Jackson Browne rocks - all by himself
I was lucky to be one of the people in the audience last night, with my husband Bob, at the Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa (yes I know it's the Wells Fargo Center now but it will always be the Luther Burbank to me) for "An Evening with Jackson Browne," an entirely acoustic event. And that's what it was: Browne, his guitar, his piano, a straight-backed wooden chair and nothing else. Actually there were 15 guitars that I counted, all lined up on a long stand with their hard-sided cases all lined up behind them. Each one was tuned to particular songs, which was a wonderful change from the constant retuning of the guitar that solo artists often have to do before starting the next song.
Anyway, Browne - a little whiskey-voiced and wheezy at times, still sang his heart out in the voice every person in that room was thoroughly familiar with. Except for a salt and pepper beard, Browne looks exactly as he has since the beginning of his career, with the same pin-straight dark brown hair parted on one side and falling into his eyes.
The evening began as he walked, without announcement, onto the bare stage (thank you for no oriental rugs, back drops or other props) at 8:15 p.m. and except for one 15 minute break, sang and played until 11:15. Browne got more relaxed and chatty as the evening progressed and by the final chorus of the final song, "Stay" he had made you feel like you were sitting in each other's living rooms playing your favorites.
Browne did practically every song that was requested - and between each song came a cacophony of brayed requests, so much so that audience members started telling each other to be quiet and just let the guy play what he wanted. Browne, however, didn't seem to mind and in fact said the audience was making it easy on him, relieving him of having to decide what to play next. Except for two new songs - one about "Time" that was that wonderful Browne mixture of philosophy and extraordinary melodic percussion, all the songs were Browne classics. From early songs like "Doctor My Eyes" and "Jamaica Say You Will", to later songs like "Lawless Avenue" and "Looking East," and everything in between ("The Pretender," "Late for the Sky," "For A Dancer" you name it - Browne's fine guitar playing and full piano arrangements made you forget that many of these songs were produced with large rock n roll bands.
Admitting that the Internet era made him anxious about what he said on stage - that it would be read back to him on-line everywhere - he soon lost whatever inhibitions he had and spoke freely about things that, it seemed, were occurring to him at the moment.
Things had already begun to loosen up earlier when one fan shouted for him to sing "Redneck Girlfriend." He did a double take and then laughed. "Redneck Girlfriend?" and then proceeded to sing the song about "My Redneck Friend" exchanging "girlfriend" each time in the chorus to loud laughter and cheers.
When someone wanted to hear "Rosie," he began the song and then had to stop himself with a chuckle after the opening line about Rosie "She was sniffing all around like a half grown female pup" and admitted "Hey, I have to live with having written that line."
There were tales of a trip to Amsterdam, being on the road, and even a compliment to Northern California, where he said, he could easily have envisioned himself ending up like so many of his LA area friends have.
"It's not too late" the audience called back to him.
All in all it was an amazing performance and certainly memorable for me as Jackson Browne's music is basically the soundtrack to my life.
I traveled back to romance in Red Bank New Jersey, a winter on Fire Island, playing in a band in Michigan, sharing a river view apartment in New York with an extraordinary blind 80-something woman, sitting up for hours with my (now) husband, making friends for life.
Jackson Browne was right there the whole way.
(Note to the folks at Luther Burbank: If you let people keep wandering in after the stated show time, all your shows, like this one, will start late. If you close the doors at 8 p.m. and make people wait until the first break between songs, people will actually make sure they're in their seats on time.)