James Taylor — BBC In Concert, London, 1970

In November 1970, James Taylor was just twenty-two when he taped this live concert for the BBC’s In Concert series in London. His second album, Sweet Baby James, had been released earlier that year and had just established him among the defining singer-songwriters of his generation. Alone on stage with acoustic guitar and voice, he delivers an unusually intimate folk set, filmed by the BBC cameras. The capture gathers the songs that built his reputation — “Fire and Rain,” “Carolina in My Mind,” “Sweet Baby James” — alongside readings such as “With a Little Help from My Friends” and the traditional “Greensleeves.” It also features “Steamroller Blues,” “Sunny Skies” and “You Can Close Your Eyes.” This 1970 full concert documents a pivotal moment in American folk, when James Taylor’s confessional writing took hold in Europe. A live filmed concert that remains one of the finest surviving television archives of the artist, preserved and reissued by BBC Studios.