started to add our harmonies.

The last time I sang for David was, incredibly, twenty-something years ago when James, Arnold and I did backgrounds on his Hideaway album for a tune called "Carly's Song." David and I also toured with James at the same time in the late 1970s. It's funny to me how you can't be in the music business for a long time without working with people again and again, even if it's many years apart.

Some other great sessions I got to do were two for Ellis Hall, a brilliant singer/songwriter who is signed to Ray Charles' company. I did backgrounds for two songs over two days with three other singers, Tim Owens, Howard McCrary and Bob Joyce. We had to sight-read the parts from a lead sheet, and these parts were unbelievably complicated, the hardest I've ever sung in my life, no question. It was challenging but thrilling, and I loved doing it. I was so shocked that I could actually make it through. It was like running a marathon, that kind of adrenaline. I was singing top notes, and I hit some I couldn't believe I made. After it was over, the arranger gave us a great compliment by saying that we'd sung every note on the page. I can't wait to hear the record. By the way, Tim Owens is a very accomplished songwriter and producer, and he wrote the single "This Very Moment" on K-Ci. & Jojo's new CD, Emotional. I hope I can work with Tim again because I think our voices sound great together.

Among my other favorite sessions was a recording for a Japanese artist where I sang lead on one song and backgrounds on the other. I brought in the brilliant Shelby Flint to sing backgrounds too. She is an absolute legend, period. I've read that Joni Mitchell has said she was greatly influenced by Shelby's hit "Angel on My Shoulder" and her other work. I have loved her for so many years and was so touched that when she arrived at the session, she had brought me her double CD that's just out. It's a two-CD set called Shelby Flint and contains all three of her albums. I've sung with her before but not that much, so this was really special.

I also brought in some other background singers on this project including the amazing Myrna Smith (from the Sweet Inspirations), who had just gotten off a plane from Norway but you'd never have known it from the way her voice sounded – spectacular, as usual. It would be impossible to compile a list of all the songs on which Myrna has sung background. Name a singer, and she's sung with them, including Elvis.

And, I booked Valerie Pinkston and Lani Groves, so I got to work with them again within the space of a week. They were their usual wonderful, "sing-your-face-off" selves. I had been doing some recording for another project at my old friend Carmen Grillo's studio, and he made time to come in to complete this great group of singers.

The day was very long, but when I heard the playback, I was really pleased, and I'm looking forward to hearing the finished record.

Finally, I wanted to give "special mention" to two CDs with my work on them and one article that came out last year. One of the CDs, Itty Bitty Treasure Chest, Volume 4 (RR-13) was released by Regency in Canada, and it contains "Maybe" by The Utopias, my 1960s group with my sister Julie. It's such a thrill when something comes out that Julie and I did because it's nice to have the recognition all these years later. We worked so hard in those days, and it means so much to me that this work has stood the test of time and that people are still interested in buying it. I myself, in fact, bought two as fast as I could. (Wink, wink.)

[WEBMASTER'S NOTE: Our other Featured Song for March is a recording by The Utopias, "Look At the Clock," which is on David's retrospective CD, BACK TO BLUE-EYED SOUL. Visit our SOUNDS page to listen to it.]

I was also really happy when Rhino issued The Best of Anita Baker with my song "You Bring Me Joy" on it. This is really the first complete collection of Anita's work over the years, and it made me feel good that a song I wrote was on it. "You Bring Me Joy," especially Anita's version, is truly one of my favorites. I can actually listen to that song and forget that I wrote it. Most of the time when I listen to songs I've written, I'm always picking them apart or anticipating chords or just being in my head about the structure, but not with Anita's version of "You Bring Me Joy." It's so fluid – she makes it her own, and I just get swept up in it!

The last thing I want to write about in this "Tales" is an interview with me by Carlo Wolff that was published in the October 2002 issue of Discoveries magazine.

[WEBMASTER'S NOTE: Click HERE to read the interview.]

