American Standard (James Taylor album)

American Standard is the twentieth studio album by American singer-songwriter James Taylor, released on February 28, 2020, by Fantasy Records. It consists of his interpretations of standard songs from the American canon. It won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

This album was produced, recorded and mixed by Dave O'Donnell and co-produced by John Pizzarelli and James Taylor. Mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound Nashville.

Critical reception
American Standard received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 60, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 8 reviews.

Musicians

 * James Taylor – vocals, guitar
 * Larry Goldings – keyboards, piano, Hammond B3 organ
 * John Pizzarelli – guitars, 7-string nylon guitar
 * Jerry Douglas – dobro
 * Jimmy Johnson – bass
 * Michael Landau – guitars
 * Viktor Krauss – upright bass
 * Steve Gadd – drums
 * Luis Conte – percussion
 * Lou Marini – saxophones, flute, clarinet
 * Walt Fowler – trumpets, flugelhorn
 * Stuart Duncan – violin
 * Andrea Zonn – violin, vocals
 * Dorian Holley – vocals
 * Kate Markowitz – vocals
 * Arnold McCuller – vocals
 * Caroline Taylor – vocals (14)

Production

 * James Taylor – producer
 * John Pizzarelli – producer
 * Dave O'Donnell – producer, engineer, mixing
 * Sean Badum – assistant engineer
 * Brandon Epps – assistant engineer
 * Chandler Harrod – assistant engineer
 * Tyler Hartman – assistant engineer
 * Jimmy Johnson – assistant engineer
 * Robbie Kapoor – assistant engineer
 * Rick Kwan – assistant engineer
 * Ted Jensen – mastering at Sterling Sound (Nashville, TN)
 * Justin Shturtz – mastering assistant
 * Ryan Smith – additional mastering for vinyl at Sterling Sound
 * JoAnn Tominaga – production coordinator
 * Norman Seeff – front cover photography
 * Ellyn Kusmin – back cover and booklet photography, personal assistant, director of studio operations
 * Carrie Smith – art direction, design