The results of these sessions are over a dozen cover songs \"in the can\" and the raw material for James\' next album to be released this fall. Below, James talks about how the covers album came to be, why some songs are certain to make it onto the album and what music we can expect to hear on the band\'s upcoming Summer Tour.

Tell us a little about the sessions and the time you spent with your band in the studio.

\"It was a great couple of weeks for us. On average, we cut a couple of tunes a day, and really came away with some great tracks. We’ll have to wait and see what kind of album comes together from it. More than half of the songs you would consider soul music from the sixties and seventies but some are from the fifties. There is basically enough soul record in there if we want to make that kind of album. That’s tempting. It has a certain sound. We’ve got the horns on a lot of the tunes and I think that’s a promising way of approaching it. So, although that leaves out some really great things, the soul album idea is the one that’s getting my vote right now.\"

Of all the projects you could do, what made you choose this covers idea?

\"This covers album has been something I’ve been waiting to do for years. We\'ve had some great arrangements over the years that seemed a pity not to record. Some of them —like Shiver Me Timbers and Suzanne— are songs that I’ve played in private for years but haven’t necessarily performed in public. I have good arrangements and wanted to do them. I’m also not quite ready to make another studio album of my own music, so it just seemed like the right time to schedule this one.\"

Are there any favorite songs that you know for sure are going to be on the CD because they are in your heart for some reason?

\"Well, not completely. You know, we had to record before we had any idea how things would turn out. Because when you play things live – the big band means large audiences, you know 10,000 people a night, at least, and that means the cover songs that make it into a live show with a large band are pretty pumped up. And when you take them into the studio they can change utterly. Chuck Berry’s Memphis went from being something pretty high energy to something that sounded much better when we cut it with brushes and went at it quiet. You don’t know until you cut something, and you have no idea how the groove is going to come through.

An outsider was Big Mama Thornton’s version of Hound Dog but it’s definitely making it onto the album because it caught fire when we recorded it. The song Road Runner, by Junior Walker was an afterthought. I had done it in the mid 80’s with David Sanborn playing saxophone. It came together so well with the horn parts that it’s probably guaranteed a spot on the album too.\"

You’re taking \"One Man Band\" to Europe in the month of April. What’s the plan for touring with the full band after that?

\"We\'re going out starting in late May in Virginia Beach; That concert will partially benefit a project to help protect the flyway for eastern migratory birds. It’s a big deal, a friend of ours with the Virginia EPA and the Virginia DET made us aware of it and we really wanted to chip in.

So that’s in the third week of May. And then we’ll continue up the east coast—we’ll hit all of the great summer sheds —Tanglewood, Ravinia, Meadow Brook, Blossom, Jones Beach-- and then into Canada for a while including Montreal and the Calgary Stampede; we’ll also hit the west coast, like LA and Seattle. We’ll work through June and into early August. These are going to be big band shows; the same band that is on the album will be on the road.

The possibility is that we’ll perform covers from the album for the first set, and the second set will be reserved for some of my greatest hits. We’ll have a full band stand and a really big sound. This is just an incredible group of musicians. I am really looking forward to it.\"

Watch the exclusive video - James Taylor and his \"Band of Legends\" (running time 3:32) of the recording sessions on www.jamestaylor.com/newsletters.