We spent many hours on the phone over several weeks doing the interviews, and we covered my entire career starting back in the Motor City days. Of all the interviews I've ever done, it was probably the most in depth, yet Carlo was able somehow to organize it and make sense of all the information. He wrote about the early years in Detroit, the New York City years, and my life in Los Angeles in a way that I felt captured the things I've always wanted to discuss about parts of my career that don't often get discussed. He took a lot of material and condensed it down to a few pages that very nicely captures some of the high points of my life in the "music trenches." It's a nice article, and I was really gratified with the recognition.

Life in this industry, with all its ups and downs, all its good times and hard times, takes a lot out of me. But when I feel touched by something the way I was touched by the Discoveries interview, I remember why I stick around in the music business.

David

David's "Tales From Home" will appear periodically.

In fact, I remember what nice weather we had for the session, which was supposed to run three days but ended up lasting two. They kept changing things around, and it took dozens of phone calls between the singers and the production coordinator to finally confirm the first date.

I had trouble sleeping during several nights before the session. Even though I've sung with James since 1977, it's not unusual for me to feel nervous going into the studio with him. The number of artists for whom I've sung backgrounds over the years must be hundreds -- but singing for James is not like singing for "Joe Shmo." Knowing him for all these years, all the time I've spent with him on the road, all of the history we have together doesn't make it easier on my nerves when I'm recording with him. It doesn't relax me at all. If anything, it makes me more anxious, because I worry about being the right singer for the song. I worry about doing my best, which he expects, all in a very unspoken way.

I woke up pretty early on the day of the first session, a Wednesday. I pulled into the recording studio parking lot just before 11 a.m., at about the same time as Kate (Markowitz). Arnold (McCuller) arrived shortly thereafter. As I got out of my car and walked toward the building, I flashed back to the many times I'd worked there for so many singers, like Luther Vandross, Barbra Streisand, Jennifer Warnes, Donna Summer and many, many more. I even recorded part of my own RAINDANCE album there in 1984.

Waiting for us inside were the producer Russ Titelman, two engineers, the production coordinator and James, who looked healthy and happy. When I first saw him, he greeted me and, seemingly kidding, said, "I hope you're in good voice, David. You're going to be singing top in places on this record." Kate and I looked at each other and laughed. But it turned out not to be a joke.

To explain, when I first started singing with James in 1977, it was just Arnold and me on background vocals. For the most part, Arnold sang the bottom harmony notes, I sang the top ones (in my falsetto voice), and James sang leads in the middle. For example, on the Dad Loves His Work songs on which Arnold and I sing ("Hard Times," "London Town," "Only For Me," "I Will Follow," "Stand and Fight"), you can hear Arnold's low vocals and my high vocals, especially on "Hard Times."

Over the last 12 or so years, however, there have been more singers and thicker harmonies with the addition of Kate and Valerie (Carter). When we've performed in concert with James on tour, we've tried to sing in our comfort zones, i.e. where our voices feel best. Generally, for me, that's using my falsetto, rather than my chest voice, and singing the middle notes, rather than the low ones, with the girls on the high notes and Arnold on the low notes. For example, in a song like "That's Why I'm here," I sing the harmony's middle notes between the girls and Arnold, which is the most comfortable place for my voice.

Of course, we do vary that pattern. On "Not Fade Away," Val and I both sing the top notes, and Kate and Arnold similarly double on the bottom ones. Another song that is a variation on the role I usually play is "Shed A Little Light" in which I sing mostly in my chest voice, but also in my falsetto, going from one place to the other. (I love singing that song, but I have to be in really good voice for it because of switching from high to low. I've always appreciated that James puts this song toward the middle or the end of the show so that we're warmed up for it by then.)

Anyway, the point is that even though we usually follow that "Arnold low, David middle, Kate/Val high" pattern, we can switch around. That's what I find so interesting about the four of us -- we all are capable (range-wise) of singing top, middle or bottom harmony notes, which is very unusual, especially in a mixture of male and female voices. There are sections of background singers where the men sing like men -- low -- and the women sing like women -- high. But Arnold, Kate, Val and I can each sing in a very wide range -- we all have all of the notes. What triggers a switch from our usual roles is when a variation sounds better.

