Rising son Taylor is just folks

James Taylor and Carly Simon are two of the most recognized names in the music business. Between them, the once-married couple sold millions upon millions of records and won more Grammys than four people can carry. They also had two very talented children, one of whom will be at Gravity Lounge Sunday night.

It’s not that Ben Taylor’s music doesn’t stand on its own merit; it’s just hard to overlook the obvious. To be honest, being the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon will definitely get your attention. But it’s up to the son to keep that attention. And he does it quite well, with intellect, charm and a voice that, well … Not since Julian Lennon have I heard a son sound so much like his famous father.

“I image it will always be something that [reporters] ask,” Taylor said of his parents. “On rare occasions I get somebody who is just making a point of not asking because they figure everybody else has asked.”

He laughed with just the hint of cold.

“And usually when they do, I bring it up,” he said. “ ‘You know, there is one thing you haven’t asked.’ No. I’m proud to come from where I come from, and I am delighted to be in the family business.”

It is his third album on Iris Records, “The Legend of Kung Folk, Part 1 (The Killing Bite),” that brings Benjamin Taylor back to Charlottesville.

“Folk music is something I have been struggling to pigeonhole myself into for a number of years, partly because of where my folks come from and what I sound like stylistically,” he explained. “I have so many connotations of middle-aged men in argyle sweater vests coming out of the late ’60s and early ’70s that I totally struggled to stay away from the folk label.”

But at 31, Taylor has grown comfortable in his own skin – except for bad knee that required an MRI earlier this week. (“It’s a collective disregard for the structural integrity of the human body,” he said of his bum leg.)

His CD, however, is a perfectly healthy step in guiding folk in a new direction.

“ ‘Kung Folk’ was my last-minute attempt to try and turn around and embrace it, because I realize that is who I am,” he said. “I do make acoustic singer-songwriter songs. But we figured we would do a little bit of folk with a kick.”

He also said that he has been a longtime Kung Fu practitioner, which also could account for the sore knee.

“Kung Folk” ranges from the intellect of “Wrong” to the flirty fun of “Wicked Way.”

“It was definitely a collaborative process between me and the musicians I hired,” he said “Most of the time after we tracked it, I took it and sat it down in my little room and went crazy with it.”

He worked with producer Frank Filipetti (who has worked on both his parents’ albums) and the likes of vocalist Skye Edwards, keyboardist Jamie Cullum and older sister Sally, who provided vocals on one cut.

“I absolutely knew who I wanted to work with,” he said. “There are certainly a lot of pros and cons of being the son of two phenomenally successful examples of singer-songwriters and such longstanding sort of forces in the industry. But one of the unarguable pros about it is the access you have to the wealth of phenomenal [musicians].”

One can only image the musicians and the music that surrounded young Ben’s formative years. But music was not his first love, even though he picked up a guitar at 11 and is rarely seen without one close by.

“I had many other plans,” he said of his youth. “I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to grow my own vegetables on my own little hippie commune. I wanted to do all kinds of things.

“I wanted to be Jedi,” he added with another wicked laugh. “I think I might go into it, but I don’t think there are too many people my age at the entry level.”

He did take a turn working on an organic farm.

“The first couple of years I went on the road, I was trying like hell to grow my own vegetables and flowers on Martha’s Vineyard, but I came to realize that those are things that need more careful consistent attention than that of a road dog who comes home to water them once every couple of weeks,” he said. But once the young man found his own voice, he had plenty of support … but not in the way one might expect.

“It’s not like kids whose parents do other things,” he said. “They regiment them into strong practical disciplines when they say, ‘You have to play the piano for four hours, otherwise you can’t watch TV.’

“My parents were so careful not to put any undue pressure on me that would ultimately make me pay for it later. It wasn’t until I took up music on my own volition that they said, ‘Hey, good idea.’ ”

He learned his craft by watching, listening and doing.

“I still don’t know the names of the strings,” he said. “I am completely self-taught. I think it is better that way, too. For me, certainly not for everyone. But for me, the understanding that I have built over such a long, long time of hearing this music completely unintellectually, I feel like my relationship with it on my own terms is deeper than it would be even if I went back and studied for 10 years.

“It would be different if I was a working musician or a session musician and I played on a lot of other people’s stuff. Then I would have to learn how to do that. But seeing how I am mostly playing my own songs and the songs on other people’s albums that I produce, I can get away with being extremely self taught.”

Sunday, he will be in town with a couple of friends to share what he’s learned … both with an oh-so-familiar voice and his trusty guitar.

“It’s hard to find me without one,” he said with such a laugh that you swear you could see a grin over the phone line, “except when I go skinning dipping.”