Hope Estate, Hunter Valley
Sunday February 12, 2017 :
From the hottest place on earth to the coolest spot in the Hunter. With a little help from his All-Star friends, on Sunday afternoon legendary singer songwriter, James Taylor managed to transform Hope Estate from a heat wave hell to a musical oasis.
On a weekend that saw many parts of the country experience record-breaking temperatures, JT and his All-Star Band delivered an unforgettable evening filled with beloved and iconic tracks, providing much-needed respite to his adoring Hunter fans who’d just sweltered through one heck of a hot weekend.
Australian music mainstays Kasey Chambers and Bernard Fanning had the honour of opening for James and of course did a bang-up job. Relaxed and irreverent, Kasey kicked the evening off with an upbeat set spanning her nearly 20-year career, with ‘Pony’, ‘Rattlin’ Bones’, ‘The Captain’ and ‘Am I Not Pretty Enough’ all getting a run. A cover of ‘Willin’ by Little Feat (later recorded by Linda Ronstadt and much later by Steve Earle), a song her father, Bill, used to sing to her as a kid, was also a big highlight of Kasey’s set.
This was followed up by Bernard and his band, The Black Fins, who delivered a crowd-pleasing set featuring tracks from both Bernard’s solo career and his years with Powerfinger. Easing gently into things with a stunning rendition of ‘Watch Over Me’ before jumping into a bunch of tracks from Bernard’s latest record, Civil Dusk. There was also an encore performance from Kasey who returned to the stage to perform her and Bernard’s colab, ‘Sooner or Later’.
After two punchy sets from two top Aussie performers, I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in saying I’d have been satisfied if the night ended now. But as the sun set over the Valley, there was plenty more in store and it wasn’t long before the man, JT, would take to the stage.
Striding onto the stage wearing chinos, a cambray shirt and the flat cap that has become his signature in later years, flanked by his aptly named All Star Band, James would delve deep to delight fans with a set oozing with ’70s classics and cuts from his 40-year career.
Determined to entertain after 10 years away from Australia (seven if you count his co-headlining Troubadour Reunion tour with Carole King in 2010), from opener to stumps, there was nary a new song in sight the whole night, bar ‘Today, Today, Today’ off his latest record Before This World. But I doubt the fans were too fussed; “The new ones sound the same as the old ones anyway,” James reassured us, “It’s just like taking a band aid off, we should get it over with quickly.”
And that he did, just a handful of songs in and we get ‘Country Road’, ‘Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight’ and a few well-loved odes to his home state of North Carolina in ‘Copperline’ and, of course, ‘Carolina on my Mind’.
The set list for this show was truly surreal. Not even halfway through and fans had already been treated to ‘Sweet Baby James’, ‘Shower the People’, ‘Fire and Rain’, as well as a mini-homage to James’ friend and folk counterpart, Carole King, in some beautiful renditions of ‘Up on the Roof’ and ‘You’ve Got a Friend’, that latter prompting a massive sing-along from the crowd – a real highlight of the set. Where was left to go from here?
A mate who’d seen James play before once told me how magical his set was because he just sat on a stool on stage and played. No pomp, not even much of an accompaniment and to be honest, I went in expecting a fairly restrained performance from this 68-year-old folk legend. And while the first half of the set was full of acoustic tracks from the early 70s, the second half was adifferent story, a full on party, on stage and off.
It started with a very loose, very lively performance of ‘Steamroller Blues’, which saw James “Chuck Berry-ing” all over the stage, cap backward, dueling guitars and leaping around the stage like a mad man. He kept the carefree pace coming and got the crowd on their feet and dancing in the aisles with breezy ‘Mexico’ and the funky ‘Your Smiling Face’ and continued well into the encore with a cover of soul classic ‘Knock on Wood’ and the joyful ‘How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)’. The night ended with the gorgeous hymnal/political(?) ‘Shed a Little Light’, a fitting end to what had been a wonderful, gracious performance from a true gentleman of music.
Reviewer and Photographer : Amelia Parrott