Can you just picture James Taylor on a chilly afternoon, building a fire in a vast barn, feeding logs of wood into an antique fireplace? Yeah, I can too. But that’s exactly what he does on a frequent basis. In fact, he calls it a “ritual.” Taylor’s barn sits on a compound he owns in western Massachusetts – a space whose ceilings reach over 27 feet that doubles as his private recording studio. It’s the studio in which he cut parts of his past five albums, including American Standard, his latest.
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The title is fitting because the album salutes the Great American Songbook with the singer’s signature take on songs from the 1920s through the ’50s. The album was also aptly timed: It was the 50th anniversary of Sweet Baby James, the album that made Taylor a superstar at the age of 21. He became part of the singer-songwriter movement of the early ’70s, and the man is still going strong.