Sweet Baby James

He's earned 40 gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards along with 5 Grammy Awards and yours truly (pinch myself) actually got to work with him in his Berkshire home in Massachusetts today. It's so very rare to find but always a treat to work with celebrities who act more like everyday folk than the icons they truly are. And nobody embodies that self-effacing, inviting and affectionate personality more than James Taylor. What other musician would be so kind as to carry my tripod as well as my 20 pound HD camera around Tanglewood in the late evening? He and his enchanting wife Kim were even gracious enough to invite me to share sandwich wraps in their studio barn hours before taping commenced.

From filming hills brushed with sunshine to dusty dirt roads casting long shadows to babbling brooks winding through mossy overgrown woodlands, it's easy to see what inspires James's ethereal lyrics. No matter if he has performed to sell-out crowds in Sydney, London, Paris and Rio, the Berkshires are his home and the 'One Man Band' DVD/CD compilation (out in stores come November) hopes to cement his musical kinship to this area. The project is being directed and produced by a top-shelf California company called Don Mischer Productions with cameo shooting by PilotGirl Productions.

And just to show how real this musical legend is: rather than let a lowly grounds keeper do it, he plucked a dead Mickey from a dirty mousetrap behind a studio garbage pail and disposed of the smelly rodent accordingly - with not so much as a fuss or face. Only a 'true man of the people' could do that!