After spending most of the year on a tour that has already visited Australia, Europe and a large portion of North America, folk-pop mainstay James Taylor [ tickets ] is expected to wind down his outing in October.

Taylor is a seasoned road warrior who had scaled back his touring efforts in recent years, but he'll have hit more than 50 cities in North America alone by the end of October.

On his current tour, Taylor has been playing two hour-long sets. The first focuses on his latest album, "October Road," and on material from the two studio albums he released in the '90s, according to various reports. In the second set, Taylor focuses on his older hits.

"October Road" hit stores last August, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Earlier this year, the "October Road" track "Mean Old Man" won arranger Dave Grusin a GRAMMY^® award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist. The title track was nominated in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category, an award that went to John Mayer.

In 2001, Taylor picked up the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance trophy for "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," a track from Michael Brecker's "Nearness of You" collection. He won his first GRAMMY in 1971 for his recording of Carole King's "You've Got A Friend," and another in 1977 for his rendition of Jimmy Jones' "Handy Man."

His 1998 album "Hourglass" won GRAMMYs in the Best Pop Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical categories.

Columbia Music Video released last November a new DVD and VHS titled "Pull Over," which was recorded during Taylor's 2001 tour. On April 8, Warner Bros. issued the 20-track anthology album "The Best of James Taylor."

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