HENDERSONVILLE — After the near sell-out audience cheered and gave a highly enthused standing ovation at the end of the show “A Tribute to Carole King and James Taylor,” the band performed a rousing encore featuring the classic “You’ve Got a Friend” on July 7 at Flat Rock Playhouse’s downtown Hendersonville venue.

Despite a second standing ovation and the cheering crowd pleading for “more, more, more,” the tribute band thanked the crowd for its enthusiastic response and wished everyone goodnight. As the group left the stage, the 219 people in attendance (there were 235 seats) gave up at that point on seeking another encore and departed, mostly with broad smiles.

The show — part of the Music on the Rock series — was comprised of two 45-minute sets.

The tribute performance opened with a rendition of Taylor’s moving “Something in the Way She Moves” and the first set ended with the stellar “Beautiful.”

Among the other highlights of the first set were Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” King’s “Cryin’ in the Rain,” which was performed in the style of the Everly Brothers, for whom it had been written and was a hit — and Taylor’s “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight.” Other first-set standout songs included “So Far Away” and “Country Road.”

The second — and final — set began with the lively King classic, “I Feel the Earth Move” and built to a crescendo with King’s smoldering “It’s Too Late” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” followed by Taylor’s “Carolina in My Mind,” which especially was cheered by the crowd, presumably because of its Tar Heel subject. The regular show ended with the fun song, “Steamroller Blues,” during which the crowd erupted with delight.

Playing Taylor  to a “T” was Ryan Guerra, who recently appeared in the Playhouse’s “Always ... Patsy Cline,” and has appeared in other FRP musical tributes for Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, Kansas, the Beatles and others. He had the guitar-playing down, along with terrific Taylor vocal inflections. 

Guerra, who also served as music director, sang lead on all Taylor vocals, and played acoustic and electric guitars, violin and piano.

Performing as King was Jane Bunting, who has performed leading roles in FRP productions of “Evita” and “Les Miserables,” and has sung in several Music on the Rock shows.

Bunting performed all of King’s vocals, played piano and was good in the role, but lacked the requisite range on some songs. Yet she was superb on others, such as “It’s Too Late.”

In addition to Guerra and Bunting, the ultra-tight-sounding band included a superb drummer, Gabe Rohmann, who also chipped in top-notch three-part harmony to the show’s two lead singers. Other band members included Bill Altman, pedal steel, electric guitar and 12-string acoustic guitar; and Charles Holland, bass.

The show, which ran Aug. 6-16, sold-out almost nightly. Originally, the tribute concert was to run for one week, but overwhelming ticket demand prompted the FRP management to extend the show over two weeks.

King and Taylor first collaborated more than 40 years ago with hits such as “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Fire and Rain,” “Sweet Baby James” and “You Can Close Your Eyes.”

Besides performing the songs, Guerra and Bunting provided — briefly but steadily throughout the show — valuable biographical details on King and Taylor.