James Taylor — “Bartender’s Blues”: A Toast to George Jones

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1977 · Behind the Songs

A folk star writes a country song for his hero — and the hero answers.

A saloon interior in 1897.
A saloon interior in 1897 — the world of the bartender’s blues. Photo: Unknown photographer, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Source · Public domain. Display resized; no retouching.

JT (1977) was James Taylor’s first album for Columbia Records after his Warner Bros. years, and its sleeper deep cut is a straight honky-tonk weeper. Taylor wrote “Bartender’s Blues” out of open admiration for George Jones, the owner of country’s most expressive voice — and he wrote it with a specific wish in mind: that Jones himself would one day record it.

A bartender pouring at Charlie’s Tavern, New York, between 1946 and 1948.
A bartender pouring at Charlie’s Tavern, New York, between 1946 and 1948 — the era’s watering holes. Photo: The Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Source · Public domain. Display resized; no retouching.

Jones obliged. He cut the song as a duet with Taylor for his 1979 duets album My Very Special Guests, handing the songwriter the highest compliment one singer can pay another. The track remains a favorite with Taylor’s country-leaning listeners, proof that his plainspoken delivery could sit comfortably on a barstool next to the real thing.

Listening observations are original Past Tunes interpretation. Photographs reproduced under the reuse terms shown in their captions.

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