Country Star Darius Rucker Offers Up Tearful “Sweet Baby James” Tribute To James Taylor

Rucker Salutes Critically Acclaimed Singer-Songwriter

When it comes to emotions, music is a supremely powerful trigger; an intensely personal experience, it calls forth emotions typically kept beneath the surface and can trigger emotional responses that you can neither pinpoint or explain, and that’s the beauty of critically acclaimed artists like James Taylor – artists who see every song as a way of touching those parts of us that we never let anyone see.

This month saw Taylor honored at the Kennedy Center Honors, recognized alongside the Eagles, Mavis Staples, Al Pacino, and Martha Argerich for his musical contributions to American culture over the past several decades. A wet eyed Taylor sat in silence as country star Darius Rucker offered up a tearful performance of “Sweet Baby James” in Taylor’s honor, and as we watched his performance it was hard not to well up a little ourselves at the sight of both Darius and James being visibly affected; pair that with the string section accompanying his acoustic performance and you’ve got yourself an emotionally charged 2 minutes and 36 seconds on your hands, and we are 100% okay with that.

It’s not even that “Sweet Baby James” is a particularly sad song; it’s having the opportunity to salute a great singer-songwriter while he’s still around to appreciate it and bask in the love he’s being shown, and in a year that’s claiming more of a our legends than we ever thought fathomable, that’s not a luxury – it’s a necessity.