So at the beginning of the session, when James mentioned singing top, I think that's what he had in mind. He was planning to change the typical roles we'd been playing during these last 12 years. This would enable him to stack the new album's harmonies a little differently this time and to try each of us on different notes more often. In other words, Arnold would sing bottom in one place as he normally does but top in another. James also did things like having all of us sing the same top note, the same middle note and the same bottom note, like at the end of "September Grass." And I used both my falsetto and chest voices in "Belfast to Boston" and "On the Fourth of July." It would end up to be pretty different from any session we'd done with him before.

The mood in the studio felt upbeat but tinged with an anticipatory anxiety because we had a lot of work to do, and as it turned out we worked very hard and very fast. At this stage of the recording, they'd already completed the final tracks and lead vocals back east and had come out here to L.A. to add backgrounds and other guitar, keyboard and percussion overdubs.

During rehearsals for the 2001 tour, we'd listened to some rough tracks of "On the Fourth of July," "Raised Up Family," "Whenever You're Ready," "Caroline I See You," and "Carry Me On My Way," and we learned harmonies for all but "Caroline I See You." Until this session, though, those were the only songs we'd heard from the upcoming album.

Before we started working on the vocals, Russ, James and the engineers were finishing up a piano overdub on "Mean Old Man." As they played the tape, I remember thinking, "What a beautiful, beautiful song!" and wondering when James had had the time to write it.

We all went into the control booth to listen to our first song for the day, "Raised Up Family," which we'd sung live throughout the tour. When they played us the recorded track, though, it was slightly different from the live arrangement, so most of our road harmonies didn't fit. We listened intently a few times to the track, which contained music and James's lead. James taught us the new parts by singing along with the track, and after a few go-rounds, Kate, Arnold and I joined in on our various parts.

When we'd learned the harmonies, the three of us went into the studio while James and Russ remained in the control booth. Instead of using the three microphones that were set up, we decided to sing on one mic so that we could blend better. If I remember correctly, Kate stood in the middle, with Arnold on the left and me on the right, which is where I like to stand for some reason (I don't know why, exactly). During the session, we'd switch positions from time to time, especially as we repeated certain sections, in order to get a different blend of our voices.

Some people think that background vocalists simply sing along to a track from start to finish, but that's not how recording works. We break the song up into phrases and record one phrase at a time, pretty much in the order it appears in the song. For example, on "Raised Up Family," we worked for a while just on the phrase "Thinkin' 'bout my cousin." James had us record it once in three-part harmony, and then we'd double it, which means we'd record it again the same way so that they could "stack it," which means they'd put the two three-voice tracks together for a richer sound. As we sang, it was nice, as it always is, to see James smile or nod through the control booth window when he liked what he was hearing.

Next was "Whenever You're Ready," a song we'd sung at the beginning of the tour, but James had taken it out, probably because of the length of the show. We'd never really had a chance to work out our harmonies on it during the tour, but at the session, it all fell into place. James and Russ seemed really happy with the way the background vocals on this song came out.

We were more familiar with the next song, "On the 4th of July," because we had done it for the entire tour, although once again, some of the parts we had sung in concert didn't really work with the arrangement on the record. In concert, there were four background singers, and no matter how loudly we sang, we were just four voices. But on a recording, no matter how few singers there are, the voices can be multiplied by stacking the tracks. So, in this case, our three voices could become six voices, or nine or more.

We got to try a lot of different things, like three-part harmony (Kate singing top, me doing middle and Arnold singing bottom), and that same combination doubled for a thicker sound. We also tried a version with all three of us singing top on one track, middle on a second track, bottom on a third track, and then combining them to result in a three-part chorus of voices. This also enabled them to choose between one track of Kate/Arnold/David on the same note and another track with Kate/Arnold/David in three-part harmony. It gave them more of a chorale sound and the ability to pick and choose what thickness they wanted for the vocal texture -- less for a more intimate feel and vice versa.

We ended up working until close to midnight. I was really exhausted, so I went straight home to get as much sleep as I could before our 12 noon call the next day.

In the morning, we began with "September Grass," written by John Sheldon, which we'd run a few times in rehearsal for a tour over the years, but I'd never heard it in this new beautiful arrangement. I really like the harmonies we ended up doing.

