Russ,

I love your website. I hope you always keep it up.

Jackson Browne and his words, have lived in my heart for many many years. He is my favorite. Over the years, I have spent plenty of time waiting in line for a chance to hear and see his magic. I haven't missed one of his concerts here in Memphis. I hope he will visit us here again in the future. He is the best.

Hot time! Summer in the City!

Was fortunate to see CSN in New York at the Beacon Theater and of course it was wonderful. We made our way to the theater around 6:00 and waited at the side door for the boys to arrive. While there I met another avid Jackson fan and spent the better part of an hour and a half comparing notes on concerts we had both attended. This poor women doesn't dabble in computers and doesn't read this site or the Yahoo site! I couldn't imagine that. It was great fun to meet a fellow fan and talk JB, but the best was yet to come.

The concert was really rocking and David decided to slow it down a bit and tell some stories about the songs he has written. He said, "this song would have never been written if not for my friend Jackson Browne". He went on to say that the song was painful for him to sing but he feels it has a great message. He said it was written at a particularly low time in his life. He said it was when getting high really meant getting low. He said he was working on a song and one day when Jackson was visiting he showed it to him. He said Jackson said the song was really good and he should finish it. David said he couldn't finish it because he didn't have a piano. Jackson said, "Well sure you do", and then drove David to Warren Zevon's. David called him one of the good guys (Zevon). Anyway, according to the story, Jackson wouldn't let David get up from the piano until the song was finished. David eluded to the fact that if Jackson wasn't there he would have never been disciplined enoughÝto finish the song, at that time in his life. The song was "Delta". Beautiful.

Don't you just love when these artist share so much of their lives with us? Don't you just love when the sharing is about your favorite artist? I was thrilled.

The interactive atmosphere of Boulder's marvelous Fox Theatre,with 3 bars within sight of the stage and cocktail waitresses working their way through the crowd would seem to be the worst possible place for a solo acoustic performance by anyone, even Jacskon Browne.

But last night Jackson had the audience in the Fox Theatre in the palm of hand. During_every_one of his songs you could have heard the proverbial pin drop. The audience was rapt in attention for every song as Jackson wove his acoustic magic.

The Fox is a unique venue created from a former movie theater in any area called University Hill, almost directly across the street from Univerity of Colorado campus. The Fox was a small movie theatre and has been converted into an unorthodox venue, which was crammed with probably 600 people. The venue has_no_seats, although there are benches along the sides on which around 60 people can perch. Directly in front of the stage, which is where the movie screen would have been, is a pit probably 25 feet wide by 20 feet deep where the audience stands. Immediately in back of this pit is another raised pit of approximately the same size. On both sides of these 2 pits are a pair of rails running parallel to the side walls on which people can lean, and behind these are the benches on the side walls. Immediately behind the pits is sound and light area with THREE bars immediately behind and to the sides of that and in sight of the stage. Above the central bar is an area about 25 feet by 8 feet where more people can stand with space for additional people in the former projection room behind that. No one in the theatre (except those in the projection room) is more than than 40 feet from the stage.

Master guitarist Leo Kottke and Phish founder and bassist Mark Gordon opened the show with a 45-minute set. The introduction of the duo was given with the request that since the evening's entire show was acooustic anyone who had anything to say should take it outside. Just requesting this often is not enough, but with the small, somewhat out-of-the-way location for this show, the audience was probably 500 devout Jackson fans--many of whom were seeing Jackson perform acoustically for the first time--along with the 100 or so radio conventioneers for whom the concert was conceived. All were more than willing to comply, and while most were only politely interested in the opening set, they were all politely attentive.

When Jackson came on stage unannounced at about 9:45, he was met with a tremendous welcoming ovation. Carrying one of his 12 guitars, Jackson said that he normally made it a practice not to follow such a talented guitarist, especially one that could do everything on just one guitar (although actually Kottke used both a 12-string and a 6-string guitar).

Jackson immediately launched into The Barricades of Heaven and hadn't played more than a small portion of the song before everyone had forgotten about Leo Kottke. The warmth of the Jackson's guitar and the melodious picking quickly mesmerized the entire group almost as one. And things only got better from there.

Rather than give you a blow-by-blow, song-by-song rundown of the show. I'll try to share some of the highlights with you.

I arrived at the theatre at 4:50 P.M. with the doors scheduled to open at 7:30 and found 8 people there ahead of me. The first couple in line had arrived a little bit after noon. By the time the doors opened 10 minutes early, the line extended to the end of the block and around the corner. Everyone entered in a relaxed orderly manner with no mad rush for places inside.

