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James Taylor, Carole King
James Taylor, Carole King An origin story is particularly likable. Especially when it's about music that so deeply speaks to the American acoustic sensibility. Especially when it's about Los Angeles. Especially when it's at Sundance. Born of the Carole King / James Taylor reunion shows at the Troubadour in West Hollywood in 2007, Morgan Neville's documentary "Troubadours," is a long-haired dive into the the long-running relationship between two of music's most prolific and influential singer/songwriters and the genre they helped shape.Tracking each of their early lives and careers, the two meet in the magic time from the late 60s to the early 70s when Doug Weston's West Hollywood Troubadour was the epicenter of post-rock real estate; a proving ground and star-maker for emerging singer/songwriters who were taking an intimate approach to live music in the exhausted wake of the 1960s.
Without pandering to salacious tales, the lore of Laurel Canyon is reinforced in fables that liken the urban woodland to a "bedroom," and the Troubadour to its "living room" counterpart. Jackson Browne, Steve Martin, Kris Kristofferson, David Crosby, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Cheech & Chong, The Section, and others give orbiting interviews both funny and moving, while the gravitational force of the film is the remarkable and collaborative non-romantic love between earth mother King and reserved Taylor.
Every two years, Desert X presents site-specific outdoor installations throughout the Coachella Valley. Two Los Angeles artists have new work on display.
