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James Taylor has shared a special performance of ‘America The Beautiful’ to mark today’s US presidential election.
The singer-songwriter performed the patriotic track, which was written and composed in the late 1800s, from his home, strumming his acoustic guitar in front of a fireplace.
He also shared lyrics to his 2015 song ‘Before This World’: “The way ahead is clear/ My heart is free from fear/ I’ll plant my flag right here/Today, today, today.”
Sharing the performance on Twitter, Taylor wrote: “Inspiration for an important day.”
You can watch Taylor’s home rendition of ‘America The Beautiful’ in full below:
Previously an active supporter of Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, Taylor performed ‘America The Beautiful’ at Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.
More recently, Taylor has shown his support for Vice President Joe Biden and his 2020 campaign trail, sending emails and asking for donations while posting content on social media.
“Joe Biden knows that, as President, he has to fight for every American, not just the ones who voted for him,” he wrote in a recent email. “He’ll work with scientific and medical experts to forge a fact-based plan to approach this virus, and then he’ll get to work building our country back better than it was before.”
Earlier this year, Taylor seemingly revealed that Joni Mitchell was “coming back” with new music.
Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm in March of 2015 and was found unconscious at her home. Later that year, it was revealed that the singer was “walking, talking and painting” again after the injury, and while newly recorded music from the star hasn’t been announced yet, an archival album, ‘Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963 – 1967)’, was released on October 30.
Speaking to The Guardian, Taylor spoke of his collaborations and friendship with Mitchell, and revealed that the two have recently reconnected.
“We’ve continued to have a friendship and, well, I recently sort of re-engaged with Joni, and that’s been wonderful,” Taylor said. “She came to a show of mine recently, at the Hollywood Bowl, which was an unusual thing for her to do.”
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