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The Inside Story: Livingston Taylor and SYMPHONIC STEPS
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Recorded live at the BBC’s renowned Maida Vale studio in London with music arranged and conducted by the Tony Award®-winning and GRAMMY®-nominated Bill Elliott, Livingston Taylor’s SYMPHONIC STEPS delivers a resounding fusion of folk and classical characteristics. Effusing a warm, timeless tone, this Big Round Records release showcases the unwavering creativity and artistic zeal that has earned Livingston enthusiastic listeners worldwide.
Today, Livingston is our featured artist in the “Inside Story,” a blog series exploring the inner workings and personalities of our composers and performers. Read on to learn about his unique list of dream collaborators, and his ultimate hope for listeners of his music…
Tell us about your first performance.
1968, Y-not Coffee House at the YMCA Worcester MA. I was paid $20.00 and I was so inexperienced that I actually thought I knew what I was doing.
If you weren’t a musician what would you be doing?
Plumber/steam pipe fitter/high voltage electrician… Something involving skilled manual labor that requires intense concentration to be survivable.
If you could collaborate with anyone who would it be?
The question may have been meant musically, but in the realm of non-musicians:
Living: Eric Betzig, a professor of micro biology at UC Berkeley. His mind is on fire about the atomic structure of life.
Not Living: Abraham Lincoln and Robert Oppenheimer, as their ability to distill truth to a few words makes the world very clear.
What advice would you give your younger self:
First, feed your soul with musical passion. Second, put any excess profit in retirement plans.
Take us on a walk through your musical library? What record gets the most plays? Deep cuts that you enjoy?
I tend to let sounds, musical and otherwise, find me. That said, my comfort listens would be Cass Elliot, Steely Dan, Burt Bacharach, and Ray Charles.
What emotions do you hope listeners will experience after hearing your work?
My deepest hope is that a listener who spends time around me and my music feels better about themselves.
How do you prepare for a performance?
Show up early, listen to the space and watch the staff and the audience settle in and leave the past and the future alone. Make the moment right now.
Where and when are you at your most creative?
Generally early morning and that can be anywhere.
What are your other passions besides music?
Sadly, I am a bit of a shiny object guy. I become enthusiastic about most everything that crosses my path (particularly my beautiful wife, Gail).
What is the greatest performance you have seen and what made it special?
There is no take off or landing of an airplane that I’ve watched from the terminal that equals the take off and landing when I am flying my Cessna 205. That said, David Wilcox, Bonnie Raitt, Charlie Puth, and my beautiful siblings, Kate and James Taylor — and every now and then I look down upon myself performing and am delighted by what I see.
Today, Livingston is our featured artist in the “Inside Story,” a blog series exploring the inner workings and personalities of our composers and performers. Read on to learn about his unique list of dream collaborators, and his ultimate hope for listeners of his music…
Tell us about your first performance.
1968, Y-not Coffee House at the YMCA Worcester MA. I was paid $20.00 and I was so inexperienced that I actually thought I knew what I was doing.
If you weren’t a musician what would you be doing?
Plumber/steam pipe fitter/high voltage electrician… Something involving skilled manual labor that requires intense concentration to be survivable.
If you could collaborate with anyone who would it be?
The question may have been meant musically, but in the realm of non-musicians:
Living: Eric Betzig, a professor of micro biology at UC Berkeley. His mind is on fire about the atomic structure of life.
Not Living: Abraham Lincoln and Robert Oppenheimer, as their ability to distill truth to a few words makes the world very clear.
What advice would you give your younger self:
First, feed your soul with musical passion. Second, put any excess profit in retirement plans.
Take us on a walk through your musical library? What record gets the most plays? Deep cuts that you enjoy?
I tend to let sounds, musical and otherwise, find me. That said, my comfort listens would be Cass Elliot, Steely Dan, Burt Bacharach, and Ray Charles.
What emotions do you hope listeners will experience after hearing your work?
My deepest hope is that a listener who spends time around me and my music feels better about themselves.
How do you prepare for a performance?
Show up early, listen to the space and watch the staff and the audience settle in and leave the past and the future alone. Make the moment right now.
Where and when are you at your most creative?
Generally early morning and that can be anywhere.
What are your other passions besides music?
Sadly, I am a bit of a shiny object guy. I become enthusiastic about most everything that crosses my path (particularly my beautiful wife, Gail).
What is the greatest performance you have seen and what made it special?
There is no take off or landing of an airplane that I’ve watched from the terminal that equals the take off and landing when I am flying my Cessna 205. That said, David Wilcox, Bonnie Raitt, Charlie Puth, and my beautiful siblings, Kate and James Taylor — and every now and then I look down upon myself performing and am delighted by what I see.