Troubadours: Carole King/James Taylor & the Rise of the Singer-Songwriter

Towards the latter part of the 1960s The Beatles had broken up, The Rolling Stones were no longer making music, and people were generally tired and weary from the turmoil of the decade. Out of this dearth sprung the singer/songwriter movement centered in a little club in Los Angeles called The Troubadour. There many great artists of the time would use the club as a springboard to success. Among them were such greats as Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, and Elton John who all tell of the great creative period and how it sadly yet inevitably came to an end. This entry into American Masters documents many of my favorite musicians and it is wonderful to hear them speak over some of their greatest tracks. Steve Martin, who also got his start at The Troubador, has a quote that I liked which goes, "When Monet was making impressionist paintings, why were like six other artists making impressionist works as well. Because it was the right time." The turbulence of the 60s was the right time for a group of intelligent and sensitive individuals to put things in perspective and create some of the greatest music our country has seen.