During the show Jackson performed 18 songs during his original set and two more for his encore. About 1/3 of the way into the show, Jackson brought out his "god-daughter" Inara George (Lowells' daughter and the subject of Jackson's song Of Missing Persons). Together, they performed 2 songs--The Fairest of the Seasons (Nico's version was a part of the soundtrack of The Royal Tenenbaums) and A Day (which is the opening song on Inara's new cd). On both songs, Jackson performed basically as the lead guitarist and backup/duet singer while Inara sang the lead vocals and also played guitar.

Later during the set, Jackson brought out Sara and Sean Watkins, 2 of the 3 members of the wonderful group Nickel Creek. Jackson explained that he had seen Nickel Creek perform earlier in the day and that more than once he has seen them at a club called Largo in Los Angeles. He said that he had even sat in with them there from time to time. Before the performance was over siblings Sarah (violin and vocals) and Sean (guitar) would perform 5 songs with Jackson, including the 2 encores.

During the performance, Jackson, as usual, shared several tidbits with the audience. I'll try to repeat the ones I remember that Jackson hasn't chatted about many times before. Especially at the beginning of the performance, Jackson had less to say than usual.

For starters, Jackson told the audience that he had stopped making setlists so that he didn't have to sit around backstage for an hour preceding the show trying decide what order to play then, but received very little response. It wasn't until the last third or so of the concert that people began calling for songs and, even then, it was very polite. This made me think that there were a lot of acoustic-show first-timers in the audience. The audience responded enthusiastically to every song, but seemed to give its greatest response to Lives in the Balance, even though it was only the third song of the set. Everyone just seemed especially receptive to the message of the song in the context of today's world political climate.

Jackson introduced his seventh song of the evening by saying he was going to play a drinking song, and that although his hands would be busy on the guitar, the audience should picture him waving a mug of beer while he sang. The song--The Naked Ride Home.

At one point in the show, he told the audience that he has been working on a song about Colorado, but that he wasn't really close to ready to perform it yet. He added that Colorado deserved a song.

Before starting Alive in the World, he dedicated the song to Marc Cohn who had "dodged a bullet" and survived 2 nights before. Actually, if you are not familiar with what happened, a fleeing felon who has since been caught, tried to carjack the van Cohn was riding in. When Cohn's driver tried to speed away, the man fired shots into the van, one of them brushed the driver and a seat before striking Cohn directly in the temple but not penetrating his skull. Jackson added that he has long thought Cohn is one of the luckiest men in the world.

Incidentally, although Cohn is now allright, he was forced to cancel the final 5 concerts of his tour, one of which was Tuesday night in Lawrence, KS. I gave up my tickets to that show to drive to Boulder and see Jackson.

Once an audience member yelled out Freebird (wasn't that passe' about 50 years ago) and Jackson responded, "You'd better watch what you ask for, I know Freebird." Moments later he launched into a couple of bars of the song before performing a real masterpiece--Sky Blue and Black.

When the audience finally starting politely yelling out for songs, Jackson thought for more than a just a few seconds. Someone yelled, "Tell a joke!" Jackson asked in anyone had seen the movie The Aristocrats, saying the whole movie was a joke. He then responded, "Here's a song nobody called for" and played a captivating version of Never Stop, which I believe most of the crowd had never heard acoustically before.

Jackson performed Mutineer after someone in the back of the audience yelled out, "Zevon!"

Introducing My Stunning Mystery Companion, Jackson explained how the song was for his "girl friend." He said she wasn't there, but her father was so he was on his best behavior. He added that when she had told him she didn't want to get married, he was so relieved that he forgot to ask her why.

Jackson introduced his final encore, Take It Easy, by saying it was a song that all but a few people in the world new and that Jack Johnson was one of the few. He added that Johnson had played along anyway. This seemed to be a strong clue to the audience, who reponded by enthusiastically making the song a singalong from the very start.

Wish you all could have been there. I think I've buried in the details the overall impression I wanted to give to begin with. Jackson performed one of his finest concerts and the audience totally captivated by his performance. The wonderful acoustics of the venue only added to the enjoyment. And by the time he had finished, he had made the initial introduction of Nickel Creek and Inara George to many audience members. In addition, the audience was treated to 3 songs I believe Jackson has never before performed in public--Bob Dylan's She Belongs to Me (a marvelous version), The Fairest of the Seasons, and A Day. No one in the crowd could have gone home with anything but the warmest of feelings for Jackson and an evening of music to cherish and remember for a lifetime.

