Before you ask: no, it's not a coincidence that Whistler-based musician Taylor James has a very similar name to a certain Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.
James is a French Canadian from North Bay, Ont. She aimed to move out west in 1990 in pursuit of her performing dreams, but folks told her: "you'll never get hired if you have a French name." Thus began an endeavour among James' friends and family to find her a stage moniker.
Perhaps inevitably, she decided to pay tribute to James Taylor—the beloved six-time Grammy Award winner from Boston—by inverting his name and using it as her own.
"I heard James Taylor [as a kid] and it stole my heart," James recounts. "Essentially he was my teacher, because my whole guitar style changed immensely from learning his songs like 'Fire and Rain'. My connection with James Taylor was deep because it was my entrance to a whole different level of guitar playing."
YouTube and Google did not exist in the Ontarian's youth, so she spent hours in her bedroom studying music from a cassette deck. Her family couldn't afford to put her into guitar lessons, but she managed to get by with a great listening ear and no shortage of natural talent.
James has leveraged that talent to build a thriving career. She's toured across Canada, Europe and the Middle East, while decorated acts like Colin James, Meat Loaf, Jeff Healy, Levon Helm and Ten Years After have chosen her to ride with them at various points in time. She used to run her own YouTube program, "The Taylor James Show," on which she would interview recognized musicians over glasses of fine wine.
Some Whistlerites might remember James from her many gigs in town over the years, including a consistent presence at the 2010 Winter Olympics. She's since moved up from Vancouver and now calls the Sea to Sky home.
The last guitar
There's a veritable arsenal of high-end instruments on today's market, but James insists on sticking with a maple-backed Yamaha from the 1970s.
Why?
"It was the last guitar my dad bought for me," she explains with the hint of a quiver in her voice. "I get emotional just saying that because he's passed, but it's very special and it's got a lot of bruises. I started playing guitar when I was 10, and I used to bring my guitar to campfires and jams. [That Yamaha] has been through a lot. There used to be an autograph just above the strings by Robert Plant."
James cut her teeth playing the country content of George Jones, Merle Haggard and Tammy Wynette before Taylor revolutionized her approach to music. Later in life, she credits Bonnie Raitt for teaching her how to play slide guitar, Etta James for showing her how to sing behind a beat, and Janis Joplin for teaching her "how to leave it all on the floor."
Performing alongside the likes of Colin James, Healy, Helm and so forth has also been tremendously educational.
"When I'd get the call, I'd be in such awe and feel gratitude that I had the opportunity to stand on the stage," James remarks. "Some of those shows were interesting because the main acts are very separate from the opening act, so it really ups your game. You have to work harder to be better and represent yourself, so I earned those spots.
"It's a different level when you're playing those stages and you have to have your s--t together. Pardon my expression, but you can't just show up unprepared. It really gives you that boost of confidence where you feel like: 'I get to play on the stage with this amazing artist and I don't want to let them down.'"
In the loop
Despite her wealth of experience, James has found Whistler's apres ski scene to be a game-changer.
She now plays for extremely diverse audiences, with baby boomers and Generation Zs filling the same venue. These are the kinds of people who look for a good time after a full day on the slopes. James has felt pressure to live up to the recommendations of local legends such as The Hairfarmers, and as a result she's been expanding upon her familiar musical menu of blues, roots and rock.
Her looper has been a lifeline. Devices of that ilk are used nowadays by an increasing number of solo artists to simulate a full band experience with drum beats and backing instrumentals.
"People need to hear a good, strong beat along with a great song and a great voice," opines James. "My repertoire has really grown to be more highly energetic…every genre you can imagine. When I started at Merlin's, I put a book in front of my stage and said to the audience: just write down any song that you want me to learn. And I couldn't believe it, but I had probably 10 pages of song requests the first time."
James' partner, Preston Steele, is also her partner-in-crime on the music scene. He helps to set up and tear down her shows, he sells her merchandise and sometimes even creates it.
"Preston is 150 per cent committed to helping me in any way that he can," James expresses. "He's really creative. He comes up with ideas that I would never come up with as far as how to promote my career. When I learn songs, he's either giving me applause or saying: 'maybe you could have done that differently.'"
Catch James back at Merlin's on Nov. 30 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. as she helps kick off ski season.