Then James completely blew me away when he played "My Traveling Star," which I think is my favorite song he's written in a while. James was already singing harmonies with himself on the track, and the harmonies were intricate, so rather than play the tape over and over again until we could decipher them, he got out his guitar and played us the parts one by one by one.

We started to record, and when we'd finished one chorus, they had us take a dinner break. After much discussion and listening to James' harmonies with himself, they decided for the moment to stick with those he already had done. I thought that gave the song a more intimate feel, like things Russ had produced years ago for James on Gorilla and In The Pocket. It's very beautiful, and I love it. I was glad we got to learn the parts, and even though we're not singing them on the album, I think it sounds great.

At one point during the dinner break, I showed Russ three CDs I'd brought to the session. They were U.K. compilation releases containing girl-group songs, many of which he'd written, including "I Never Dreamed" by the Cookies. He seemed pretty excited and said, "These are great. I knew about two of them, but not the third." We asked James if we could take a minute to play "I Never Dreamed," and James said, "Sure," so we all listened. I then, of course, went off on one of my girl-group tangents and started singing every "B" side known to man. I couldn't help myself, sorry!! This is still Hollywood after all, home of Phil Spector.

When I put the girl-group CDs back into my bag, I saw my BACK TO BLUE-EYED SOUL CD that I'd brought for James. I'd been wanting to give him a copy all throughout the tour but never found the right time. This moment, though, seemed perfect because we'd just been talking about songs from long ago, which is some of what's on BACK TO BLUE-EYED SOUL, a retrospective of my career. When I gave it to him, he looked at the photos in the CD booklet and chuckled at some of the retro ones.

Meanwhile, they told us that we were next going to sing on "Belfast to Boston." After I finished choking on my chicken soup, I figured they were joking, because James has performed this song since 1998 and had always done it solo. But they were serious. I was familiar with the song, but I'd never really studied the phrasing. They put up the tape and there was already a chorus singing with James on the tracks. I was shocked at how complicated the phrasing really was, and I had to write out the words and break it down line by line in order to phrase it properly. This was very difficult but in the end worthwhile. When I hear the finished track now, the background vocals sound like people sitting around a pub and singing. It doesn't sound like studio singers, and I think that's what they were going for.

By this time, after we finished "Belfast," it was very late, and I was starting to feel like I'd been singing all day long -- which I had. We took a brief break, and before I knew it, Arnold had left and Kate was on her way out. James said to me, "David, don't go. I want to play you this thing, and I want you to put a little harmony part on the top." "This thing" turned out to be "October Road," which I never dreamed at the time would end up being the album's title cut.

We went into the control booth, and I listened to the song. James had already added his own background vocals to the track, which I loved, and he wanted me to add a higher harmony. As I wrote down the words and marked the places where I'd be singing, I realized how tired I was and how hard it was to concentrate, and I got really nervous again. I remember wishing that it was the beginning of the day so that I would be fresher for this song, but I also realized that I was as warmed up vocally as I'd ever be because I'd been singing for so many hours.

While James and Russ remained in the control booth with the engineers, I went by myself into the studio and stood in front of the mic. James wanted a one-part harmony with a kind of "roots-y" feel, so I used a sort of twangy sound up in the nasal part of my voice. Since I'd only just heard the song for the first time, the intricacies of the harmonies were a challenge, especially in the section that goes, "Let the sun run down behind the hill, I know how to stand there still, Till the moon rise up behind the pine O' Lord." After we finished, I wasn't sure whether I'd done it well. I asked James if he wanted me to sing it again at the next background vocals session the following week, but he said, "No, it's fine."

I said goodnight and left while they were still working on other parts of the album. As I drove home, I realized that despite James' reassurance, I still didn't feel confident about my "October Road" harmonies. Since we were going into the studio again the following Tuesday to add background vocals to "Carry Me On My Way," I decided I'd offer to re-sing "October Road" then.

The next evening, Friday, was the strings session, and some of us had been invited to stop by. It took place in Capitol Records' Studio B, a legendary space in which Sinatra and Nat King Cole and possibly even the Beatles had recorded. When I got there, it was about 11:30 p.m..