Here's the complete setlist:

1. The Barricades of Heaven
2. For Everyman
3. Lives in the Balance
4. The Pretender
5. The Fairest of the Fair (w/ Inara George)--from The Royal Tenenbaums
6. A Day (w/ Inara George)
7. The Naked Ride Home
8. I Thought I Was a Child
9. Your Bright Baby Blues
10. These Days (w/ Sara and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek)
11. She Belongs to Me (w/ the Watkins)
12. Man of Constant Sorrow (w/ the Watkins)
13. Alive in the World
14. Sky Blue and Black
15. Never Stop
16. Mutineer
17. Running on Empty
18. I Am a Patriot
Encores:
19. My Stunning Mystery Companion (w/ the Watkins)
20. Take It Easy (w/ the Watkins)

By the way, Jackson recommended (and I would, too) that everyone should check out Nickel Creek's new album, Why Should the Fire Die?(which arrived in stores Monday). I would further recommend those of you who are thinking about it to possibly download or sample the song Doubting Thomas (my favorite) from the album (their third). Checking earlier today, I see that the album is on sale for $10.99--an $8.00 discount--at Amazon.com.

Respectfully submitted,

I attended the Jackson and Tom Petty concert last night. Yikes I pulled up and saw the sign and I was shell shocked to see Jackson in small print, well my intentions were to see Jackson, even though Tom was pretty good. The place was packed, and I was in the festival seating area, so not your typical Jackson concert. I swore I will not go see him unless he is the MAIN ACT. There were so many young kids there, they talked the whole time Jackson was playing, I am not a fighting kinda gal, but I did not hesitate to tell a few young ones to keep it quiet.... I love seeing Jackson whenever I can.. next time I will attend the concerts with him and only him. To add another note when we entered the concert the guy at the front asked if I had any medication in my purse... sheeeesh did I feel old or what ??

Love ya Jackson and you always put on a good show.. just hate when you are not the "spotlight"

Hi,

I was soo happy to hear Jackson Browne for the first time. I thought he could give Tom Petty a run for his money.

I think I have a new interest in JB and will certain make his music available to me. I am definetely a fan of his from now on.

Russ,

I can't express what a pleasure it was to have Jackson Browne and his band perform in Telluride this summer (2005). I can only imagine what his band was thinking as they performed to a backdrop of the Telluride setting. As I lounged in my lawn chair, along with only a few thousand or less, his music had all the more meaning. Being a Colorado native (born and bred) he is welcome in my backyard anytime! Thank you.

Jackson Browne and his band opened for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Here's the set list that was reported by one fan who attended:

1. A Child In These Hills
2. Black And White
3. For Everyman
4. The Naked Ride Home
5. Culver Moon
6. The Night Inside Me
7. Lives in the Balance
8. Just My Imagination
9. The Pretender
10. Running On Empty
11. Doctor My Eyes
Encore:
12. I Am A Patriot

I, too, saw Jackson Browne and Tom Petty in Irvine last night. Comments in my car were made also about Jackson's name in small print. I like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, though I would not have purchased tickets if Jackson had not been opening for Petty. This is the second time I have seen Jackson and Petty together and both concerts were great. However, neither time did Petty thank Jackson for opening for him, and each time Jackson gave high praise to Petty. So that kind of irked me. Also, Petty was not on the big screen, and for those of us in the terrace, we couldn't see him! I must be getting old, because the smell of skunk weed all around was suffocating. This is my last Petty concert.

I always dreamed of a band where these 3 sang harmony together:

Jerry Rafferty
Jackson Browne
Paul Rogers

Their voices were all so smooth and would have been awesome together. Just a thought I had many years ago.

I love Jackson Browne's voice and I wish he would play at Garland, Texas one of these years for their 4th of July celebration. He'd be amazing.

Hi Russ,

Like any Jackson fans I was very happy to hear that Jackson was going to release a cd from his acoustic tour.

But I was immediately angry at seeing that only about half of the songs he normally performed during the tour would be available in October and the other half later next year. I admit I don't understand why it isn't directly a double cd -24 songs at least... It would have been cheaper for the fans.

As a result I'm not sure if I'll run and buy this first volume -as I do whenever there's a new jakson release.

Instead I might well buy some bootleg versions available on ebay that include a whole concert each. That's what happens when record companies don't do their job correctly...

Please, can anyone give me a very good reason for not doing so? I don't think I'm asking too much.

Does anyone know if Jackson is planning any shows on the east coast? We feel very neglected here, and though I did see his acoustic show a few years ago in Greensboro, NC, I would love to see him perform with his band. Anyone know any details about a tour with the band?

Thanks.

August 21, 2005

JACKSON BROWNE SOLO ACOUSTIC VOL. 1 is the first new release from the California based singer-songwriter since his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2004. It is also his first live collection since his 1977 multi-platinum album RUNNING ON EMPTY.

This new live acoustic album is simply stunning. It's unusual that a live album is able to capture the energy and vibrancy of a performance. Generally, a concert is one of those "you just had to be there" events.

