A double bass is the best instrument to pair with vocals

Given a choice between James Taylor and polka, I'd choose polka.

@mike_in_nc  Leonard Cohen was a near-incomparable songwriter with an unforgettable, wrenchingly evocative baritone. Where Taylor wrote nothing, Cohen wrote widely and profoundly; where Cohen's work is endlessly covered by others, Taylor made travesty covers of the work of others, Cohen included -- his "interpretations" invariably clueless, lifeless, dumbed-down, always missing both the point and the mood, and recorded with the dynamics of dishrags. Taylor's voice -- a thin, reedy tenor with no range -- wouldn't have made him soloist in your average metropolitan church choir. You ask me to compare a world-class original solo genius vs. a talentless mooch born into the right social class at the right moment, getting through by licking the boots of the great artists: Mark Knopfler, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Elvis Costello, even Neil Young once, who allowed him to perform with them, presumably out of charity? His ex-wife Carly Simon had more talent in her toenails than poor Jim on his best day. Who can imagine Taylor writing or performing something equal to "The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be?"

@crustycoot   Did you not notice that I was asked for a comparison of Taylor with Leonard Cohen? That is what I supplied. Already I had signified that I "didn't like JT," and would happily have let matters rest there.

@mike_in_nc  I'm confident that you will find, if interested, some Cohen covers more to your taste. A band called Brother Wiley recorded a lively, guitar-heavy cover of "First We Take Manhattan" that sheds much of the gloom and bitterness. I brought it up on Qobuz and you could surely do the same. Even the likes of Haydn and Mozart can be allowed four minutes' rest ;-)