There were about 14 players, maybe more, with the arranger Dave Grusin conducting, but I arrived too late to hear them record, and they were all packing up. My timing was perfect, though, to hear what they'd just done. I went into the control room and said a quiet "hello" to everyone -- the production coordinator, Russ, James and a few others -- and listened to the rough playbacks of "Mean Old Man," "Caroline I See You" and "My Traveling Star." I thought they sounded really pretty, really lush.

Since James was so busy, I decided to split. I wanted to talk to him about redoing my "October Road" harmonies, but of course this wasn't the right time. It could wait until Tuesday.

To my disappointment, however, the Tuesday session was canceled when they decided not to add our voices to "Carry Me" after all. When I found that out Monday night, I realized I'd better go to the studio right away to say goodbye to James, at the very least, and certainly to ask if I could add anything to the song "October Road."

Again, it was pretty late when I got there -- and believe me, I'm not usually such a "night owl." Michael Landau was doing guitar overdubs on what turned out to be "Baby Buffalo." When he was done and it seemed as though they were winding down, I asked James, "Do you think that my 'October Road' harmony is OK? I'm just a little bit nervous about it." He said, "No, it's fine," as he had when I'd asked the same question during the original session. He added, "I like it. Here, listen, we'll play it for you." The engineers stopped what they were doing and put up the tape while James set the levels. When I heard it, I understood what he had in mind for the song and realized it sounded nice.

I'm really happy that I got the opportunity for it to be me singing on "October Road" with James. Even though my harmony vocal simply adds some color, feeling or attitude to the song (rather than being a big, grand singing part), it has turned out to be one of my favorites on the album.

Anyway, I said my goodbyes and left, feeling better about everything and excited about hearing the finished CD, although I knew that would be months away.

Before October Road came out, though, I sang again with James in May at the annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards where he received the special Founders Award. Kate, Arnold and I performed two songs during the program, "I Was A Fool To Care" with Shawn Colvin and "Something in the Way She Moves" with James.

It was fun, but the evening was memorable more for my clothing mishap than anything. I was wearing a long, black Italian zippered tux jacket over a bright, white shirt. Right before we went on with James, the zipper broke, but I somehow got it to zip up to my collar starting at about three inches above the hem. That was bad enough, but while we were singing, as I moved, the jacket started slowly and bizarrely to unzip by itself. Every time I took a breath, it moved another half-inch down. By the time the song was over, it was close to the bottom. The only thing that saved it from bursting open and knocking someone's eyeball out (and me from complete mortification) was that it stopped just above the place near the hem where it had stuck in the first place. Something in the way IT moves, indeed! I won't even tell you about the glob of honey that stuck in my throat.

On the way out, I ran into James' son Ben, and it was great to see him. We talked a little about his upcoming album, but he didn't know at that time when it was coming out.

Just over two months later, in early August, I finally got October Road. It was interesting to hear the mixes and the background vocals they chose. I'm not sure of which combination of voices they used in certain sections, but it's fun to play a little game -- the background vocalist game, i.e "Name That Singer" -- as I wonder, "What did I sing there? Is there one of me? Are there two of me? Is that me, or is it Kate or Arnold?

The advance copy I'd received was essentially just the disc itself, and it wasn't until Tuesday, August 13 that I went into Amoeba Records and got the actual Limited Edition double CD release with that great photo of James on the cover. It is the best CD package I've seen by any artist in a while. It's one more James Taylor album to add to my collection. Starting with Flag, I've sung on every JT record since -- Dad Loves His Work, That's Why I'm Here, Never Die Young, New Moon Shine, Live, Hourglass, and now, October Road. And I sure wish I'd been around to sing on Gorilla.

See, besides being James' background singer, I'm also a big fan. I have to say that it's really hard to pick my favorite album of his -- but October Road comes close.

David

David's "Tales From Home" will appear periodically.

During the almost-six-month tour, I had really missed my sister Julie, so when I got home, I visited her a lot, and we spent Thanksgiving together. Our non-traditional meal consisted of manicotti made by her boyfriend and cherry pie, both really good.

