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LAist @ Sundance 2011: 'Troubadours' Sings For Taylor & King
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.
PREVIOUSLY:
LAist @ Sundance 2011: Red Shirley aka The Lou Reed Movie
LAist @ Sundance 2011: Festival Recap In Ten Words Or Less
LAist @ Sundance 2011: Cee-Lo Green At SPiN Galactic Lounge At Bing Bar, 01/23/11
LAist @ Sundance 2011: Lou Reed, 01/23/11
LAist @ Sundance 2011: New Frontier w/ Digital Bugs, Wilderness Downtown, Johnny Cash, Pandemic, Three's Company (The Drama)
LAist @ Sundance 2011: Florence + The Machine At Bing Bar, 01/22/11
LAist @ Sundance 2011: Janelle Monae At Bing Bar, 01/21/11
LAist @ Sundance 2011: It Begins With A Spin
LAist @ Sundance 2011: Snoop Dogg, 01/20/11
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