James Taylor loves touring -- not just being on stage, but everything from the long bus rides to the fans clamoring for an autograph. If a trek every year or so to one of his outdoor gigs is a kind of homecoming for much of his audience, it's not so different for him.

JAMES TAYLOR Where: Post-Gazette Pavilion, Burgettstown. When: 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $20, $39.50, $55, $69.50; 412-323-1919.

"Particularly with these summer tours, this is something we've been doing for a while. And I know these places," Taylor, 57, says in his quiet, understated fashion via phone from his home in the Berkshire Mountains. "And generally speaking, I know these audiences, too. It's always new, it's always a different thing going out, but there's a familiarity with it, too.

"I think it's a matter of pacing. If you can go out for a couple of weeks and then make it home and recover a little bit and make it back out, I actually love riding on the bus. Because the people I play with are also my friends, and we go back a long time."

Yes, a long time. The son of a Southern doctor and his musical Yankee wife, Taylor was raised in Chapel Hill, N.C., with summers spent on Martha's Vineyard. He got his break in 1967 in London, when Paul McCartney and Peter Asher signed him to Apple Records, the label that issued his debut LP in 1968.

Asher took Taylor to Warner Bros. after Apple crumbled, and the hits began in earnest with the release of "Sweet Baby James" in March 1970: "Fire and Rain," of course, "Country Road" and 13 more studio albums for Warner and Columbia with hits like "You've Got a Friend," "How Sweet It Is" and "Your Smiling Face."

Taylor also made a live CD and two "greatest hits" collections, the first of which has sold more than 11 million copies. His newer records may not get played on radio much, but they still sell.

His latest, 2002's "October Road," has gone platinum, and, more important than the numbers, a case can be made that he's doing some of his best work later in his career rather than earlier. His signature low-tenor croon is fuller; his distinctively jazzy, syncopated guitar style a little more intricate; the harmonies even sweeter and more sure. Musically and lyrically, tunes like "The Fourth of July," "My Traveling Star" and "Belfast to Boston" cut as deep as anything he's done.

When Taylor heads out on the road, there's one more thing he looks forward to -- his fans. He's reminded of a night 15 years ago at the now-demolished Syria Mosque in Oakland, when Taylor took more than an hour after the show to say a few words to each fan in a long line waiting for him by the bus.

"I certainly don't do it every night, but often on the way to the bus after the show there will be some people there, and they've taken the trouble to come back [behind the stage], to come to the show in the first place, so that matters. It seems like it's not too much to ask to have a few words.

"I think basically what I would say is that I like my audience, you know? And I've come to realize over time that that's a rare and a positive thing, to like the people who come to your shows. Because some acts don't. Some acts don't want to see 'em; they just want to be shut out of it and get out of there. But my experience has generally been that they're just like me. And it makes me feel good to meet some of them occasionally."

Because many in his audience are repeat customers, Taylor tries to strike a balance between playing the hits and offering something new, like the Ray Charles tribute he'll probably play Saturday at the Post-Gazette Pavilion.

The song list also factors in nature's lighting technicians. "The sun's setting, the show starts in daylight, and it ends in darkness, so there's a lighting and staging thing."

Sometimes the weather throws a curve: "I've played as hot as 110, maybe hotter under the lights. That was in Tucson, maybe 15 years ago. And it was 15 degrees for 'The Star-Spangled Banner' in Foxboro Stadium for a New England Patriots playoff game.

Taylor always performs a few tunes solo, and others that give his kickin' band a chance to stretch out and blow. Which brings us to this year's players: Steve Gadd and Luis Conte, drums and percussion; Jimmy Johnson, bass; Mike Landau, guitar; Larry Goldings, piano and keyboards; Lou Marini, sax; Walt Fowler, trumpet; singers Arnold McCuller and Kate Markowitz; and a new face, vocalist/violinist Andrea Zonn. McCuller has been touring with Taylor the longest, since 1977.

The summer shed tours, playing to 20,000 people or so per night, have made Taylor one of the highest-grossing acts in pop music. In 2003, for example, he earned $27 million from 65 shows, according to Billboard magazine. In 2001, he was No. 19 on the year-end list of money-makers, according to Pollstar magazine, taking in $23 million.

Amphitheaters aren't Taylor's only live venues. In Europe, he tours with a four- or five-piece band, playing 3,000-seat theaters. He also plays solo, often at benefits for charities and political candidates, such as his work for John Kerry, which brought him to Pittsburgh last year with the Dixie Chicks.

He also performs with orchestras -- including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

"They were great. We did a four-day run in Pittsburgh, which was the longest that we stayed in any one place. That sound, the support of all of those players -- you know, you can't expect a symphony orchestra to make very tight turns, not unless it's Mahler or Mussorgsky, but the body of the sound, it's just miraculous."

Perhaps one reason Taylor is partial to orchestras is that he met his third wife, Caroline, while he was working with the Boston Symphony, where she is an executive. They have two children -- twin boys, now 4. In addition, Taylor has two grown-up children, Ben and Sally (both musicians), with his first wife, Carly Simon.

Taylor's work with classical musicians extends to recordings, including crossover CDs with some of his eclectic label mates at Sony/Columbia, including Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Marc O'Connor. The four perform an instrumental called "Benjamin," written by Taylor for his son Ben, on a CD called "Appalachian Journey."

Taylor playing with Yo-Yo Ma? There's something about his sound that seems to blend with a wide assortment of musicians. He's been a guest on hundreds of recordings, from Michael Brecker to Manhattan Transfer to Elton John, from Mark Knopfler to Randy Newman to Milton Nascimento.

He listens to and learns from musicians he plays with, such as the late Don Grolnick, the arranger/producer/pianist who led Taylor's band on a number of tours until his death in 1996, and John Williams, the film composer and conductor of the Boston Pops.

He admires the vocal harmonies of Steely Dan, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles and Bobby McFerrin, and he talks about the challenge of creating intricate harmonies on his recordings: "You know, I continually bump into the limitations of my musical education. I can't write these things down, and if I could, if I could actually just score them on paper. ... The process is exhausting, to try to get people to vary things ever so slightly. If I had the ability to write and read music in anything but a completely rudimentary way ... but it's my passion."

Despite his success in the sheds, he feels the pull of smaller venues -- smaller-band and solo work and performing with symphonies.

"You know, I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to continue to play these big tours. It's a lot of people to play to, and it's a lot of people to have on the road. There are 35 or 40 of us out, and there's four buses and three trucks. It's almost like a military campaign.

"I don't know. ... There are people like Ray Charles or Tony Bennett or Ernest Tubb or any number of country singers or blues singers, B.B. King -- you can look at them and say, 'Well, they're still at it. They're in their mid-70s, what the hell? Let's do it as long as the thing rolls.' But on the other hand, back when I started out, I didn't think I'd still be at it in my late 50s. I can't tell.

"But you know I get so excited at the prospect of doing it again. I'm excited about one more time around."