November and December in Los Angeles were frigid, unbelievably cold. Adding to the gloom was some bad news that I got in a phone call from composer David Schwartz. We kept playing phone tag, and I thought he was calling about a session, but when we finally spoke, I could hear in his voice that there was some terrible news coming. Indeed, he'd called to tell me that his brother-in-law, my very good friend Mitch Roberts, had unexpectedly passed away while on a business trip in Hong Kong. He was only 47 years old. Naturally, I was leveled, and his family, of course, was completely heartbroken. I went to the memorial service, and I couldn't pull it together to sing, but Arnold McCuller came through and sang Jennifer Warnes' "Song of Bernadette," Mitch's favorite. Mitch and I had written "Everlasting" and "Justify" and many songs together a long time ago, and he played drums on many of my demos and recordings. We hadn't written together in a while until early last year when we wrote five songs that were demo'd, including "Running Out," for which Valerie Pinkston sang a beautiful lead for us, "Back to Me and You," with a lead by Jason Scheff (from Chicago), and "Got the Message," with a lead by Arnold. Mitch had really enjoyed getting back into it, and we probably would have written more stuff this year. I really miss him.

I intended to spend an early Christmas back home in Michigan with my nieces and nephews, so I set off in late November with the car all packed. I got only as far as Palm Springs when I realized that I had the flu and wouldn't be able to do the drive, so I turned back. I was really disappointed, and so were the kids.

On the up side, since I was in L.A. for most of December, I got to do a few things that I might have missed if I'd been gone. Luther Vandross, who I've known forever (we sang together with Chic and Sister Sledge and so many others) was performing at the Universal Amphitheatre, and he invited me to see the show. It was so great, the best I've ever seen him. I thought he was really, really wonderful vocally, especially on "Wait For Love."

Something else I would have missed if I'd been out of town was the swinging soiree of my old songwriting pal Allee Willis, with whom I wrote "Lead Me On" for Maxine Nightingale, "Come What May" for Patti LaBelle, and songs recorded by other artists like Dusty Springfield, Bonnie Raitt, Crystal Gayle, Rita Coolidge, the Manhattan Transfer, Valerie Carter and so many more. Allee had a birthday party at a place called "Color Me Mine," where you paint your own pottery. It was a "star-studded" event filled with artsy folks including Cybill Shephard, Downtown Julie Brown, Brenda Russell, Dave Koz, Angelyne, Stephen Bray, Karon Bihari, Matthew Wilder, Frannie Golde, the lovely Prudence, Worm and Lauren Wood. We even played bingo. It was a lot of laughs. Allee gives good party.

I got a Christmas card from James with his note on it saying, "See you in L.A.," which made me realize that I'd be singing some songs on his new recording in the new year.

Twas the season… I went to some other fun holiday parties, including one at my friend Robin Lerner's. I spent Christmas Day at Arnold's with his family and friends. Arnold's cousins were there -- Gordon and Gordon's daughter who is married to Coby Bell from Third Watch. They are the sweetest!

Business was pretty slow in December, but some wonderful publicity about my work was published that month, including a really good review in Playboy of Back to Blue-Eyed Soul by Dave Marsh, who has written nice things in the past about me, and an interview in Gig magazine by David Farinella that I'd actually done at the beginning of last year. Also, I was interviewed in late December by a great guy named Dan Kimpel for a "Songwriter Profile" that appeared in a February issue of Music Connection magazine.

Amoeba Records, based in San Francisco, opened in L.A. -- and so did my wallet. You can spend days there -- and I have -- because they have such a vast collection of everything: vinyl, 8-track tapes, CDs, 45s, 78s, movies, and even some of my CDs! For my brother Dean, who is a great tenor sax player and used to play with Bill Black's Combo and Ace Cannon and Sil Austin and many more, I found some rare CDs, Bill Black's and Ace Cannon's Greatest Hits, both on the Hi label.

I continued to shop my way through the holidays, necessitated, Scout's honor!, by my large circle of family and friends. I spent hours and hours wrapping presents and shipping packages, and there are remnants of scotch tape all over my carpet. Note to Kate and Val -- I still have your presents (sorry!!).

