Basic Folk: Livingston Taylor

Livingston Taylor has managed to carve out an impressive and interesting career as a successful songwriter and extremely effective professor of stage performance at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Younger brother to the very famous James Taylor, this is an interesting and vast conversation with a fascinating man. To be honest, I have a hard time following where his brain goes sometimes, but I feel like Liv shares some stories on here that I haven’t heard him tell before. While we’re talking about stories, I got him to break down the speech pattern he uses when telling a story.

Liv generously talks about his relationship with his late brother Alex, Carly Simon and his older brother James. He shares the story of how James really taught him how to play the guitar when they were younger: “If I got it wrong, James would slug me.” So out of character for peaceful easy going James Taylor, but makes sense between brothers. We also hear how he sometimes will whip out the “Livingston Taylor” card in certain situations like the time he met Tip O’Neill, who referred to him as “one of those singin’ Taylor boys.”

This was very fun, but I was pretty nervous to talk to Liv because he has a lot of stories to tell and I always want to make sure that we get the best ones. I’m fairly certain we got some good ones here. Thanks for listening.