If you're down and troubled, "You've Got a Friend," a concert celebration of the music of Carole King and James Taylor to be performed March 25 at Schaumburg's Prairie Center for the Arts, will, like the song says, brighten up even your darkest night.
Singer-songwriters Kirsti Manna and Jonathan Birchfield will sing a program of personally selected songs from the King and Taylor catalogs that include cherished sing-along favorites as well as some lesser-known songs that have personal resonance to the artists. And so along with "Shower the People" and "Fire and Rain," Birchfield may perform "Millworker" from Taylor's "Flag" album.
"We like to play the songs that people know every word to," he said, "but "Millworker" is probably one of my favorite James Taylor songs because I come from Hickory, North Carolina (Taylor is also a North Carolina native) and I knew mill workers. Kirsti and I do 'You Can Close Your Eyes' at the end of the night, and that song is hard to get through because I lost my best friend and drummer to addiction and depression, and when I was saying goodbye to him, that song came on (the radio)."
For Manna, a singer-songwriter who penned Blake Shelton's breakout hit, "Austin," (she also contributed songs for Tiffany's new album, "A Million Miles"), the song "You've Got a Friend" was her gateway into Carole King's music. The Ohio native sang it at high school talent shows. "I loved the 'Tapestry' album because I play piano and so I'm always intrigued by any artist that played piano," she said. "I had written one or two songs by the time I was 18 but I was fascinated by how should could write all those songs."
Birchfield was a fan of Jackson Browne and the Eagles as a teen, and found James Taylor's music when he explored "where my influences got their influences," he said.
King and Taylor are icons; their songs, either written for themselves or for others, are embedded in the American Baby Boomer songbook. King, as a member of the legendary Brill Building stable of writers, co-wrote Top 10 hits as a teenager in the 1960s with her then-husband Gerry Goffin beginning with "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" for the Shirelles. Her solo album, "Tapestry," released in 1971, spent 15 weeks atop the Billboard charts and went on to sell 10 million copies.
Taylor's 1971 album "Sweet Baby James," containing signature songs such as "Fire and Rain" and the title track, helped usher in the Southern California singer-songwriter movement. His cover of "You've Got a Friend," included on his follow-up album, "Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon," was his only No. 1 hit. King played piano on the album.
King and Taylor joined forces in 2007 to perform at L.A.'s legendary Troubadour club, to mark its 50th anniversary. It was this concert that inspired Birchfield to contact Manna and suggest they create a tribute to this musical partnership and friendship that in some ways mirrored their own.
Manna was initially Birchfield's voice coach in the early 1990s when he relocated to Nashville, where Manna had moved with her husband, producer and recording engineer Bill Warner (he serves as music director of "You've Got a Friend" and plays guitar in the show). Their personal and musical chemistry clicked and they have written and performed together for more than a decade.
As did King and Taylor at the Troubadour, they sing a few songs solo, but spend most the concert providing accompaniment and harmonies for each other. "You've Got a Friend," Manna said, is not a so-called jukebox musical nor some "Beatlemania"-like note-for-note recreation of the songs. "We are faithful to the songs, but these are our interpretations of the music of our musical heroes," she said. "We pay homage as best we can. We are doing this because I love Carole King and Jonathan loves James Taylor."
'You've Got a Friend: The Music of Carole King and James Taylor'
When: 7:30 p.m. March 25
Where: Prairie Center for the Arts, 201 Schaumburg Court, Schaumburg
Tickets: $45 for adults, $43 for seniors and students
Contact: 847-895-3600; www.prairiecenter.org
Source: www.bing.com
