James Taylor excited to finally get to P.E.I.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist James Taylor is appearing next Mondayin Summerside, a concert that has lots of fans excited.

It has James Taylor excited too, because, as he told Bruce Rainnie of Compass, while he's wanted to get to the Island, he's never performed in Atlantic Canada before.

"I don't think I have," said Taylor, on the line from Ontario, in the middle of a string of Canadian shows. "I was trying to remember in the distant past if I might have played in New Brunswick, but I don't think so. I think this will be my first professional visit, it'll be the first time I've ever been to P.E.I. I've been hoping to go for years, I have friends that have moved there, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm pretty excited to be visiting the Maritime provinces."

Taylor has reached yet another peak in a long career that stretches back to the late 1960s, when he was signed by The Beatles to their Apple Records label for his debut album.

He released his latest, Before This World, in 2015, his first album of new material in 13 years, and his first to reach number oneon the Billboard album charts in his entire career.

While he's pleased to have a number onealbum to play new material from, he also knows a lot of the crowd coming to Summerside will have favourites they really want to hear.

"Particularly when we're playing places for the first time, we're aware that people will probably want to hear the greatest hits, what's familiar to them, so that's mostly what we've got in this tour," Taylor promised. "But we do have three or four songs from the new album in there."

Taylor is also pleased that he's giving Summerside his full show, two complete sets and a very big crowd on stage.

"This extraordinary band," he said. "I'm really happy that on this first visit to this part of the world, that I'm able to bring my full band, all 12 of us will be on stage, and this community of players, that's something that sustains me and the company of these guys and that they're willing to play my music, they're all really the best in their fields."

While Taylor is now 68, his famous, honey-mellow voice is just as strong as it was when he started, according to fans, and Rainnie asked him how he was able to keep his voice in such great shape.

"It's like a physical thing, you know, it's physical work. You have to be in shape to do it," Taylor explained. "I definitely take care of my voice. When I'm not on the road, I do my exercises once a day. Tony Bennett taught me that, he said 'Don't let more than three days go by without doing a full set of vocal exercises.' I took that to heart because he's the master."

Benefits forFort McMurray

Taylor has also responded to the disaster that has been unfolding in Fort McMurray, which started about the same time he arrived in the country.

The singer has been dedicating his breakthrough hit, Fire and Rain, to the city's people each night, and has announced he'll perform two major benefit concerts.

Taylor already had dates booked in Calgary and Edmonton for June 7 and 8, and he is now donating all proceeds from ticket sales at those shows to the Canadian Red Cross.

"As soon as we got here, we just became immediately aware from all corners that there was a catastrophe of Biblical proportions going on, in these fires up in Fort Mac," he said. "And it just seemed that we were in a great position to turn these shows into benefits, and thankfully we got the buildings (concert venues) to kick in, we got (concert promoter) Live Nation to kick in, I think we'll be able to make some significant donations."

James Taylor and his All-Star Band will be at Credit Union Place in Summerside, Monday, May 16.

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