Review | James Taylor: Sunny Day Man, Still on Fire

He’s seen fire, he’s seen rain. He’s seen sunny days he thought would never end, and lonely times when he could not find a friend. And James Taylor is in the ongoing journey of a career spanning six decades and stoking a reputation as a pioneer singer-songwriter known for hiring a good band and putting on an engaging live show.

And we got another one at the Santa Barbara Bowl last Wednesday, confirming what we know of his profound artistry, even if not breaking any new ground.

When Taylor was previously at the Bowl — a particularly synchronistic venue for what he does, incidentally, where he pulled a two-night stint last year (see review here) — Taylor opened with a handful of songs related to travel. In the 2026 model, he commenced on the theme of recovery and addiction-related songs. “That’s part of my story,” said the longtime clean and sober Taylor. The recovery portion of the evening included “Whenever You’re Ready,” “That’s Why I’m Here,” and “Rainy Day Man,” which he called, “a love letter to my dealer.”

He also joked, “From the beginning, I’ve been writing ‘end of my life in show business’ songs.” Thankfully, those were not self-fulfilling prophecies. He has also been writing songs taking on many subjects, not just recovery or romantic concerns: his tune “Line ‘Em Up,” for instance, takes as its thematic angle, Richard Nixon’s fateful departure from his White House tenure. Introducing the song, Taylor half-joked, “I never thought I’d hear myself say, ‘I miss Richard Nixon,’” a sly lament about Trump-era life most of us could relate to.

Despite the dark passageways in some of his songs, often more in the lyrical department than the musical one, Taylor has shown a unique capacity for projecting a hopeful and positive message through his music. He can sincerely sell and move us on the potentially sentimental stuff of a song like “Shower the People” (“…you love with love”). That tune included a soulful spotlight turn by background singer Dorian Holley.

Taylor was also especially funny and chatty this time out, even when drawing on familiar gags — cheekily showing us his chalkboard set list, switching his fedora for a busman’s cap and quipping, “That’s my costume change.”

One of the powerful lures of a James Taylor concert, beyond Taylor himself, is the strong company he keeps, and hires. Taylor’s band featured some of the stellar musicians around, with respected status in studio, jazz, and other worlds — including pianist-organist Larry Goldings, trumpeter Walt Fowler, guitarist Michael Landau, and powerhouse drummer Chad Wackerman, who mostly stayed in the rhythm section pocket, but then busted out his virtuosic chops on “Country Road”). Wackerman and Fowler, for the record, boast resumes with stints playing with Frank Zappa, a job requiring a high bar of musicianship, but they know how to tailor their work to the job at hand. 

In the last segment of the set list, Taylor dove into what amounted to a care package of “greatest hits,” but which transcend mere knee-jerk radio play familiarity and touch deeper than most pop music. That’s what makes him timelessly moving and an important pioneer of the singer-songwriter movement going back to the late ‘60s, and his pre-celebrity days with Apple Records.

Of special interest, tellingly, was his essentially career-launching hit “Fire and Rain” — another “rehab” song, about a friend lost to drugs, and which urban legend had it was written while Taylor was in a stint in nearby Camarillo State Hospital. At the Bowl, Taylor sang it in a deep and heartfelt way, not as a going-through-the-motions necessity. He sang it like he means it — and maybe means it in a different, deeper way with the years.

Among the James jewels in the last phase of the concert were “Carolina on My Mind,” and the inspiring and intricately structured MLK tribute “Shed a Little Light” (with an impressive vocal turn by his tall and talented son Ben). Encore time brought out more life-affirmative songbook gems — his pop-spirited recasting of Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is” and “Secret of Life.”

Yes, to quote the lyric, the secret of life may well be “enjoying the passage of time.” For instance, time spent soaking in the warming bath of a James Taylor concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Until next time….