Livingston Taylor

Livingston Taylor (born November 21, 1950) is an American singer-songwriter, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He attended the Westtown School in Pennsylvania. He is the brother of singer-songwriter James Taylor, singer-songwriter Kate Taylor, musician and older brother Alex (d. 1993) and innkeeper and singer Hugh Taylor. He is a faculty member at Berklee College of Music.

Taylor was born in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1952, he moved with his family to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where his father, Isaac M. Taylor, was Dean of the Medical School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He attended public school and spent a year at the Westtown Friends School in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He completed his high school education at Arlington School, McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts and began performing music at venues in the Boston area.

Taylor was one of the first artists to sign with Capricorn Records in 1970. His debut album, Livingston Taylor, was produced by Jon Landau and included the song "Carolina Day". His second album, Liv, also produced by Landau, included the song "Get Out of Bed". His third album, Over the Rainbow was released in 1973.

Taylor left Capricorn records and released Three Way Mirror in 1978. The album featured "I Will Be In Love With You" and "Going Round One More Time," a song that was later recorded by his brother James Taylor in 1985. Taylor promoted the album by touring as the opening act for Linda Ronstadt.

In 1979, Capricorn Records released Echoes, a collection of songs from Taylor's first three albums. In 1979,Taylor's single, "I Will Be In Love With You," rose to the 30th position on the Billboard charts. In 1980, he gained a second minor hit when "First Time Love" made it to #38.

In the 1980s Taylor released his second album on the Epic label, Man's Best Friend. The album contained the songs: "First Time Love," and "Pajamas" (sometimes known as "I've Got My Pajamas On"), which was later adapted into a book for children written by Taylor and his wife, Maggie. Taylor hosted a nationally syndicated television show, This Week's Music, and began teaching performance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. His next album Life Is Good appeared in 1988.

Taylor released Our Turn to Dance in 1991, Good Friends in 1993 and Bicycle in 1996. "Boatman" a song on the Bicycle album was later recorded by his brother James in 1997. Ink, a collection of cover songs, was released in 1997. A concert album, Unsolicited Material, was released in 1994, and in 1998, an eighteen track retrospective of the first decade of Taylor's career, Carolina Day: The Livingston Taylor Collection was released. In 1999 a second live album Snapshot: Live at the Iron Horse was released. A second retrospective was released in 2005 with 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Livingston Taylor and Taylor released an album of original material, There You Are Again the same year.

In 2010, Taylor released the album Last Alaska Moon which included bassist Leland Sklar; drummer Steve Gadd; guitarists Vince Gill, Chris Rodriguez, and J.T. Corenflos; keyboardist Shane Keister, and vocalist Andrea Zonn.

Taylor was an artist-in-residence at Lowell House at Harvard College from 2000–2006 and became a full professor at Berklee College of Music, teaching courses on stage performance, and is one of the vice presidents in the Development Office.

Taylor's siblings include Alex Taylor, James Taylor, Hugh Taylor and Kate Taylor. He is an instrument rated private pilot and an aviation enthusiast. He has maintained a close friendship with his former sister-in-law Carly Simon; the two have collaborated numerous times.

• Livingston Taylor (Capricorn, 1970)
• Liv (Capricorn, 1971)
• Over the Rainbow (Capricorn, 1973)
• Three Way Mirror (Epic, 1978)
• Echoes (Capricorn, 1979)
• Man's Best Friend (Sony, 1980)
• Life Is Good (Sony, 1988)
• Our Turn to Dance (Vanguard, 1993)
• Good Friends (Chesky, 1993)
• Unsolicited Material (1994)
• Bicycle (Chesky, 1996)
• Ink (Chesky, 1997)
• Carolina Day: The Livingston Taylor Collection (1998)
• Snapshot: Live at the Iron Horse (1999)
• 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Livingston Taylor (2005)
• There You Are Again (Chesky, 2005)
• Last Alaska Moon (Chesky, 2010)
• Blue Sky (2014)