If you closed your eyes, you would’ve sworn it was James Taylor. It was the soothing vocals, intricate yet simple guitar fingering and then a lyric “your boyfriend is cute”. Wait, what? When you open your eyes you’d realize its not the original JT after all, it’s his son, Benjamin.

Tuesday night at the Largo was one of the most purely entertaining and enjoyable acoustic performances I have seen. Wrapping up his brief west coast tour with Katie Herzig, Ben took the stage looking like a true hippie: pants way to big for his long legs, a beanie and tinted sunglasses and stole the audiences’ hearts just minutes into his set. He was folky; he was poetic. He was sexual and downright hilarious. And he would show all of these traits in two songs or less.

He began the show with a brief poem in which the first line was “I am not my father”. As the child of two music sensations (Carly Simon is his mother) Ben has always been placed in their shadow and referred to as the child of… not by name. Well, he broke that Tuesday night. You can’t help but see the similarities between him and his father, be it the voice or even the looks, but he really has separated himself from the preconceptions and created his own natural artistic identity.  I expected a night of good folk music, maybe even some covers of his dad’s music…nope. Like his dad we got a great selection of ballads and stories, but much unlike the content of James’ music. Instead, we got a song about his unborn nephew in his sister’s womb and told us the story about how he bit her toe to try to help her birth the one-month overdue child. We got a song about having a crush on a girl only to realize that it?s the boyfriend that you like. (No he’s not gay. It’s just his “favorite gay song”). On the flip side however we got a song about a sour breakup as well as two songs to showcase his two accompanying musicians, one who played a “dirrrty and perverted” bass guitar and another who played a drum-stool. And we got a few anecdotes about his parents including a story about singing his song “Wicked Way” to his mother. To say the least, he was quite the entertainer. He invited audience participation and even asked for suggestions during his encore. He truly held the stage at the Largo.

He played a wide range of material: some new stuff recently released on his website as part of his 10 weeks of free music promo and lots from his most recent release, The Legend of Kung-Folk Pt. 1 (The Killer Bite) which this show was in support of. The title may be a bit lengthy but it sums up his self-described “folk with a kick” style quite nicely. Taylor’s set was fantastic from beginning to end, highlighting his superb hereditary talent, as well as a wide range of styles, from the James Taylor reminiscent ballads (”Island” and “You Must’ve Fallen”) to the sexual, playful tracks (”Wicked Way”, BT’s seduction track that is equivalent to John Mayer’s “Your Body is a Wonderland”) and even some funky sing-song style like “Wilderness” and “Dirty” (think Jason Mraz).

Just as he opened his show with one, he ended it with a beautiful, strong poem written by a family friend and invited the audience to stick around and hangout after the show. We took his advice, hung out, picked up his cd and chatted for a few minutes. (see the picture above). Chatting with him for just a few minutes, it was easy to tell Taylor has a great head on his shoulders and is one of the most chill and down-to-earth guys in the industry. I highly recommend him.

Nashville via Colorado singer-songwriter Katie Herzig opened and delivered an amazing and powerful set. The small and intimate set-up at the Largo suited her style magically. Herzig was joined onstage by a very animate cellist and bassist/oboe-player. It was her last song of the night “Wish You Well” accompanied by Benjamin Taylor that was truly captivating. It is an incredible piece that overlaps Katie’s soft, and comforting voice with a great string and rhythm accompaniment provided by the cellist and Taylor. It was very evident as Taylor joined Herzig on stage that the two have become close friends on this mini-tour and they gelled together very well. The Ten Out of Tenn member has been rising recently with her single, “Holding Us Back” being featured on the Grey’s Anatomy finale this season. She is certainly on the rise and keep your eyes peeled for her as she is certainly not done touring in 2010. Heck, you may see her come through UCLA Radio before too long!