Taylor’s Easygoing Style Warms Arena Crowd

James Taylor Sunday, Sept. 9, Spokane Arena

“Nice place you have here,” James Taylor told an adoring Arena crowd Sunday night. “Actually, it reminds me a lot of my place.”

It was a joke, of course, but there was a kernel of truth inside: By the end of Taylor’s show, it was hard not to feel you’d spent an evening in his living room. The man has an uncanny flair for communicating, both through his music and his words.

Animated and appearing relaxed in khakis, work boots and a blue shirt open at the neck, Taylor spiced his smooth performance with engaging patter and dry repartee with the vocal members of the audience.

“I love you, James,” a woman shouted.

Pause; funny face.

“Does this mean I have to buy you a house?” Maybe it’s not original, but as with a lot of what Taylor does, execution was the key. Like his humor, his music sneaks up on you; its placid surface masks a considerable depth.

As you would expect, Sunday’s show was chiefly a greatest-hits affair, and the crowd drifted back in time with him on the wings of such staples as “Fire and Rain,” “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Up On the Roof.” But a scattering of new material proved that Taylor is not content to rest on his laurels.

In “Line ‘Em Up,” Taylor connected the Nixon resignation with the Unification Church’s mass marriage in 1987 via a string of spare but beautifully drawn images of lines - waves on the ocean, pickets in a fence and the granddaddy of them all, the “broken line down the center of the road” of our lives.

In a new song about families and funerals, “Enough That You Be On Your Way,” Taylor provoked a wave of nervous giggles with his use of an apparently heartfelt obscenity. It expressed perfectly the feelings many people have for their families, but it was jarring in the context of his polite music.

Speaking of polite, Taylor’s four-piece band was a model of restraint during all but a couple cut-loose numbers. Four backup singers added classy support; one turned in a passionate, churchy solo that was one of the evening’s highlights.

Another was Taylor’s duet with his son, Ben, on the Little Feat classic “Dixie Chicken.” The younger Taylor is nowhere near as slim as his dad, nor is he quite the singer, but it was good to see the two together, especially considering the rocky road their relationship has traveled.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo