Livingston Taylor: Life Is Good

Livingston Taylor is a musician, teacher, airplane pilot, and bow-tie aficionado. Tracey Anarella's admiring profile focuses primarily on his 28-year career as a music instructor at Berklee College of Music. Taylor hails from the same prominent North Carolina family as siblings Kate and James Taylor and nephews Ben and Isaac Taylor. Like his older brother, he got his start by playing in coffee shops. Longtime friend Tom Chapin, younger brother of Harry Chapin, remembers performing at an early gig with Livingston and recommending that they bill themselves as "brothers of," but the latter shut that idea down quickly. While James doesn't appear in the documentary, his ex-wife Carly Simon here recalls that "the first Taylor I met was Livingston in 1970 or '69." After three records, Livingston felt he needed a change as his sales had started to slip, so he became a guest instructor at Berklee in 1984, and then a full-time teacher towards the end of the decade. Although he admits that he wasn't a very good student, he loves to teach. And while he never had kids, he spends more time with them than most adults. As he puts it, "I'm not interested in interesting human beings; I’m interested in interested human beings." In addition to his manager, Don Law, and the President of Berklee, Anarella also interviews several of Livingston’s students, including Chelsea Berry, who has been performing with him for the past six years. Livingston and others also sing folk-based songs throughout the film, including the title composition, "Life Is Good." An engaging portrait of a lesser-known artist, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)