JACKSON BROWNE SOLO ACOUSTIC VOL. 1 is one of those very rare albums that captures the vigor and magnetism of the live performance. The obvious connection between Jackson and his fans is left intact. The potency of his humor and talent shine through in a way that accurately captures his recent solo acoustic tours. The sound quality is excellent.

The album, produced by Jackson Browne and Paul Dieter, features live performances from Jackson's solo acoustic tours over the past couple of years. It starts off with a strong rendition of "The Barricades of Heaven" from his 1996 LOOKING EAST collection. In a stark acoustic rendition, this beautiful song -- with its reminiscing on where he came from -- establishes the album's tone and structure. We're on a journey of song and verse. The focus is on the song and the voice, harking back to his singer-songwriter roots.

"The Barricades of Heaven" also showcases some very fine guitar work by Jackson, which is often overshadowed in concert by Browne's band performances where others often play lead guitar.

Jackson's early hits like "These Days," "Fountain of Sorrow," and "The Pretender" are all refreshing in their energy and passion. The brilliantly simple guitar and keyboard arrangements allow the listener to hear the words behind the songs and to rediscover the sheer magnitude of Browne's songwriting brilliance.

The album includes many of Jackson's best album cuts such as "Your Bright Baby Blues," "For Everyman," "Too Many Angels" and "Lives In The Balance," the later of which is the first single to be released to radio stations. The CD also includes a beautiful rendition of "The Birds Of St. Marks," a song Jackson wrote more than 30 years ago, but which has never appeared on any of his albums until now.

In the glitz and paparazzi of today's music scene, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that great music is based on great songwriting. JACKSON BROWNE SOLO ACOUSTIC VOL. 1 should be required listening for songwriters who want to study the peak of their craft. Listen to the words of "For A Dancer" from 1974's classic LATE FOR THE SKY album as a fine example of what a song can and should be. No song has ever explored the mysteries of death in such a clear and profound manner.

I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I can't sing
I can't help listening

If the warmth of Jackson's vocals doesn't reach you, the lyrics certainly will. The album concludes with "Take It Easy," a song Jackson co-wrote with Glenn Frey of the Eagles, who made it their first hit. Over the years, Jackson has fluctuated in concert between his own version and the better-known Eagles version. This one is a special version he shares with his fans, who can be heard singing along.

Jackson Browne's fans will undoubtedly offer up debate over the song selection and which of their favorite songs were not included. There will be little argument over the fact that this collection showcases his talents at the top of their form, providing a legacy worthy of his Hall of Fame induction, showcasing his songwriting talents as deserving of mention along side fellow inductees Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, and Paul Simon.

Jackson is reportedly in the studio working on an album of new material for possible release next year. With the release of SOLO ACOUSTIC VOL. 1, his fans are sure to be looking ahead to Solo Acoustic Volume Two!

JACKSON BROWNE SOLO ACOUSTIC VOL. 1 will be released on October 11, 2005 by Jackson's own Inside Recordings label. You can pre-order the CD from his website at www.jacksonbrowne.com beginning September 1st.

Hello Russ,

First, let me thank you for the work and info you provide with your website and other JB fan venues.

While reading through the August letters, I was saddened to read of the French fan's disappointment with the single CD Live and Acoustic Vol. 1 release and the possibility of that fan resorting to eBay for a full concert version.

I would ask all JB fans to PLEASE not buy bootlegs sold on eBay. There are numerous fan and music trading groups online where copies can be had for no exchange of money. These groups are not difficult to find with a little search.

No doubt these sellers on eBay paid nothing for their copy... they likely received it through the generosity of others wanting to share the music. The sellers then turn around and burn multiple copies to sell. They probably have less than $1 in material per set and then charge $15 or more plus S&H.

They take advantage of people who don't know better. Hopefully this letter will educate some.

Hi Russ,

As always, thank you for maintaining such a great website for the fans.

About a year and a half ago, I asked for our JB friends to keep good thoughts for Dan Fogelberg - who has been battling advanced prostate cancer. I'm happy to add this link from his website - such a very happy and positive statement from Dan to update us on his progress. Just thought I'd share the good news. :-) Let's hope he keeps those options open for returning to the stage and recording studio.

Keep the faith--

Best regards,

Hey Russ love the new look on the website. I am not the type to respond but this Pascal has me really hacked.

I can give him one reason not to buy bootleg Cds, in the US we call that copyright infringement. A federal law here, maybe in France they don't care. Jackson Browne has given his life to make meaningful songs that people from all walks of life can enjoy and relate to on a level that one can not put into words and this guy wants to rip him off because of price.

This person is no fan.

later