Carole King

Short Biography
An Evening With
CAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR
‘Troubadour Reunion' World Tour


Iconic recording artists Carole King and James Taylor will begin their world tour in Melbourne on March 27, taking to the world stage together for the first time in nearly 40 years.

This once-in-a-lifetime event brings together two of the most beloved singer/songwriters for a rare concert experience, performing in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane arenas, as well as an outdoor show at Hope Estate in the Hunter Valley, followed by a one-off show at Auckland's, Vector Arena.

The two-hour shows will feature a breadth of material including songs they pe...

Short Biography
An Evening With
CAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR
‘Troubadour Reunion' World Tour


Iconic recording artists Carole King and James Taylor will begin their world tour in Melbourne on March 27, taking to the world stage together for the first time in nearly 40 years.

This once-in-a-lifetime event brings together two of the most beloved singer/songwriters for a rare concert experience, performing in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane arenas, as well as an outdoor show at Hope Estate in the Hunter Valley, followed by a one-off show at Auckland's, Vector Arena.

The two-hour shows will feature a breadth of material including songs they performed during their 1970 debut show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, which helped propel them both to the world stage.

Tickets for all shows will go on sale Monday November 23.

The idea for the ‘Troubadour Reunion' tour came together in 2007 after King and Taylor performed at the famed Los Angeles venue for the first time since 1970 to celebrate the Troubadour's 50th Anniversary. The shows sold-out immediately and garnered rave reviews from fans and critics alike. 

The Los Angeles Times noted "the sense of occasion [and] weight of history in the evening" and Variety said "Taylor and King reminded us about the intensity of song, that the artistically rich and commercial viable are not mutually exclusive..."

Now Australian and New Zealand fans will be able to experience what was created on that magical evening in 2007. Nearly four decades after helping define the singer-songwriter movement, King and Taylor will tour together with the original band-mates guitarist Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, drummer Russ Kunkel and bassist Lee Sklar, famous in their own right as ‘The Section'. 

"When James and I first played together in the early seventies, we connected immediately, both musically and personally, with an effortless, comfortable familiarity," Carole King said.  

"After we reunited in 2007 with Danny Kortchmar, Lee Sklar, and Russ Kunkel, the original band from our early Troubadour shows, none of us wanted the fun to stop.  We can't wait to bring our Troubadour Reunion tour to Australia and New Zealand."

"This tour, our Troubadour Reunion, has been waiting to happen for a long time and the years seem to have vanished, where does the time go?" Taylor asks. 

"When we reunited for the Troubadour's 50th Anniversary celebration, it felt like yesterday.  It was and still is all about the music and the songs that we get to perform together."

Carole King performed with James Taylor at the Troubadour in November 1970 This historic show marked King's debut as a solo artist after penning 22 Top 40 hits for artists ranging from Aretha Franklin to the Monkees, while Taylor was supporting his self-titled Apple Records release featuring classics such as Carolina In My Mind and Something In The Way She Moves.

Both have since become multi-platinum-selling artists, Grammy winners and members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In 1971, King gave us the landmark Tapestry. The album received a Diamond Award from the RIAA for sales of more than 10 million units in the U.S., with more than 25 million units sold worldwide. King was the first woman to win four Grammy Awards in one year - Best Album, Best Song, Best Record, and Best Vocal Performance in 1972 - a feat unsurpassed for more than 25 years. That same year Time Magazine named King "Woman of the Year".

In 1987 King and Gerry Goffin were inducted into the Songwriter Hall of Fame and honored with their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1988. Goffin and King were also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and were honored by The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 2004 with the Grammy Trustees' Award.

To date, more than 400 Carole King compositions have been recorded by more than 1000 artists, resulting in 100 hit singles - many reaching #1. She has released 25 solo albums, the most recent being The Living Room Tour double-live CD on her own Rockingdale Records label. The companion DVD, entitled Welcome To My Living Room is now available.

Carole King is arguably the most successful and most revered female songwriter in pop music history.

Over the course of his career, James Taylor has sold more than 40 million albums, and won more than 40 gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards as well as five Grammy Awards. Taylor's first Greatest Hits album earned him the RIAA's elite Diamond Award, given for sales in excess of 10 million units in the United States.

