The Making of a Friendship

Singer, songwriter and musician Taylor Barton can still recall the night in the mid-1990s when she opened for Jorma Kaukonen at the Bottom Line in New York City, which was also the night he and fellow-guitarist G.E. Smith, Barton’s husband, met for the first time.

“What was hilarious is that his Hell’s Angels posse came to the gig and I thought if I stopped singing, they’d destroy me,” recalled Barton, who continued straight through her set without pause so they wouldn’t get the chance. “When I came off stage, Jorma said, ‘You’re the first girl that didn’t cry.’

The three musicians became friends that very night.

“Jorma and G.E. completely hit it off and away we went,” added Barton. “We are of the same tribe. I think he has that effect on people. Jorma doesn’t judge a thing and only has wisdom and glorious melodies to offer. I would even go as far to say at a rough patch in my life, I called Jorma and [his wife] Vanessa to help me.

“Another thing we have in common is we both have adopted children from China,” Barton said. “[Our daughter] Josie came first and Vanessa would call and ask questions and [their daughter] Izze came a couple years later and we share a love of our little girls.”

“We both listened to a lot of the same music when we were growing up,” said Smith when asked about his friendship with Kaukonen. “When Jorma first got known in Jefferson Airplane, of course I was listening to that and learning all of it and playing it. There are hundreds of songs we both know, it’s always really easy to play together.”

The all acoustic “Portraits” show with G.E. Smith and Jorma Kaukonen at The Church in Sag Harbor on December 15 will be a fluid set that will be decided shortly beforehand.

“We won’t’ spend a whole lot of time rehearsing, maybe in the afternoon we’ll go over some new things that I haven’t heard and he’ll run it by me. But we’ve been rehearsing for our whole lives.

“I love playing a song I’ve never heard before where you have to go by the seat of you pants,” Smith added. “I might bring a mandolin. Most mandolin players play bluegrass, but there’s a nice tradition of blues mandolin and I’ve leaned toward that. I think this will pretty much be Jorma’s choice, and that will be fine with me.”

“We were very excited to put this together and this show feels organic,” said Barton, producer of the “Portraits” series which has been presented at theaters across the East End and has included guests like The Avett Brothers, Roger Waters, Billy Squier, Dawes and others.

“I am so excited to bring ‘Portraits’ to The Church,” Barton added. “Between Jorma and G.E., it’ll be a perfect music night.”