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Tuesday 4th October 2022
Barnoldswick Music and Arts Centre. Lancashire.
KATE TAYLOR AND ALAN THOMSON
+ Special guest support
Only 50 tickets available
The Return of Sister Kate
Fifty years ago, James Taylor's sister released her debut album. Now, decades after she traded rock stardom for life in a teepee, Kate Taylor is back.
She can still remember the high points, like meeting a few Beatles, encountering Mick Jagger or a very young Michael Jackson in the studio, or sharing a bill with Tina Turner. And she can also recall the precise moment when she decided to shut it all down, at least for a long while.
It was the summer of 1971, and Kate Taylor — along with her siblings, especially her older brother James — was having a moment. Earlier that year, Atlantic Records had released her first album, Sister Kate. The record boasted contributions from Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, John Hartford, and, naturally, James." At the same time, her other brothers, Livingston and Alex, were also releasing records, leading to Rolling Stone dubbing them all "The First Family of Rock".
Unlike her brothers, who were given to pensive folk and performing while sitting on chairs or stools, Kate was much more of a live wire onstage — a "flailing dynamo," in the words of one critic. " She expresses the joy in rock, one of the first female rock singers to do so," proclaimed music critic Robert Hilburn in the Los Angeles Times that spring.
" Reflecting on seeing his sister in concert then, her brother James agrees. "Back in those early days, it was just a raw energy, a sort of nervous reaction, that was amazing to see," Taylor says.
The first segment of her tour to promote Sister Kate had culminated in a performance in New York's Central Park, where she was on a bill with the Beach Boys, Ike and Tina Turner, Boz Scaggs, and her future sister-in-law, Carly Simon. George Harrison and Art Garfunkel hovered backstage. When footage of that concert was aired as a network TV special (Good Vibrations From Central Park) a month later, Kate was watching it in her room at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. To her horror, the version of herself she saw on television — in white shirt and jeans, her hair partly matted down on her face by sweat — looked bedraggled and run down.
And with that, Taylor signed off.
"I could see that I needed …," Taylor says, then pauses. She's speaking via Zoom, sitting in her home on Martha's Vineyard, the island off the coast of Massachusetts where she's lived for more than 50 years. Curled up on a couch in a black sweater, Taylor is 71; her hair is long and dignified-grey, her face lean, her demeanor very rustic-grandmom. "I don't know how to describe it. I felt as if I was not in total control."
Over the years, Kate Taylor would periodically resurface, making the occasional album or giving a live performance. But unlike her brothers, especially James and Livingston, who maintained their careers over decades, she became the mysterious, one.
Now, five decades later, Taylor is preparing to pick up where she left off. For the first time since then, she has reconvened with some of the same players on Sister Kate (including producer Peter Asher) for a new record that marks the 50th anniversary of her debut. "I guess I didn't have that focus," she says. "I don't know what it is, that ambition or drive that takes you to that. Many of my colleagues and cohorts out there were much more focused and grounded and ready for what was ahead of them. But now, I guess, it's a full-circle thing."
But after another dozen quiet years on the music front, the missed opportunity of Sister Kate all those decades before remained in the back of her mind. At her 70th birthday party on the Vineyard in 2019, her agent, who also manages Asher, brought up the idea of a reunion as the 50th anniversary of that album approached. Everyone also realized how many of the principals, from Asher to some of the original musicians (namely Kortchmar, Kunkel, and Sklar), were still around. Recalls Asher, "I said yes right away. I said, 'Look, if Kate's up for it, let's start thinking about songs, and of course I'll do it.'
She flew out to Los Angeles and the basic tracks were cut in just a few days. What did she think of finding herself in that situation again? "I thought, 'Is this really happening?' " she says softly and with a sense of awe.
The album, Why Wait, is named after her own song, a choogling country tune about living in the here and now. Her voice feels both lived-in and more expressive. "Her singing seems more heartfelt," says Asher. "Singing the blues when you're 20 and when you're 70 is different. Everybody has the blues sometimes, as the saying goes. But they're different blues when you're 50 years older. And I think they're somewhat more thoughtful blues that affects your singing."
For decades, her brother James' journey — taking in a breakdown or two, addiction, divorce, children, even hair loss — has spoken to his generation and fans. Given the way Kate chose family over work and experienced loss of her own — not just that of her husband but also her hard-living brother Alex, who died of a heart attack in 1993 at 46 — it's possible that his sister's story will also reverberate.
"You know, I hope they get something from it," she says. "I guess I've just been a lucky little, you know, rock & roll singer who just got put in these amazing situations throughout my life. So, you know, don't give up on your dreams. Enjoy the ride. Anything is possible."
Taken from Rolling Stone Magazine Written by David Browne
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ALAN THOMSON
As a bass player, Alan was a long-term member of John Martyn's Band and accomplished song-writer. His touring and writing credits include Robert Palmer, Rick Wakeman, Andy Summers, Bo Diddley, Denny Laine and Long John Baldry.
John Martyn needed a bass player for his forthcoming Grace And Danger tour of the UK. Alan borrowed a fretless bass, practiced frantically for two weeks, auditioned and got the job, a relationship which would last almost thirty years until John's death.
Through his association with John, Alan has recorded and performed with Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Robert Palmer (for whom he wrote the B-side of the hit Addicted to Love), David Gilmour, Linda Lewis and Bert Jansch.
In 1989 he recorded and toured for Julia Fordham, an association that continues, most recently on tour in Japan in 2009 with Spen and John Martyn drummer Arran Ahmun.
In the early 90s Alan toured as part of a duo with keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman and then with the Wakeman and Wakeman band. He also had a spell on tour as keyboard player for Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler's solo project and Scottish rock band Strangeways.
"Alan Thomson is a rare talent, being a skilled all-around musician that has chosen the bass to express himself. His touch, taste and drive is palpable and audiences enjoy his artistry as much as his fellow musicians. I've been fortunate to play for many years with Alan, in many styles of music, and I must say it is always a joy."
– JOHN JORGENSON (Elton John, Hellecasters & The Desert Rose Band)
Alan has backed some of the best guitarists around including Hank Marvin, Brent Mason, Albert Lee, Sonny Landrith and Police guitarist Andy Summers. After a chance meeting in 1987 with American guitar virtuoso Jerry Donahue, Alan joined his band The Backroom Boys with singer/guitarist Doug Morter and Gerry Conway on drums.
This eventually led to Alan joining guitar trio The Hellecasters which featured Jerry Donahue, Will Ray and John Jorgenson with whom he still works in the John Jorgenson Electric Band.
Alan is also the resident bass player with Jethro Tull Legend Martin Barre.
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