In 2000, Taylor was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In February 2006, The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences named Taylor its MUSICARES Person of the Year.  Taylor's CD/DVD One Man Band (2007) was nominated for an Emmy and his most recent album, Covers, was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2008. He most recently released Other Covers in April 2009.

Don't miss this rare opportunity to see two of the world's most renowned singer songwriters perform together on stage - ‘Troubadour Reunion" Tour dates are:

VECTOR ARENA: SATURDAY APRIL 10

TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY NOVEMBER 23

In-depth Biography
While the landmark album Tapestry earned her superstar status, singer/songwriter Carole King had already firmly established herself as one of pop music's most gifted and successful composers, with work recorded by everyone from the Beatles to Aretha Franklin. Born Carole Klein on February 9, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, she began playing piano at the age of four, and formed her first band, the vocal quartet the Co-Sines, while in high school. A devotee of the composing team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller (the duo behind numerous hits for Elvis Presley, the Coasters, and Ben E. King), she became a fixture at influential DJ Alan Freed's local Rock 'n' Roll shows; while attending Queens College, she fell in with budding songwriters Paul Simon and Neil Sedaka as well as Gerry Goffin, with whom she forged a writing partnership.

In 1959, Sedaka scored a hit with "Oh! Carol," written in her honor; King cut an answer record, "Oh! Neil," but it stiffed. She and Goffin, who eventually married, began writing under publishers Don Kirshner and Al Nevins in the famed pop songwriting house the Brill Building, where they worked alongside the likes of Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and countless others. In 1961, Goffin and King scored their first hit with the Shirelles' chart-topping "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"; their next effort, Bobby Vee's "Take Good Care of My Baby," also hit number one, as did "The Locomotion," recorded by their baby-sitter, Little Eva. Together, the couple wrote over 100 chart hits in a vast range of styles, including the Chiffons' "One Fine Day," the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday," the Drifters' "Up on the Roof," the Cookies' "Chains" (later covered by the Beatles), Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman," and the Crystals' controversial "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)."

King also continued her attempts to mount a solo career, but scored only one hit, 1962's "It Might as Well Rain Until September." In the mid-'60s she, Goffin, and columnist Al Aronowitz founded their own short-lived label, Tomorrow Records; Charles Larkey, the bassist for the Tomorrow group the Myddle Class, eventually became King's second husband after her marriage to Goffin dissolved. She and Larkey later moved to the West Coast, where in 1968 they founded the City, a trio rounded out by New York musician Danny Kortchmar. The City recorded one LP, Now That Everything's Been Said, but did not tour due to King's stage fright; as a result, the album was a commercial failure, although it did feature songs later popularized by the Byrds ("Wasn't Born to Follow"), Blood, Sweat & Tears ("Hi-De-Ho"), and James Taylor ("You've Got a Friend").

Taylor and King ultimately became close friends, and he encouraged her to pursue a solo career. 1970's Writer proved a false start, but in 1971, she released Tapestry, which stayed on the charts for over six years and was the best-selling album of the era. A quiet, reflective work which proved seminal in the development of the singer/songwriter genre, Tapestry also scored a pair of hit singles, "So Far Away" and the chart-topping "It's Too Late," whose flip side, "I Feel the Earth Move," garnered major airplay as well. 1971's Music also hit number one, and generated the hit "Sweet Seasons"; 1972's Rhymes & Reasons reached number two on the charts, and 1974's Wrap Around Joy, which featured the hit "Jazzman," hit the number one spot.

In 1975, King and Goffin reunited to write Thoroughbred, which also featured contributions from James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash. After 1977's Simple Things, she mounted a tour with the backing group Navarro and married her frequent songwriting partner Rick Evers, who died a year later after a heroin overdose. 1980's Pearls, a collection of performances of songs written during her partnership with Goffin, was her last significant hit, and King soon moved to a tiny mountain village in Idaho, where she became active in the environmental movement. After 1983's Speeding Time, she took a six-year hiatus from recording before releasing City Streets, which featured guest Eric Clapton. In 2001, she returned with Love Makes the World, a self-released disc on her own Rockingale label. Four years passed before her next record, The Living Room Tour, a double disc set documenting her intimate 2004-05 tour that found her revisting songs from throughout her career with only her piano and acoustic guitars as accompaniment. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide