By Ira Kantor
In 1971, at the apparent apex of the singer-songwriter movement, the lone daughter within one of popular music’s most iconic families released her wonderfully excitable debut album.
Soulful, buoyant, and an admirable amalgam of traditional songs and art of the day, Kate Taylor’s Sister Kate did two things: Introduce the world to James Taylor’s younger sister; and introduce the world to a unique musician in her own write. Boasting a vibrato-rich voice steeped in the style of Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples, Kate Taylor would give life to songs that launched musical peers to superstardom. Some examples: Carole King (“Home Again”), Elton John (“Country Comfort”), and yes, even her big brother (“You Can Close Your Eyes”).
Sister Kate is also dynamite because of the incorporated musical talents of its backing players — all studio stalwarts in that era: Bernie Leadon, Merry Clayton, Linda Ronstadt, Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel, and Leland Sklar, among others. Masterminding the production would be Peter Asher, Kate and James Taylor’s manager and a 1960s hitmaker with the group Peter and Gordon (remember “A World Without Love”?).
Fifty years later — and arriving right as the 16-month-long pandemic dies down —Taylor comes full circle with the pending August 6th release of her sixth studio album Why Wait! (Red House Records/Compass Records Group). On this 14-track collective, Taylor reunites with Asher and many of the musicians who brought Sister Kate to the musical masses all those decades ago. Like her debut, Why Wait! has breath of fresh air all over it and is chock full of genre mix and emotionally charged cover tracks. There’s everything from James Taylor’s “I Will Follow,” to the Beatles’ “Good Day Sunshine,” to Tommy James’ “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” to Taj Mahal’s “He Caught the Katy.”
I recently caught up with Taylor from Martha’s Vineyard home to learn more about how her new album came together, Sister Kate’s influence on it, and other plans post-pandemic as she finds herself home again musically.
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I believe the seeds of this album project were planted before the pandemic — is that true and where exactly did the idea for this album begin?
One of the bonuses of the pandemic is having the ability to get this thing made; to get back in the studio with Peter [Asher] and the band. It was a dream that I had for a long time – the thought of being able to record with Peter again and work with those players. I couldn’t have envisioned there might be a way, but turns out there was a way. We did it and it feels so good.
For my part in it, I’ve wanted to work with Peter again since the last time we worked together which was back in 1971. Over the years, I’ve watched him create beautiful, iconic records with other people and I’ve loved them. Pre-pandemic, in the last decade or so, Peter and I have done some shows together…I met Peter’s manager and agent Keith Putney. We started to become more familiar with each other again and working in the same circles. So we were getting more and more refamiliarized and reconnected, although I never felt as if I wasn’t connected to Peter because of our family connection through the years.
Peter’s manager and agent Keith Putney and I…every so often we’d have these conversations about, ‘Oh well, you know, wouldn’t it be nice to make another record sometime?’ The last one that I made was Fair Time [in 2008], so we’re thinking about a new record. Maybe somebody said, ‘Well what would your dream be?’ And I probably said, ‘Working with Peter.’ I’m not sure exactly of how those little pieces fell into place; where this idea kind of formulated. We were just sort of talking about what our dreams for this furthering on down the road of this career of mine. I think there was sort of this understanding that it would be wonderful to work with Peter. This was pre-pandemic.
Keith, at one point, mentioned to Peter that it was coming up on the 50th anniversary of Sister Kate and wouldn’t it be nice to get the band back together and make a recording. I think Peter was interested in that. Then the pandemic started to come down on us. We were in lockdown but we were still kind of in discussions about it. Then we decided we were really going to do this. We had a couple of timeframes where I was going to come out to Los Angeles to do the recording…We ended up planning for October [2020] – that’s when I went out there — to make the record. In the meantime, Peter and I had started working on song choices and Peter’s music director, Jeff Alan Ross, and he and I were talking tempos and keys and kind of getting ourselves prepared for getting in the studio. We had all those players — Lee [Sklar] and Russell [Kunkel] and Waddy [Wachtel] and Albert Lee and Danny Kortchmar; they were all in Los Angeles and available. They were all sidelined because of the lockdown. I came out there all dressed in basically a hazmat suit and everybody got tested. So we just pulled this thing together.
In terms of the experience of being back in the studio with these players, was it an intimidating experience at all or very similar to the experience of recording Sister Kate?
When I made Sister Kate, I was 20 years old. I was a very excitable young gal and I was totally green. I had never been in a recording studio before. So it was a brand new experience for me and very exciting. I felt very comfortable with all of those players and especially with Peter. He really sets an environment that’s very supportive. Also he’s hyper-focused on his work but he really listens. If somebody in the group of people that are working in the studio has an idea on something, he considers it very deeply. I really appreciated that, and I appreciated watching him work that way. Of course, all these other players; they read each others’ thoughts at this point. They played together for so long.
