James Taylor Fans Flock To Tanglewood Despite the Rain
Posted by: Dan Shaw
Posted on: Thursday, July 03, 2008
Comments
No rain on the 4th for James Taylor, just a 60th-birthday celebration with Sweet Baby James, which came as a surprise to his 20,000 fans in Tanglewood’s shed and on the crowded, festive lawn. His actual birthday was this spring (we will kindly not dwell on its number), but his two-and-a-half-hour concert of old favorites and new covers from the album he’s releasing in September included unanticipated guest appearances by Carole King, Yo-Yo Ma, Taylor’s twins Rufus and Henry with a birthday cake, and, inexplicably until I am enlightened, John Travolta and Kelly Preston. Does James fly his own plane? Is he a Scientologist? Never mind, Travolta was cute—more Edna Turnblad than The Punisher. Even the many babies in the crowd had a good time. Goshen Girl and her ever-Martha’s-Vineyard-loving husband feasted on grilled chicken, Goshen’s own Miranda Woodridge White Wine, salad and strawberries from the garden of Norfolk writer Amy Bernstein and her publishing mogul husband, Peter, desserts by Cornwall garden designer Diane Ingersoll, accompanied by her husband, the great furnituremaker Ian Ingersoll and their neighbors Sally and Bob Cook, the writer and the environmental lawyer. Goshen Girl remembered her first James Taylor concert when she was a freshman in college. She was happy. She drove home to Goshen with fireworks in the sky.
Dear Goshen Girl,
It sounds like a swell evening. Did you know Carole King once owned a farm in Falls Village? If you figure out the Travolta-Taylor connection please enlighten us all. I remember the first time I went to Tanglewood the summer before I went to college—it was a Jackson Browne concert and I’d sure love to see him play Tanglewood again!
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Full Article
It’s common knowledge that football fans will tailgate in all sorts of weather and put up with almost any type of precipitation to see their heroes play, but who knew that folk-rock fans were just as crazy? It turns out James Taylor loyalists are hearty folks, and thousands of them lay claim to spots on the lawn and picnicked under umbrellas and makeshift tents on July 3, and they cheered when the sun peeked through a half hour before JT took the stage in the Tanglewood shed.
Andy and Tammy Levitt, who came from Boston.
Rich and Amanda Belding; Josh Giroux and Kelly Jefferson from Pittsfield.
The Brock Family (clockwise from bottom): Aidan, Aisling, Mairead, Paula, Mary and Fiona.
Kevin McElroy, the chef at the Morgan House in Lee, with Erin Burgess, the former pastry chef at Spice in Pittsfield, where McElory used to work, too; Kathy Kurinsky and Bob Scavuzzo, who came from Chicago.
Aimee Petrosky with Gia and Juliet Bernini.
Linda and John MacMillan eating ribs in the rain; Kevin and Joanne Wholey in their official Tanglewood ponchos.
Don and Faith Carpenter waiting for a friend whose birthday they were planning to celebrate.
