James Taylor kicks off his 2026 tour this weekend. Here’s the setlist, based on recent shows and tour staples.
James Taylor is heading back out on the road this weekend, with his 2026 North American tour set to kick off on April 26 at Yaamava’ Theater in Highland, California.
The official tour announcement confirms the run begins there before moving through San Diego, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas and beyond, with Taylor also returning for his regular July 3 and 4 Tanglewood dates later in the year.
James Taylor is not exactly a wild-card setlist guy, and his late 2025 shows point to a pretty reliable mix of deep roots cuts, soft-rock staples and the songs that basically everyone came to hear.
Recent sets regularly included ‘Country Road,’ ‘Mexico,’ ‘Carolina in My Mind,’ ‘Up on the Roof,’ ‘You’ve Got a Friend,’ ‘Sweet Baby James’ and ‘Fire and Rain,’ with ‘Steamroller’ still sitting among his most-played live songs overall.
A likely shape for the 2026 set, based on those 2025 performances, looks like this:
James Taylor 2026 setlist
Wandering
Country Road
Walking Man
Stretch of the Highway
Mexico
My Traveling Star
Carolina in My Mind
Up on the Roof
The Frozen Man
You’ve Got a Friend
Sweet Baby James
Fire and Rain
(I’ve Got to) Stop Thinkin’ ’Bout That
Shower the People
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)
Your Smiling Face
That mix lines up with how Taylor has been playing lately: relaxed, polished, heavy on the catalogue, and built around songs that feel just as good in a big theatre as they do in an outdoor shed. His official site is also still billing this run as a tour with his All-Star Band, and the band page continues to list names like Steve Gadd, Lou Marini, Michael Landau, Jimmy Johnson and Luis Conte among the touring lineup.
So while fans will need to wait until April 26, 2026 for the exact opening-night rundown, the smart bet is that this tour will lean on the same formula James Taylor has been refining for years: two hours of warm, beautifully played classics, a few stories in between, and just enough room for a couple of curveballs.
Note: This article will be updated as soon as the official 2026 opening night setlist lands.
Head to his website for full tour dates.
