POP MUSIC REVIEW : JAMES TAYLOR HAS STILL GOT HIS FRIENDS

Just once, it would be kind of reassuring to see James Taylor appear in public wearing an “I Accelerate for Small Animals” T-shirt or a “Nuke the Whales” button. It’s positively unnerving for one person to be as sensitive and caring as the archetypal introspective singer-songwriter always seems to be.

But Taylor wore nothing so cynically humorous when he casually strolled on stage Tuesday at the Pacific Amphitheatre and greeted 11,000 fans with a disarming, “Hi. Nice night.”

Throughout the rest of his nearly 2 1/2-hour performance, he maintained that warm-hearted, regular-guy attitude, which helps account for his continuing popularity despite the fact he’s released only two albums in the ‘80s.

His show hasn’t changed much in recent years: generous doses of gentle, comforting ballads, with a few modest upbeat numbers to vary the pacing. Tuesday he offered only one new song, which made this year’s set very much like last year’s.

If his concerts by now are predictable, largely unspectacular affairs, Taylor knows it and plays to his strength as an emotional anchor in stormy seas.

The intensity of the audience’s responses--from the squeals when he first came on stage to the ovations that greeted his signature hits “Fire and Rain” and “You’ve Got a Friend”--demonstrated what a strong emotional chord his music evokes under its mellow surface.

One might carp that Taylor should inject more dynamics and variation in tempos to provide more contrast to the numerous loping ballads. But then, anyone who’d complain about a guy who can do a 15-minute monologue about a 650-pound pig and then sing a heart-wrenching ode to the departed pet--well, the complainer would have to be an insensitive boar . . . uh, boor .