ames Taylor has certainly found a true love and that is most defiantly his music. This singer-songwriter unquestionably knows how to write the songs. With his recent Grammy's for best pop CD Hourglass and co-producer for that CD, James again displays his love for music by producing one of his best works in several years.

Over the past 30 years, Taylor has written some of the most impressive music of the pop music era. He is undoubtedly one of the most original singer-songwriters in the business and has influenced hundreds of singer-songwriters today.

What makes his style so distinctive from other singer-songwriters? Taylor credits many early influences in his music, but his life experiences assuredly have been some of his greater influences.
Growing up in rural North Carolina with its isolation and cultural prominence, the absence of his father, the influence of his mother's music (she listened to Broadway tunes, Guthrie, and light opera) and the music of Sam Cook, Hank Williams, Ray Charles and Jackie Wilson have impacted James. But his personal experiences have allowed him to develop a sensitive confessional poetic writing style that reflects the quality of a renowned poet. Having weathered the tribulations of depression, drug addiction, failed marriages, death of a parent, a brother, and friends, and a celebrity lifestyle; James has collected a collage of emotions to set into his songs.

In examining his characteristic poetic devices, we discover the use of the reoccurring themes of longing, loneliness, and going from darkness to light. "It's a theme I find myself returning to again and again" Lyrics suggestive of these themes:

"In my mind I'm going to Carolina"
"Dark and silent late last night, think I might have heard the highway calling"
Time to time, I tire of the life that I've been leading"
"hand me down my waking cane"
"I think of that place from time to time when I want to be alone"
"Blossom smile some sunshine down my way lately I've been lonesome"
"like to shine like the lighthouse for one more summer day"
"Wake up Suzy put your shoes on walk with me into this light"
"all that I wanted was a place to run and hide"
"lonely by day empty and cold"
"back on the highway, yeah, yeah, yeah, back on the road"

Another device we find in James' writing is the use of alliteration to achieve a strong texture of the repeating of the same consonant sounds giving the lyrics a musical quality.

"swaddle and swing her sing her a lullaby"
"guess I might as well hold onto a felling it feels so fine"
"solid as a stepping stone"
"oh mystery muse"
"There we were where we are"
"Oh boy Botany Bay"
"seeds of the universe ever endeavor to grow"
"Sunny skies sleeps in the morning"
"there are ladies in my life, lovely ladies in these lazy days"
"baby boom baby", boy howdy and howdy damn do"
"fishy love, finny fun"

His ability to create imagery in his lyrics gives us sensory details that enhance the mood and meaning of his works. In the following example from "Copperline", he describes the dawn by taking us there visually to experience the serene mood of the morning.

"Day breaks and the boy wakes up
And the dog barks and the bird sings
And the sap rises and the angels sigh."

"Copperline" creates a landscape of experiences by combining images of sights, sounds, and symbols to produce real and imagined memories of his boyhood in North Carolina.

"The moon on your shoulder, the wind in your lovely hair
Oh, what a night
We sat on the beach and watched as the sun
Rose into the summer air."

Walking Man describes the coming of fall with the seasonal changes taking place on the farm. He also weaves within this song a description of his own father as he may recall perceiving him. The images of the farm tend to serve as a strong anchor to the author in this song.

"Well, the leaves have come to turning
And the goose has gone to fly....
Well the frost is on the pumpkin
And the hay is in the barn
And Pappy's come to rambling on
Stumbling around drunk
Down on the farm."

Perhaps the most prominent device in James writing is the personal confessional. He reveals crucial material about his personal life with intimate details of his own psychic biography. " Fire and Rain" is his most famous confessional. This work is remarkably touching because it reveals some intensely personal times for James. The song was written over a three month period of time.

1st verse ( written in a basement apartment in London).

"Just yesterday morning,
They let me know you were gone.
Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you.
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song.
I just can't remember who to send it to.

2nd verse (Written in hospital room in New York)

"Won't you look down upon me Jesus
You gotta help me make a stand
You just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way."

3rd verse ( Written in Austin Riggs Hospital, Massachusetts)

"Been walking my mind to an easy time,
my back turned towards the sun.
Lord knows, when the cold wind blows,
it'll turn your head around.
Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line
to talk about things to come.
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground."

The first verse focuses on his reaction to a friend's suicide. The second verse is about his addiction to heroin and kicking the habit before leaving England, and the last verse deals with his hospitalization in Massachusetts.

"Oh, my God a monkey can move a man
Send him to hell and home again"
"It's halfway sick
And it's halfway stoned
He'd sure like to kick
But it's too far gone
So they wind him down with the methadone
And he's all on his own."

His new CD, Hourglass, announces a few confessionals. "Little More Time With You" explains the struggles with staying clean and the constant reminder of a problem with addiction.

"I passed on the cocaine
Said bye-bye to my methadone
Put down the bottle for one more day
Backing off of my Tobacco Jones.
Still I feel like a hopeless junkie
Like a man who can't say no
I look back and there's that monkey
Rascal won't let go."

In "Another Day", James expresses the battles of withdrawal and making it through to another day.

"Morning light has driven away
All the shadows that hide your way
And night has given away
To the promise of another day."
"Another day another chance
that we may finally find our way
Another day."

Many of his songs communicate his heartaches, despair, and depression, addiction, and recovery. With his boldness, he allows us to take a look inside his psychic and to understand some aspects of his personal life, but by carefully using tastefulness and dignity in his self-revelation. Taylor makes himself assessable to his audience through his music. This is the reason audiences find him so appealing. He relates personally to the fans and they respond with a great admiration for his honesty. Taylor describes his songwriting process as "a self contained kind of thing ;something worth doing in the time that you're doing it in." Combining his gift for lyric writing with a musical fusion of folk, country, jazz, and blues; James creates rich melodies on the guitar using his sweet uplifting tenor voice to produce a distinguishing trademark that is simply Taylor made.

"These songs are my bio, and it's outline is well known to my audience."

Sources: Sony, James-Taylor.com, Time Magazine, Warner Brother, Peter Simon, TV Guide, Arista Records, Rolling Stone.