On the day after Christmas, I hopped on a train to bring in the New Year with my nieces and nephews in Michigan. It was a good ride all in all, train-trip speaking. Coach can be a drag, but I lucked out and got a window seat. My pillow from home helped me get some real rest, plus I was still kind of in "road mode," so sleep while traveling came easy. I sat next to a young man who works for a publishing company in L.A. in their web site department, and he had at the very last minute decided to abandon a car trip to New York City and took the train instead. It was to be his first trip ever to Manhattan. He'd felt a certain connection to all the people involved in September 11, so he wanted to go there to say some prayers. He was just the right person to sit next to because he stayed up late, and I didn't, so by the time he was returning to his seat to sleep, I was waking up for my "cuppa" tea.

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and they certainly did -- to a sudden, thudding end. I arrived at my Michigan house in the dead of night, only to find that some members of my family -- who shall remain nameless -- had "borrowed," shall we say, my water pump. (In all fairness, they weren't expecting me home until spring.) For those of you who are city folk, that means no running water. Zip. As in, you turn on the faucet and nothing happens. At first, I thought that the pipes had frozen, because it was snowing and freezing, brutal weather. Luckily, my nephew Jamie, who was with me, had said we should buy some water and other supplies in case we got snowed in, so it was OK, sort of. We ended up breaking icicles off the roof and melting them in buckets to boil for washing up and flushing the toilet. [see photo at left] Shaving was out of the question, so I grew a little goatee, which I still have. It was like summer camp, only in winter.

While I was there, I got to spend lots of time with my young nieces and nephews. We saw the movie Jimmy Neutron and had a really fun New Year's Eve party.

When I got back to L.A. in early January, it was time to start cleaning my chaotic apartment (I still had some unpacked bags from the tour!!) [see photo at left] in order to get ready for a visit by my niece Debbie. We had a great time when she arrived, especially because it was her first time here in nine years. We did lots of fun things, like visiting my sister and shopping. We ate a fabulous lunch at Madeo, my favorite restaurant in the world (Alfio, the owner, is just the best), and we also had a wonderful dinner at another great restaurant, Locanda del Lago in Santa Monica, with my friends Laura and Hugh.

The sessions from James' album were unbelievably amazing. I enjoyed them so much, and I realized how much I'd missed James since the tour ended. After the new CD comes out (and I don't know when that will be), I'll go into more detail about the sessions.

I also did a really fun session with legendary arranger Jimmie Haskell for a British singer named Zoe on a song called "Waiting For A Miracle." I was so honored to be working for Jimmie Haskell and to be meeting him for the first time. He's done so many brilliant records, including Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry. Maxi Andersen, a legendary session singer, did the vocal arrangements for a total of 26 singers, and we were voiced as a string section would have been. The singers were all the finest background vocalists, including Carl Graves, who I'd wanted to meet for such a long time. He'd had two great songs which I really love called "Baby Hang Up the Phone," and "Heart Be Still," plus an A&M album. (Coincidentally, when Frankie Valli recorded "Heart Be Still" four years after Carl did, I sang backup on it.) Other great singers there included Fred White, Oren Waters, Terry Young, Kevin Dorsey, Alex Brown, Julia and Maxine Waters, Lynn Davis, Carmen Carter, Carmen Twillie, Clydene Jackson, Andrea Robertson, Mona Lisa Young, Myrna Matthews and so many more. The recording was produced by Jeffrey Weber, who did my Soldiers on the Moon CD in 1990, and as fate would have it, the session was held in the same studio in which I recorded Soldiers. Like that recording, this session was live to two-track, meaning recorded live, which is always a challenge. It brought back some pressure-filled memories of the making of Soldiers.

These first few months of 2002 have been a really creative time for me, almost like spring fever come early. I've started writing so many songs that I can't remember the names of them all! Some of them will eventually be recorded, like "The Missing Sister," "Everybody's Lonely," "Save Mama," "When the Power Goes Out," "Dream Away John" (which I'm writing with my friend Aaron), "I Don't Play Those Games" (which I'm writing with my niece Debbie), "Eddie," "Party of One," and more.

