July 3-5, 2010 performances – by Dave Read.
One week before resuming its annual function as the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood became summer camp for the 60s generation when the Carole King and James Taylor Troubadour Reunion 2010 Tour parked there for 3 shows, July 3, 4, & 5. The weather was perfect for each sold-out audience of 18,500, packed into the Shed and sprawled accross the vast Lawn. By the time the tour pulled into Lenox, it had already rolled cross-country from Oregon, after a dozen shows in Australia, New Zealand and Japan; from the Berkshires, it goes back west toward a final show July 20 in California.
James Taylor hearts Carole King!
King and Taylor, 68 and 62, just couldn’t look or sound or perform any better than they did during these shows, which were artful compilations of each other’s body of work, accompanied by “The Section,” Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, and Russ Kunkel, plus Robbie Kondor, Arnold McCuller, Kate Markowitz, Andrea Zonn, and Kim Taylor. Cellist Yo Yo Ma, a Berkshire resident, was a surprise guest for 2 songs July 5, Sweet Baby James and You’ve Got A Friend.
Juke boxes were the original killer app for the 60s generation; in a kind of Aquarian alchemy, Tanglewood was transformed during these shows into a dazzling, dynamic Wurlitzer. All told, the Tanglewood leg of the tour amounted to about 6 dozen numbers and roughly 8 hours, nary a moment of which was anything but “totally freakin awesome,” according to our audience poll.
More from these shows: