Shaking Hands with James Taylor

On May 14^th, 2006 one circle of my life was completed. I have played guitar for over 40 years and many of the first songs I learned to play and perform came from a little album called, "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor. His songs for years continued to influence not only my music but my personal life as well!

Flash forward to the May '06 date and attending James Taylor's "One Man Band" performance at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. Apparently, a new event at music concerts is to shake hands and sign autographs with the audience folk near the stage right after intermission.

This particular night my daughter, Meredith, and I were fortunate to have been sitting in the third row up front. After waiting about 12 minutes for him to come from stage left to right I shouted, "James, I only want a handshake"! People around me started saying "shake his hand that's all he wants..." It was kind of surreal.

Before this moment however, the first set had been full of tears for Meredith and me. He sang "Country Road" almost as well (smile) as my friend Vince and I had performed it the previous year when I put on a concert for family and friends at my 50^th birthday party*.

One piece of equipment James had that I had wanted at my birthday party concert but could not make arrangements to obtain was that he had a laptop and a screen behind him. Before each song he would introduce it with a story of how the song came to be written. There was some sort of pad he would step on and the picture on the screen would change! How I would have loved having that set up on my stage!

Anyway, after shaking his hand he sang, "The Secret of Life" in the second set and then "Shower the People"**. Well I was blubbering by then! It was that song's lyrics that inspired me to ask my wife, Debbie, out on a date for the first time in 5 years "Once you tell somebody the way that you feel..." the girl next to me would not be here without those words was crying also (Meredith).

Back to the moment of the handshake, James stared at me, this man who has changed my life with his songs, put his autograph pen in his mouth and reached out. Then he looked me in the eye and shook my hand! Thirty-six years of singing his songs had come full circle!

* Our cover version of Country Road can be seen here Country Road
** My cover version of Shower The People can be seen on YouTube at YouTube - Shower The People