Editing James Taylor (section)

==== 1997–2008 ====
[[File:JamesTaylor 02.jpg|thumb|Taylor in concert at DeVos Hall, Grand Rapids, Michigan – April 2006]]
In 1997, after six years since his last studio album, Taylor released ''[[Hourglass (James Taylor album)|Hourglass]]'', an introspective album that gave him the best critical reviews in almost twenty years. The album had much of its focus on Taylor's troubled past and family. "Jump Up Behind Me" paid tribute to his father's rescue of him after The Flying Machine days, and the long drive from New York City back to his home in Chapel Hill.<ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', p. 318.</ref> "Enough To Be on Your Way" was inspired by the alcoholism-related death of his brother Alex earlier in the decade.<ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', p. 306.</ref> The themes were also inspired by Taylor and Walker's divorce, which took place in 1996.<ref name="White, p. 301">White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', p. 301.</ref> ''Rolling Stone Magazine'' found that "one of the themes of this record is disbelief", while Taylor told the magazine that it was "spirituals for agnostics".<ref>"In 'Up From Your Life', you sing, "For an unbeliever like you/ There's not much they can do." In "Gaia", you call yourself a 'poor, wretched unbeliever'." Interview, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', June 24, 1997.</ref> Critics embraced the dark themes on the album, and ''Hourglass'' was a commercial success, reaching {{numero|9}} on the [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]] (Taylor's first Top 10 album in sixteen years) and also provided a big adult contemporary hit on "Little More Time With You". The album also gave Taylor his first Grammy since ''JT'', when he was honored with [[Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album|Best Pop Album]] in 1998.

Flanked by two greatest hit releases, Taylor's Platinum-certified ''[[October Road (album)|October Road]]'' appeared in 2002 to a receptive audience. It featured a number of quiet instrumental accompaniments and passages. Overall, it found Taylor in a more peaceful frame of mind; rather than facing a crisis now, Taylor said in an interview that "I thought I'd passed the midpoint of my life when I was 17."<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/2002/08/13/2002-08-13_taylor_s__road__to_happiness.html | title=Taylor's 'Road' to Happiness | first=David | last=Hinckley | newspaper=[[New York Daily News]] | date=August 13, 2002 | access-date=March 17, 2009 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The album appeared in two versions, a single-disc version and a "[[limited edition]]" two-disc version which contained three extra songs including a duet with [[Mark Knopfler]], "[[Sailing to Philadelphia]]", which also appeared on Knopfler's album by the same name. Also in 2002, Taylor teamed with bluegrass musician [[Alison Krauss]] in singing "[[The Boxer]]" at the [[Kennedy Center Honors]] Tribute to [[Paul Simon]]. They later recorded the [[Louvin Brothers]] duet, "How's the World Treating You?" In 2004, after he chose not to renew his record contract with Columbia/Sony, he released ''[[James Taylor: A Christmas Album]]'' with distribution through [[Hallmark Cards]].

[[File:James Taylor at Tanglewood.jpg|thumb|240px|Taylor performing at [[Tanglewood]] in 2008]]
Always visibly active in [[Political ecology|environmental]] and liberal causes, in October 2004, Taylor joined the [[Vote for Change]] tour playing a series of concerts in American [[swing states]]. These concerts were organized by [[MoveOn.org]] with the goal of mobilizing people to vote for [[John Kerry]] and against [[George W. Bush]] in that year's presidential campaign. Taylor's appearances were joint performances with the [[Dixie Chicks]].

Taylor performed "[[The Star-Spangled Banner]]" at Game 2 of the [[World Series]] in Boston on October 24, 2004, on October 25, 2007, both the anthem and "America" for the game on October 24, 2013, and Game 1 on October 23, 2018. He also performed at Game 1 of the [[2008 NBA Finals]] in Boston on June 5, 2008, and at the [[2010 NHL Winter Classic|NHL's Winter Classic]] game between the [[Philadelphia Flyers]] and [[Boston Bruins]].{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

In December 2004, he appeared as himself in an episode of ''[[The West Wing (TV series)|The West Wing]]'' entitled "[[A Change Is Gonna Come (The West Wing)|A Change Is Gonna Come]]". He sang [[Sam Cooke]]'s classic "[[A Change Is Gonna Come (song)|A Change Is Gonna Come]]" at an event honoring an artist played by Taylor's wife Caroline. Later on, he appeared on [[Country Music Television|CMT]]'s ''Crossroads'' alongside the Dixie Chicks. In early 2006, [[MusiCares]] honored Taylor with performances of his songs by an array of notable musicians. Before a performance by the Dixie Chicks, lead singer [[Natalie Maines]] acknowledged that he had always been one of their musical heroes and had, for them, lived up to their once-imagined reputation of him.<ref name="dxchicks">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKka3yYpBaE| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729161611/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKka3yYpBaE| archive-date=July 29, 2013|title=Musicares Honoring James Taylor|last=Dixie Chicks|year=2006|work=Video of Stage Performance|publisher=Grammy Award Sponsored Musicares|access-date=December 31, 2008}}</ref> They performed his song, "Shower the People", with a surprise appearance by [[Arnold McCuller]], who has sung backing vocals on Taylor's live tours and albums for many years.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

