Legendary Musician James Taylor To Perform In Riverside County

COACHELLA VALLEY, CA — Iconic singer-songwriter and guitarist James Taylor announced he will perform in Riverside County next year, and tickets for the concert go on sale Friday, Dec. 13.

The six-time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee will take the stage at Acrisure Arena in Greater Palm Springs on May 7. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. Supporting Taylor will be Tiny Habits, a Boston-bred band that released its debut album in May, "All For Something," via the Mom + Pop Music label.

Part of the folk music movement of the 1960s and early 70s, Taylor achieved his breakthrough with the No. 3 single "Fire and Rain" (1970) and had his first No. 1 hit in 1971 with his recording of "You've Got a Friend", written by Carole King the same year.

Taylor, 76, is also known for covers such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)"(1975) and "Handy Man," (1977), as well as originals such as "Sweet Baby James" (1970).

His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold over 11 million copies in the U.S. Every album he released from 1977 to 2007 sold over 1 million copies, and he enjoyed a resurgence in chart performance during the late 1990s and 2000s.

Taylor was one of many artists who came to L.A.'s Laurel Canyon during the mid to late 1960s and helped birth a music scene there. How these artists' creations reverberated worldwide is laid out in the 2018 documentary, "Echo in the Canyon," hosted by Bob Dylan's son, Jakob, and directed by Andrew Slater.

In 2020, Taylor talked about his time in Laurel Canyon with the Guardian newspaper.

"It really was a perfect moment, that Laurel Canyon period," Taylor said. "Carole [King] lived up there, Joni [Mitchell] and I lived in her house there for the better part of a year. The record companies were relatively benign and there were people in them who cared about the music and the artists – it hadn’t become a corporate monolith yet. There was a sense of there being a community: myself, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Crosby, Stills and Nash. David Geffen was in the mix a lot. Linda Ronstadt, Peter Asher, Harry Nilsson. You know, it was pretty much what they say. Things really worked well."

Harmonies and guitar work from the Laurel Canyon period have influenced contemporary bands like Mumford and Sons, the Avett Brothers, Dawes, Haim, Wilco, the Jayhawks and the Civil Wars

In 2015, Taylor was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

In early 2020 Taylor released "Break Shot," a deeply personal audio-only memoir detailing his first 21 years.

In 2021, Taylor earned a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for "American Standard," his 19th studio album.

Tickets for Taylor's Riverside County performance can be purchased starting at 10 a.m. Dec. 13 at ticketmaster.com, the official ticketing provider of Acrisure Arena.