Legendary singer-songwriter James Taylor will release an album of covers, American Standard, on February 28 through Fantasy Records. Taylor also announced a tour with Jackson Browne in support of American Standard, which features the lead single “Teach Me Tonight.”
Produced by Taylor, Dave O’Donnell and John Pizzarelli, American Standard contains 14 classic compositions arranged for guitar. Pizzarelli plays seven-string nylon and acoustic rhythm guitar on the album that also features Taylor’s typical cast of supporting musicians, bassist Jimmy Johnson, drummer Steve Gadd, percussionist Luis Conte, keyboardist Larry Goldings, horn players Lou Marini and Walt Fowler and vocalists Kate Markowitz, Caroline Taylor, Andrea Zonn, Dorian Holley and Arnold McCuller. Guest contributors include dobro player Jerry Douglas, upright bassist Viktor Krauss and violinist Stuart Duncan.
“With some encouragement from my friends at Fantasy Records, I decided to try my hand at an album of standards,” Taylor wrote in the liner notes. “These are songs I have always known. Most of them were part of my family’s record collection, the first music I heard as a kid growing up in North Carolina. We listened to the cast recordings of the great American musicals: Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, Peter Pan, Show Boat, South Pacific … Before I started writing my own stuff, I learned to play these tunes, working out chord changes for my favorite melodies. And those guitar arrangements became the basis for this album.”
Taylor will support American Standard with a North American tour with Browne that spans May 15 through July 10. Taylor also has a concert scheduled on June 21 at Fenway Park in Boston with Brandi Carlile and Shawn Colvin on the bill.
Find tour dates and the single popularized by Frank Sinatra and Dinah Washington, “Teach Me Tonight,” below:
American Standard Tracklist
- My Blue Heaven (Walter Donaldson-George A. Whiting)
- Moon River (Henry Mancini-Johnny Mercer)
- Teach Me Tonight (Gene De Paul-Sammy Cahn)
- As Easy As Rolling Off A Log (M.K. Jerome-Jack Scholl)
- Almost Like Being In Love (Frederick Loewe-Alan Jay Lerner)
- Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat (Frank Loesser)
- The Nearness Of You (Hoagy Carmichael-Ned Washington)
- You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught (Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein II)
- God Bless The Child (Billie Holiday-Arthur Herzog Jr.)
- Pennies From Heaven (Arthur Johnston-Johnny Burke)
- My Heart Stood Still (Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart)
- Ol’ Man River (Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II)
- It’s Only A Paper Moon (Harold Arlen-Yip Hardburg-Billy Rose)
- The Surrey With The Fringe On Top (Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein II)