In the fall of 2006, Taylor released a repackaged and slightly different version of his Hallmark Christmas album, now entitled ''James Taylor at Christmas'', and distributed by Columbia/Sony. In 2006, Taylor performed [[Randy Newman]]'s song "[[Our Town (Randy Newman song)|Our Town]]" for the [[Disney]] animated film ''[[Cars (film)|Cars]]''. The song was nominated for the 2007 [[Academy Award]] for the Best Original Song. On January 1, 2007, Taylor headlined the inaugural concert at the [[Times Union Center]] in [[Albany, New York]] honoring newly sworn in [[Governor of New York]] [[Eliot Spitzer]].

Taylor's next album, ''[[One Man Band (James Taylor album)|One Man Band]]'' was released on CD and DVD in November 2007 on [[Starbucks]]' [[Hear Music]] Label, where he joined with [[Paul McCartney]] and [[Joni Mitchell]]. The introspective album grew out of a three-year tour of the United States and Europe called the One Man Band Tour, featuring some of Taylor's most beloved songs and anecdotes about their creative origins—accompanied solely by the "one man band" of his longtime pianist/keyboardist, [[Larry Goldings]]. The [[Surround sound#5.1 Channel Surround (3-2 Stereo) (digital discrete: Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS, Penteo)|digital discrete 5.1 surround sound]] mix of ''One Man Band'' won a [[TEC Awards|TEC Award]] for best surround sound recording in 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://legacy.tecawards.org/tec/08winners.html |title=The 2008 TEC Awards Winners |publisher=Legacy.tecawards.org |access-date=August 25, 2015 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304120303/http://legacy.tecawards.org/tec/08winners.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:You've Got a Friend JT CK 2010.jpg|thumb|left|Taylor and [[Carole King]] performing "[[You've Got a Friend]]" together during their [[Troubadour Reunion Tour]] in 2010]]
On November 28–30, 2007, Taylor accompanied by his original band and Carole King, headlined a series of six shows at the Troubadour. The appearances marked the 50th anniversary of the venue, where Taylor, King and many others, such as [[Tom Waits]], [[Neil Diamond]], and [[Elton John]], performed early in their music careers. Proceeds from the concert went to benefit the Natural Resources Defense Council, MusiCares, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank (a member of [[America's Second Harvest]], the nation's Food Bank Network). Parts of the performance shown on ''[[CBS Sunday Morning]]'' in the December 23, 2007, broadcast showed Taylor alluding to his early drug problems by saying, "I played here a number of times in the 70s, allegedly". Taylor has used versions of this joke on other occasions, and it appears as part of his ''One Man Band'' DVD and tour performances.

In December 2007, ''James Taylor at Christmas'' was nominated for a Grammy Award.  In January 2008, Taylor recorded approximately 20 songs by others for a new album with a band including [[Luis Conte]], [[Michael Landau]], [[Lou Marini]], [[Arnold McCuller]], [[Jimmy Johnson (bassist)|Jimmy Johnson]], [[David Lasley]], Walt Fowler, [[Andrea Zonn]], [[Kate Markowitz]], [[Steve Gadd]] and [[Larry Goldings]]. The resulting live-in-studio album, named ''[[Covers (James Taylor album)|Covers]]'', was released in September 2008.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/music_news/2008/09/james_taylor_makes_new_cd_unsigned_artist |title=James Taylor makes a new CD as an unsigned artist |newspaper=Boston Herald |date=September 26, 2008 |access-date=August 25, 2015 |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923222947/http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/music_news/2008/09/james_taylor_makes_new_cd_unsigned_artist |url-status=live }}</ref> The album forays into country and soul while being the latest proof that Taylor is a more versatile singer than his best-known hits might suggest. The Covers sessions stretched to include "Oh What a Beautiful Morning", from the musical Oklahoma!, a song that his grandmother had caught him singing over and over at the top of his lungs when he was seven years old.<ref>Hiatt, Brian. "James Taylor's Country Soul" Rolling Stone. Iss. 1062.</ref> Meanwhile, in summer 2008, Taylor and this band toured 34 North American cities with a tour entitled James Taylor and His Band of Legends. An additional album, called ''[[Other Covers]]'', came out in April 2009, containing songs that were recorded during the same sessions as the original ''Covers'' but had not been put out to the full public yet.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://store.jamestaylor.com/others-covers-2009cd |title=JamesTaylor.com. Other Covers [2009/CD&#93; |publisher=Store.jamestaylor.com |access-date=August 25, 2015 |archive-date=September 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912143555/http://store.jamestaylor.com/others-covers-2009cd |url-status=live }}</ref>