5/5/2023 0 Comments Tunesmith reunionWhat’s refreshing in this age of rampant overproduction and Auto-Tune is performance footage in which a strong singer needed just an acoustic guitar or piano - or in Mitchell’s case, a dulcimer - to captivate an audience. Comics also were part of the scene, yielding amusing observations from Cheech & Chong and particularly Steve Martin. If there are glaring absences - not getting a Joni Mitchell interview must have hurt - there are plenty of first-hand accounts from artists who played the Troubadour, among them Jackson Browne, Kris Kristofferson, David Crosby, Bonnie Raitt and Elton John, who got his American breakout at the club. (Didn’t they actually do one last year?) And the movie has at least a dozen too many shots of earth mother King beaming beatifically at Taylor.Ĭloying present-day elements aside, Neville does an adequate job of charting the evolution of the Los Angeles singer-songwriter scene, which blossomed as the ferment of the ‘60s was waning. That one-on-one mutual lovefest is about as interesting as a PBS pledge drive. And while there’s a ton of terrific archival material and performance clips here, the filmmaker appears to regard his coup as getting King and Taylor to sit down and interview each other. Inspiration for “Troubadours” was King and Taylor’s 2007 reunion concerts and subsequent tour. But in retracing the explosion of singer-songwriter talent out of West Hollywood’s legendary Troubadour club, he makes a bad choice by starting now, not then. sound have a right to expect a film that wraps some analytical social context around its swooning nostalgia.Ī specialist in music docs - past films have examined Stax Records, Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Iggy Pop & the Stooges, Sam Phillips, Brian Wilson, Nat “King” Cole, you name it - director Morgan Neville is nothing if not proficient. PARK CITY, Utah (Hollywood Reporter) - Speaking as someone whose preteen soundtrack featured “Tapestry” and “Sweet Baby James,” it’s safe to predict a warm generational embrace for “Troubadours,” a flashback to the heyday of Carole King and James Taylor.īut even those of us with an embarrassing soft spot for the early ‘70s L.A.
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