walking upstream…
James Taylor
sourcesWikipedia
A cello-trained teenager from North Carolina who taught himself hymns, carols, and Woody Guthrie tunes on guitar before decamping to London and Apple Records, James Taylor became a founding voice of the confessional singer-songwriter movement his 1970 breakthrough Sweet Baby James all but defined. His plainspoken, unhurried delivery and finger-picked guitar style — closer to a piano part than a strummed rhythm — turned private breakdowns and small-town homesickness into some of the most enduring soft-rock records of the era.
the sound in question
1970
Fire and RainJames Taylor
walk the tributaries ↓
The Beatles1960s · Rock / Pop rock
Taylor named the Beatles alongside Dylan as the two biggest influences on his lyrics, and the connection wasn't just admiration from a distance: he was the first American solo artist signed to the Beatles' Apple Records, and Paul McCartney personally played bass on Taylor's 1968 song "Carolina in My Mind."
listen: upstream & here
1968
BlackbirdThe Beatles
1968
Carolina in My MindJames Taylor
listen forMcCartney's spare, melodic solo fingerstyle on the Beatles' "Blackbird" is close kin to the picked, almost-classical guitar figure that opens Taylor's own "Carolina in My Mind" — the very song McCartney played bass on.
Bob Dylan1960s · Folk / Folk rock / Rock
Taylor has said flatly that Dylan and the Beatles were "the biggest influences on my lyrics," telling American Songwriter that "Dylan was a revelation" and that "there's nothing like the effect of hearing Bob Dylan with a guitar" singing his sprawling talking-blues epics.
listen: upstream & here
1965
Bob Dylan's 115th DreamBob Dylan
1970
Sweet Baby JamesJames Taylor
listen forDylan's surreal, stream-of-consciousness talking blues on "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" shows the kind of loose, narrative songwriting Taylor absorbed; you can hear the same plainspoken storytelling instinct, scaled down to autobiography, on Taylor's own "Sweet Baby James."
Ray Charles1950s–60s · R&B / Soul / Jazz
"For me, he was the man. Ray Charles," Taylor told American Songwriter, singling out a Charles/B.B. King duet recording of one of his own songs as "one of my favorite covers that I ever got" — a rare case of Taylor naming the specific singer whose phrasing he measures his own against.
listen: upstream & heresource: American Songwriter ↗
1959
What'd I SayRay Charles
1970
Steamroller BluesJames Taylor
listen forCharles's gospel-shout, call-and-response energy on "What'd I Say" is a world away from Taylor's usual hush, but it surfaces directly on his own blues pastiche "Steamroller Blues," where he leans into a swaggering, Charles-indebted R&B growl he otherwise keeps in reserve.