In this second experience of working on this record, it was very comfortable. These guys I’ve known for years. It was very relaxed, and we got a lot done. It was interesting because Nathaniel Kunkel, the engineer, was someone Peter has been working with for a number of years and loves working with. The first time Peter met Nathaniel was when he was probably two years old and his father, Russ Kunkel, brought him to the studio when Russell would be playing drums on some project Peter was working on. Forty or 50 years later, Peter is working with Nathaniel as one of his favorite engineers. That was amazing to see, how the story continues. The next generation comes in and ends up being such an asset to work with.
The studio that we worked in was a personal studio of a young man who had commissioned to have this studio built in his home. My understanding is he commissioned Nathaniel to make the studio of his dreams. So Nathaniel was in this place where he felt very comfortable in and that he felt very confident about. He was recording his father and basically all of his uncles at this point, and me. I don’t know — it just felt really good!
I didn’t go to LA until we got into the studio. We did most pre-planning on the phone. We were able to get keys and tempos and that kind of thing with Zoom calls. We did the basic tracks in four days and then we went in for some overdubs and some vocals and that was another week or so, and then they mixed it. I came back home and Peter and Jeff and Nathaniel mixed it.
Jeff and Peter got a lot of the work done; a lot of charts made and a lot of the stuff was determined beforehand. There were some changes here and there as we were recording but basically the songs were ready to roll. These players have worked together so long that — it was miraculous really but also in some ways not surprising because of the nature of their relationships and how comfortable and how familiar they are with each other. There was a lot of pre-planning, which maybe in other recording situations, you might not be that prepared when you go into the studio. You’re in a different time. But we were really ready to roll when we went into the studio.
We’ve talked before about how when Sister Kate was being created, it was the height of the singer-songwriter era. Several of the album’s tracks come from up-and-coming songwriters like Elton John and your brother James. There’s a number of cover songs on Why Wait! as well. How were the songs chosen and were you trying to give exposure any artists that maybe you felt needed a fresh listen?
Peter and I got together and we both made lists of what we thought might be fun songs to do. Peter had ideas about what he felt were my strengths. He brought to the table the suggestion of that particular version of “Good Day Sunshine” — the R&B version which he had heard. Peter wanted to make a version similar to it. I thought it was a great idea. Peter also suggested to me the Taj Mahal tune [“He Caught the Katy”], and that Little Feat tune [“Long Distance Love”], and the Ed Sheeran song [“He”], and James’ song, “I Will Follow.” I brought to the table the Etta James song [“Stop the Wedding”], the Staples Singers tune [“Don’t Knock”] – those were a couple of songs I’ve sung for many years and never recorded before so I was happy to get to record them. The Tommy James tune [“Crystal Blue Persuasion”], my two songs that I wrote on the record [“Why Wait!” and “I Got a Message”]; my nephew Isaac Taylor’s song, “Beams of the Queen.” There are 14 songs on that album — I think Peter brought seven of them and I brought seven of them. And there were songs that he brought that we put at the tail end of the pile and there were songs that I brought that we put at the tail end of the pile. We settled in on these particular tunes.
Several of them were ones I hadn’t sung before — “Long Distance Love” and the Ed Sheeran tune. James’ song. I think it’s just a mix of some really familiar songs to me and some that I hadn’t done before — songs that I knew definitely but that I just hadn’t recorded. This recording was an opportunity for me to sing with my daughters Liz and Aretha; they sang on a couple of the numbers and Peter’s daughter sang a few of them. I got a chance to play with Waddy Wachtel and Albert Lee as well as Danny Kortchmar.
What elements of Sister Kate, if any, were discussed as being integral to Why Wait!?
I know that Peter had said that when he was thinking about songs for me, he wanted to highlight the fact that he considers me somewhat of a soul singer and that I gravitate towards that type of song. On Sister Kate, we did “White Lightning” and “Look at Granny Run” but there were some bluesy kind of soul/R&B tunes on Sister Kate and he wanted to follow through with more of that — “Long Distance Love” and that R&B version of “Good Day Sunshine,” and the Etta James tune. But I do think we went in some other directions as well. There’s a little kind of jazzy number in there, “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am,” which was a Nancy Wilson hit back in the ‘40s, I think, maybe the ‘50s. Tommy James’ tune, Ed Sheeran’s tune, James’ tune are all a bit more ballad-y type tunes and I think we had some of those on Sister Kate. Peter may have had some inclination to make some of these decisions on songs as they related to songs on Sister Kate but I don’t know. I didn’t hear a lot of talk about that.
Was the process of choosing songs for Sister Kate similar to how they were chosen for Why Wait!?
