James Taylor (mostly) rebounds from laryngitis for an engaging concert at Milwaukee's Summerfest
Earlier this week, ticket holders for James Taylor’s three concerts leading up to his Saturday night Summerfest visit received an email saying doctors had ordered the 75-year-old pop legend to be on strict vocal rest due to severe laryngitis, and those concerts were postponed to later in the summer.
Milwaukee fans watching their digital inboxes were relieved to not get a similar note before Saturday’s concert at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater. But they still had to be thinking: Would there be lingering effects on Taylor’s voice, a sweet and iconic instrument that his defined his 55-year career?
Just as dusk arrived over the amphitheater, archival video on a large backdrop screen showed Taylor singing “Something in the Way She Moves” at different points across almost all of those decades. Then the singer himself emerged from the stage to pick up the song in person — to the relief of everyone, in fine voice and even better spirits — bowing and tipping his newsboy hat to an applauding, near-capacity crowd.
Sitting at a stool in the midst of four backing singers who provided remarkable harmonies across the night, Taylor said, “That was not the first song I wrote, but the first song I was willing to play in public.”
It was this way across the evening. Like he had merely invited this large crowd into his living room, Taylor was a gregarious and witty host.
“I’m going to sing you a song about my home state of North Carolina,” he said to cheers. “But, it’s probably not the song you’re thinking of,” he added, as he held up a large chalk-written song list from the stage to point out where “Carolina in My Mind” would land much later in the set. The crowd laughed, as the dulcet imagery-filled nostalgia of “Copperline” floated over Andrea Zonn’s fiddle.
The remarkable near-two-hour set highlighted Taylor’s songwriting, musical interpretation and a seven-piece “All-Star” band that lived up to its billing.
“Mexico” bounced on guest percussionist Michito Sanchez’s impressive Latin rhythms and even found Taylor jumping to reach for an energetic strum on his guitar. The smoky blues of “You Make It Easy” was lifted by Lou Marini’s soulful saxophone. In the encore, Eddie Cochrane’s “Summertime Blues” became a soulful, revival-tinged revelry.
Yes, there were visible signs of Taylor’s illness in spots during the set. Some coughs. Some gravel in his speaking voice. When he blew his nose in a red handkerchief, he drolly said, “That was exciting,” adding: “Fighting a bit of a cold, I’m afraid. Don’t think I’m contagious anymore.”
But the first sign of any minor challenge in Taylor’s voice emerged when “Carolina in My Mind” finally arrived, with Taylor visually reaching for a few lines that emerged softer than he seemed to expect. It was good timing, though, as that song’s arrangement found his backing singers, which included Taylor’s son, Henry, adding a beautifully wrapped harmony to the song’s familiar melody.
Taylor soldiered on, with the slightly lower register adding a unique new warmth to the already collegial “You’ve Got a Friend,” where his voice was joined by the entirety of the crowd singing in familial chorus.
By the main set-closer, “Your Smiling Face,” Taylor had rallied, bounding across the stage, his voice bounding, too, as the crowd rose to its feet and danced on the big screen.
Sheryl Crow opened for James Taylor
In May, Sheryl Crow received news that made Saturday evening’s show a double bill of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, as the Missouri native found out that she would be part of that institution’s Class of 2023 — joining Taylor, a 2000 inductee.
But her hit-filled set wasn’t just a revelatory night for Crow, or even a simple return to Summerfest. For her, it was also a homecoming as a regular visitor to the city to cheer for “her Bucks.”
"(My family and I) love your town and we consider you one of our homes,” Crow said mid-set, picking up a bass and strutting to the smoky wail of “My Favorite Mistake.”
Crow’s brand of rock ‘n’ roll blends pop, folk and Southern grooves. It showed up in the slight lilt in Crow’s voice that prefaced a harmonic roar with just enough grit to illustrate the emotional dichotomy of “If It Makes You Happy”; the bluesy upbeat vocal run of the opening “A Change Would Do You Good”; and the Southern California thump of “All I Wanna Do," which was led with a bit of cheeky self-deprecation. “Can we go back 30 years? Back when we were all 30,” the 61-year-old said with a wry wink before pacing the stage to prompt the willing crowd to sing along.
While they obliged the singing, this largely wasn’t a dancing crowd. But the funky, poppy jaunt of “Soak Up the Sun,” a track that might as well have been written as a Summerfest anthem, did have a growing number of fans on their feet soaking up their own last bit of the hot day’s waning solar rays.
James Taylor's setlist at Milwaukee's Summerfest
1. "Something in the Way She Moves"
2. "Rainy Day Man"
3. "Copperline"
4. "Everybody Has the Blues"
5. "Mona"
6. "Mexico"
7. "Sweet Baby James"
8. "Up on the Roof"
9. "Steamroller Blues"
10. "You Make It Easy"
11. "Carolina in My Mind"
12. "You’ve Got a Friend"
13. "Country Road"
14. "Fire and Rain"
15. "Shower the People"
16. "Your Smiling Face"
Encore
17. "Summertime Blues"
18. "Shed a Little Light"
19. "You Can Close Your Eyes"
Sheryl Crow's setlist at Milwaukee's Summerfest
1. "A Change Would Do You Good"
2. "If It Makes You Happy"
3. "All I Wanna Do"
4. "My Favorite Mistake"
5. "Real Gone"
6. "The First Cut Is the Deepest"
7. "Strong Enough"
8. "Steve McQueen"
9. "Cross Creek Road"
10. "Soak Up the Sun"
11. "Everyday Is a Winding Road"
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