I went to see Arnold perform at the Baked Potato for two shows that he recorded for his new CD. My favorite songs were the Joe Sample/Will Jennings song "When Your Life Was Low," and Little Jimmy Scott's "When Did You Leave Heaven." During the show, and when I listened to the CD later, I really heard the magic in Arnold's voice. He works so hard, but he makes it seem so effortless. He's so at ease… he's such a natural at what he does. His background vocalist Fred White is astounding, too. Kate Markowitz was in the audience, and it was nice to see her and be with her and Arnold for the evening. It had been months since we'd been together at the end of the JT tour.

Shortly afterward, I got another reminder of the tour when TWO people recognized me from James's band while I was (what else??) shopping. It's really odd that two people in the same day would come up to me to ask if I sing with James because that very rarely happens. I guess it's kind of a "sideman syndrome," where people might be familiar with the way we sound, but they don't often know our faces.

I did two more publicity interviews, one about my first label, Fortune Records, for Goldmine magazine, and the other that's about moi for Discoveries magazine. I really enjoyed my conversations with the writer of both, Carlo Wolff.

I don't usually like to do photo shoots, but I needed new pictures not only for the Discoveries article but also because I have a new album in mind. I often get ideas for a recording's concept from photos that I've had taken. In fact, sometimes I approach my solo work first as an art director. (Maybe that's why my albums sell in the millions… NOT.)

Anyway, my real art director of more than 20 years, Mac James (he's done all my solo albums), is also an amazing photographer and painter. He did the photos of Arnold for his Back to Front CD (you can also see them on his web site). Mac and I did a great shoot using available light, very casual, and I'm really happy with the photos.

I had rediscovered the hot springs and the sun in the desert east of L.A. when my niece Debbie was here to visit. I actually go to the desert pretty regularly when I'm in L.A. to visit my sister. Doing the mineral water is really relaxing and healing, as well as energizing. I also have friends there who really contribute to my spiritual well being. And there are some wonderful antique and thrift shops that I love to visit.

Sadly, on my last trip there, my sister and I got some terrible news that our brother-in-law Gale, who we'd both known since we were little kids, had died suddenly of a heart attack. We were both devastated and made plans immediately to leave for Michigan. The drive there took just a few days, and we arrived right before Gale's funeral.

Gale was my late sister Judy's husband. During her funeral in 1998, I was too sad to speak or sing, but for Gale's service I felt it was really important to do both. Gale and Judy's kids, and their kids, had now lost their parents and grandparents, not to mention my mom, who was like their grandmother. I felt it was time to step up to the plate and be of service, to help in any way I could. I sang "Shenandoah," a song that Judy loved, and "Nobody Knows," "Do Lord" and "Natural Faith," and I spoke, sharing my memories of Gale. I especially think it helped my great-nieces and nephews to turn such a sad occasion into a more uplifting one.

After the service, we had a nice gathering at the church. I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in years, and during my week or so there afterward I saw others, including Rosie from my elementary school. Judy, another person from school days long ago, came by with some photos as well as a gift for my webmaster. (Thanks, Judy, from Jill!)

The drive back to L.A. alone (my sister had left earlier) was incredibly intense and rough. Since I've been back, I've kept busy, but I still feel really sad about Gale, and it's hard to get over yet another death in my family. I miss my nieces and nephews (Gale and Judy's kids and grandkids) a lot.

As I finish up this first "Tales From Home," I'm reading Michael J. Fox's Lucky Man autobiography. I remember seeing him some years ago at Aron's Records when it was still on Melrose and really wanting to speak with him, but I was too shy. I'm finding his book uplifting and powerful, and it even has a quote from James' "That's Why I'm Here" in it, which is a song on which I'm singing backgrounds. Michael doesn't know me, but when he puts on that song, he's hearing my voice. It makes me feel happy to know that. I took it as a sign of -- something. And it's helping me continue to recover from the sadness of the many losses in our family and to continue to work on some new projects that I'm excited about and will be announcing soon.

David

David's "Tales From Home" will appear periodically.