I think it was similar, yep. We both brought tunes to the table that we liked. Peter had brought some songs I hadn’t heard of like “Handbags And Gladrags.” I brought some tunes that I had sung as a kid like “White Lightning.” And then together, in the process of making the record, we went and heard Elton John do his first show in America at the Troubadour. I heard him play “Country Comfort.” I loved the song and told Peter I wanted to record it and he said that he knew Elton John’s manager and that he would invite them over and maybe I could meet Elton John and ask him if I could record it, which happened. Peter invited them over to his house. We visited with Elton John and his band and I got the chance to ask Elton John if I could record the tune. He said, “By all means.” We didn’t have them all picked out before we started, so that was different than this time. But, you know, songs resonate with you and it feels good to sing them.
You mentioned being dubbed more of a soul singer in your approach — was that a trait you shared more with your late brother Alex Taylor, given your other brothers James and Livingston tended to be more folky in their approaches?
Well first off, both James and Livingston are excellent soul singers. They can really let it rip. When they’re writing their own tunes, most generally speaking, you wouldn’t necessarily categorize them as R&B in the songs they do. But they are exceptional, soulful singers. Alex was especially drawn to the blues and R&B. Nobody could sing them like AT!
I’m drawn to that type of music because I love listening to it, I love everything about it. I personally can’t say what kind of singer I am. There’s a lot of different types of songs that I like to sing but I certainly like to perform R&B type tunes. It’s fun. I think Alex would have been able to sing anything. I’m surprised when people say I’m an R&B singer; it sort of surprises me. But I am drawn to singing that type of tune.
With the songs you and Peter chose for Why Wait!, did any prove a challenge to ultimately perform?
James’ song and the Ed Sheeran tune; I hadn’t sung either one of them before. I don’t even know how to describe it — just learning them and feeling familiar enough with the lyrics and the arrangement and the melody to be able to deliver the lyrics the way they deserved to be expressed; that was a learning curve…I think they all had certain challenges but also a certain familiarity that were comforting and comfortable to sing. That’s the challenge — to internalize the tune so you can take it to the next step.
With the album coming out soon, what’s next on the horizon for you?
We are doing a little tour as part of the Peter Asher & Company tour we’re doing in New York, Connecticut, and Cape Cod. We’re doing a show on Martha’s Vineyard. And then we will go down to Nashville and do a show down there. After that we’ll just see what happens. I’ve got some dates forming and coming together for the fall so far in California. We’ll see. We’re going to get through this album release and see what comes up.
We’re anxious to get back to live performing. It’s been a long time since being on a stage and being with an audience. It’s exciting, it’s thrilling, it’s a little bit scary. To a certain extent, you need a little bit of adrenaline when you’re performing because it really comes in handy. I’m not intimidated by the adrenaline; I welcome it. At the same time, I am looking forward to getting into the rehearsals with these boys — and a gal singer coming with us for a few of these shows. That will kind of ground this reality further down into the realm of actually happening. It’s all sort of a dream still. I’m looking forward to that and I’m especially looking forward to being together with the audience.
I know I’ve missed live music. It just feels really good to have that experience with other people, being in an audience or being on a stage and singing for an audience and communing with the audience. There’s nothing like it. There’s nothing like live music, so I’m excited to be at the prospect of being able to get to it. There is this big mystery — ‘Is it going to be the same?’ ‘What will it be like?’ We have this beautiful opportunity to come back to it all; come back to a life with more depth of gratitude for it all.
These shows coming up…Peter will do some songs of his, Albert Lee will do some songs of his, and I’ll do some of mine. I think the songs that I’m singing are all going to be songs from the album. But when we get to the Vineyard, our setlist can open up a little bit because this is more a Kate Taylor show. We’ll have elements of what we have been doing it on the gigs before the Vineyard gig but I’m going to be doing some more tunes, and bringing my daughters in. This will be a hometown celebration of the new album. Then when I go down to Nashville, I think we will be bringing some of those Sister Kate songs and songs from the other albums into the set. As the live shows progress over the next few months, I’m sure that setlist will change as we feel out how to incorporate the new songs in with the older songs and build the show.
When we last saw each other you mentioned to me the possibility of recording an album of songs written by your brothers. Is that still a possibility?
That is an idea that has been sort of in process over the last few years. I’d love to do that project sometime. But this opportunity to work with Peter and do this particular project came up and it was a no brainer. But I haven’t abandoned that other idea. It’s not just the brothers — it’s my nephews, my niece. We’ve got a lot of songwriters in the family!
Anything else you would like to add that I haven’t asked you about?
I look forward to seeing the music lovers out there and singing for them and I appreciate their support through all this time. I look forward to seeing them again and making some new friends. Together, we can recreate … a new way of getting along. A new world.
I don’t know how I got through the pandemic, but we did. I feel like Rip Van Winkle! We just are kind of emerging from this slumber and there’s a whole new world out there. Why wait?
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Pre-order Kate Taylor’s Why Wait!
View Kate Taylor’s tour dates
