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James Taylor’s barn is pretty lousy for farm living.

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Chocked and stocked with guitars, microphones and high-end recording equipment, there’s not a lick of space for chickens or cows or a lone bale of hay.

But Taylor’s managed to get some good use out of the building despite its thoroughly anti-bovine atmosphere.

Last winter Taylor and his Band of Legends (the name of his touring group of storied players) camped out in his barn in the Berkshires for a 10-day session that produced an album of covers - the cleverly titled “Covers” - that comes out Tuesday.

“I got together with all 12 guys that I tour with in my barn that’s been converted into a studio to get the same energy of a live show,” Taylor said from his home in Washington, Mass. “Everything that we cut I was excited by. So excited that we didn’t need to do overdubs.”

The record’s single overdub was provided by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The rest was recorded live in real time in the barn.

“If we were all in our twenties, this wouldn’t work because we’d all be trying to get our licks in on top of each other,” said Taylor, who turned 60 on March 12. “But everybody listens to each other now. It’s a great luxury to be able to record this way, getting 12 people together at the same time in the same space.”

Even with no original material, the album has an identifiable James Taylor feel. The selections largely bounce between the typical twangy folk of Taylor’s early songs and the later-day mellow adult contemporary stuff - perfect examples being Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” and the George Jones’ number “Why Baby Why.”

The record began as a soul album but evolved as Taylor tossed in more and more songs - the group recorded 21 tracks, 12 of which made the album. The soul-beginnings and the loose, live tone shine on Junior Walker’s “(I’m A) Road Runner” and “Some Days You Gotta Dance,” which Taylor picked up from the Dixie Chicks.

The whole thing was such a gas, Taylor wants to do it all over again next year.

“I wouldn’t mind reconvening this year, or every year, to record another 20 songs,” he said. “I’d like to find an excuse to get the band back together for something. Maybe it will be an album of standards, maybe it will be an album with orchestra, maybe it will be a limited release online.”

Taylor can do any or all of these things. Working without a record contract for the first time since he signed with the Beatles’ Apple Records in 1968, “Covers” was self-financed and is being distributed through Starbucks’ Hear Music label. But as hot as he is for the idea, “Covers 2” might have to wait. Taylor is planning a follow-up to 2002’s “October Road” for 2009.

“That’s the next thing I’m going to do,” he said. “That and a DVD of guitar lessons. I find that a lot of people use my music to teach guitar, and it would be a worthwhile thing to make my technique available from the horse’s mouth. Then I’d like to go back to Japan. And Australians are asking me back. But I’ve never played in Eastern Europe so I’d like to do that. And Spain, I haven’t toured there enough.”

So basically he’s all ready to do another covers record. Just as soon as he records a new album of originals, produces a DVD and plays Tokyo, Sydney, Prague and Madrid.