Livingston Taylor is a musician who loves to be in motion as he watches the world.
Why else would this acclaimed singer and musician set himself up for an ambitious tour that has him on the road most of the year?
“I was just looking and you?re right, I do have an ambitious schedule,” he said from his home just before the tour began. “But I?ve come upon the most prolific period of my writing. It?s been a real explosion of my music in the last five years, and I just love showing that to people.”
In talking to Livingston Taylor, younger brother of James, it is obvious how much he?s thought about the world and made peace with his place in it. Whether singing lyrics of his songs, discussing the tour, or questioning how to better reach youngadults, Taylor is comfortable in his own skin.
“[The album] “Liv” is the real thing by a troubadour who never really got the acclaim he deserved,” said critic Joe Viglione, of All Music Guide, echoing the thoughts of many who look at Taylor?s body of work.
By way of explaining his contentment, Taylor tells a story about analyzing songs by Irving Berlin and finding some faults in a lyric of “God Bless America.”
“Our strengths don?t need our advocacy. Our weakness and compromise demand that we stand up for them,” said Taylor. “If we [don?t] do that, our weakness and incompetence will scare us, make our entire work suspect because there will be a thread of fear. When I was able to own my own weakness, I was able to break through.”
