James Taylor Insights

[david]

I don't like Howard Stern and don't understand why James Taylor went on his show, but still, this is interesting:

[millring]

I know I've mentioned it before, but I really think that his unusual way of fingering the A and D chords (I don't know anyone else who learned to play them that way) has a surprising amount to do with his particular sound.

[howard lee]

On a slightly tangential line, here are two of the three reasons I wanted to play guitar:

 

Seeing this photo and recognizing the passing of time always leaves me feeling wistful.

[John B]

Jul 12, 2023 6:30:30 GMT -5 howard lee said:

On a slightly tangential line, here are two of the three reasons I wanted to play guitar:

 

Seeing this photo and recognizing the passing of time always leaves me feeling wistful.

Who’s the third?

Looking at the photo, I remember when both of them were that young…

[Russell Letson]

Three reasons I learned to play guitar.



(I hung out and played a bit with a girl who looked like the middle one. If we'd gone to the same school, I would have been dating her.)

And my current beard is an homage to the bookend guys.

[Dub]

My three reasons.

[coachdoc]

I never cottoned to PPM. From the get go it was MJH and VanRonk. I took guitar lessons from Don Zepp. A great finger picker and bluegrass player. He has quite the YouTube presence under Zepp Music. One of the sharpest senses of humor I’ve encountered and a fine musician. I’m forever grateful to him.

[Russell Letson]

Jul 12, 2023 14:16:50 GMT -5 Dub said:

My three reasons.

Actually it was the Trio's music that my friend-who-was-a-girl and I pursued back then. My focus on PP&M and Pete Seeger overlapped with that initial enthusiasm, and KT material inspired a lot of undergrad hootish activity. I didn't approach the purer forms of folk music until grad school, where I met a guy from Yazoo City who turned me on to Memphis Slim, Howlin' Wolf, and other guys who carried pistols in their waistbands and razors in their shoes.

[jdd2]

Hoyt Axton, anyone? (KT's greenback dollar)

[Russell Letson]

Yup, a college-hoot favorite. We were much taken by the KT arrangement.

[Dub]

Jul 12, 2023 16:09:49 GMT -5 jdd2 said:

Hoyt Axton, anyone? (KT's greenback dollar)

I used to drink with Hoyt in a bar on E. Pearson St. in Chicago. I think that’s all Loyola facilities now. Hoyt used to hang out in Chicago in the early sixties. It was a long time ago in a galaxy… well, you know.

[RickW]

Jul 12, 2023 5:20:52 GMT -5 millring said:

I know I've mentioned it before, but I really think that his unusual way of fingering the A and D chords (I don't know anyone else who learned to play them that way) has a surprising amount to do with his particular sound.

That is very odd. Seen lots of variations, but that’s strange. But, whatever works for you. He loves his suspended hammer ons, he does.

[RickW]

Jul 12, 2023 16:09:49 GMT -5 jdd2 said:

Hoyt Axton, anyone? (KT's greenback dollar)

Saw him live here, he was backing someone up, can’t remember who. But never knew how many huge songs he wrote for other people until he walked out on a stage and started to sing them.

[millring]

Though I'm WAY too young for PP&M to be an influence, nevertheless, they were probably my first. Later album, I'm guessing. I was 10. Geoff left behind a no name guitar and a Kingston Trio songbook by which I learned my first chords. I had seen Geoff fingerpick and caught that he was alternating the base and the strings in a pattern. I was soon imitating the songs on Album 1700. When Geoff came home from college he showed me that I could change the rhythm of the fingerpicking by pinching the two outer strings as a start to the alternating thing.

If I Had Wings was my first fingerpicking song.

[RickW]

For me, it was Cat Stevens at the start. Listened to Teaser and the Firecat, Tea for the Tillerman, and Catch Bull at Four until I wore them out. Beatles songs to s certain extent, but then I went on to Jethro Tull, (Ian Anderson’s playing,) and Steve Howe of Yes. (Yes, I’m an old prog guy.)

[coachdoc]

Dub, I had no idea that KT Tunstall did Greenback Dollar.

[coachdoc]

Dub, I had no idea that KT Tunstall did Greenback Dollar.

[Dub]

Jul 12, 2023 19:26:24 GMT -5 coachdoc said:

Dub, I had no idea that KT Tunstall did Greenback Dollar.

I think by “KT” he was referring to the Kingston Trio.

Hoyt Axton’s mother wrote Heartbreak Hotel for Elvis Presley.

From AllMusic.com

Mae Boren Axton's contribution to popular music was dwarfed by a singular piece of work. As co-composer of one of Elvis Presley's definitive songs -- "Heartbreak Hotel" -- she was able to live the rest of her life in financial security.

Born in Texas and raised in Oklahoma, Axton attended the University of Oklahoma and gained a degree in journalism, and began work for Life magazine as a reporter. After marrying schoolteacher John Axton, she moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and herself began a teaching career. However, she also began working as a songwriter with local musicians Glenn Reeves and Tommy Durden. It was while working for Hank Snow that she first saw Presley performing in May 1955. Axton and Durden composed "Heartbreak Hotel" within an hour, based on a story Durden had read in the Miami Herald about a hotel suicide. Axton played a demo of the song to Presley at a radio convention in Nashville. Presley agreed to record the song, on the condition that he would be credited as co-composer and receive a third of the royalties. It duly became his first single for RCA Records, and his first U.S. chart-topper, playing a significant part in launching the singer as a global phenomenon. Despite this, Presley never used any other Axton composition (though he did record "Never Been to Spain," written by her son, Hoyt Axton).

"Heartbreak Hotel" was her only hit composition, although Axton did write material for other artists, including Patsy Cline ("Pick Me Up on Your Way Down"), Wanda Jackson ("Honey Bop"), and Hank Snow ("What Do I Know Today"). She also wrote the sleeve notes to the Elvis tribute album The King Is Gone, by Ronnie McDowell. Her son, Hoyt, eventually became a successful solo artist, and later a film actor. Mae Axton continued to work in publicity and radio, and, in 1973, published her memoir, Country Singers as I Know 'Em. Hoyt Axton also recorded for the record label his mother started in 1992, DPJ Records. Mae passed away in 1997, at the age of 82.

[jdd2]

Sure, kingston trio (KT). Their greenback dollar cover was a hit.

[howard lee]

Jul 12, 2023 8:40:24 GMT -5 John B said:

Jul 12, 2023 6:30:30 GMT -5 howard lee said:

On a slightly tangential line, here are two of the three reasons I wanted to play guitar:

 

Seeing this photo and recognizing the passing of time always leaves me feeling wistful.

Who’s What's the third?
[...]

Meeting girls, what else?