Livingston Taylor is a musician who loves to be in motion as he watches the world.
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Why else would a full professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston continue to record albums, the latest about his reflections on Alaska in “Last Alaska Moon.” 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 young adults, Taylor is comfortable in his own skin. He certainly seems more at peace than music critics who regularly bemoan the popular acclaim that has eluded him for more than 30 years.
“[The album] Liv is the real thing by a troubadour who never really got the acclaim he deserved,” critic Joe Viglione of All Music Guide said, 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 a song by Irving Berlin and finding some faults in a lyric of “God Bless America.” Taylor goes on to imagine how Berlin defended the lyric — and why.
“Our strengths don’t need our advocacy. Our weakness and compromise demand that we stand up for them,” Taylor said. “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.”
On this upcoming tour, Taylor will likely play some of his critically acclaimed music (“Carolina Day,” “Good Friend”) and some new work. Exactly what will depend on his mood and that of his audience.
“I just kind of show up and I have a whole lot of paint box. That’s when I decide what I want to paint with that night,” he said. “The audience doesn’t need me. I need them … I love them enough for both of us.”
That’s somewhat second nature to Taylor who loves to immerse himself in various formats ranging from folk to show tunes and then let some of those influences bleed into his writing.
“It is easy for me to take a group of chord changes that I really love and make them into chord changes of my own,” he said. “It’s that I am influenced by them, by [the musicians’] though process and take all of that research of many people and turn it into my own view.”
Performer: Livingston Taylor
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday [two shows April 14 & 15]
Where: The Barns at Wolf Trap, 1635 Trap Road, Vienna, Va.
Details: $22; 877-WOLFTRAP; HYPERLINK “http://www.wolftrap.org” www.wolftrap.org
