The Orcutt Children's Art Foundation in Orcutt, near Santa Maria, California, has a yearly gala to raise money for their programs and on March 2 their honored guest was Jackson Browne at the Santa Maria Fairpark. It was a lovely event, like a wedding reception, with drinks and dinner included with the ticket. We got there early to check in and to leave something with Jackson's management. Fred Martin and the Levite Camp were singing with Jackson for quite awhile and then he rehearsed "Barricades of Heaven" quite a few times. The auction raised quite a bit of money, close to $50,000. Jackson bid on a sailing trip to Catalina that he got but the prices were too high for our group, $3,100 for the Disneyland package for instance.

Fred Martin and the Levite Camp were amazing, as always. Jackson sang with them the whole time. They did World in Motion, Don't You Want to Be There, and a medley of other songs. Then Jackson did "Barricades of Heaven". The organizers put all six of us at the same table so it was a rare time to actually be able to visit with folks rather than have to be quiet in a theatre. Jackson was mingling most of the evening and seemed to enjoy himself. Two years ago they had Jim Messina, next year hopefully Kenny Loggins, who lives fairly close and would make a wonderful guest. I only found out about this a week or so ago when a friend of a friend saw the flyer in Santa Maria. It hadn't been publicized at all. So, we all were very lucky to find out.

Jackson Browne was part of a benefit last night at the Malibu Performing Arts Center for the Midnight Mission. Two of my friends, Allison (who I met via this site) and her business partner, Luanne, had been to the Midnight Mission the day before so it was especially affecting to see the video and meet many of the folks who work there. For those of you not in LA, this is a mission in downtown Los Angeles that offers a "bridge of self sufficiency" for the homeless and has been in operation since 1914.

Ilsey Juber opened the show and is a terrific guitar player and singer. This was followed by Richie Samora, who was the master of ceremonies, and performed with a band that he said he'd only gotten together a week ago but who were fabulous. He's an amazing performer and really rocked .. old time rock and roller. And what a guitar player! There was also a group called the Zen Cruisers who were made up of four musicians from different groups but I wasn't all that into that and went to listen to the basketball games being seriously afflicted with March Madness. (I had USC in the office pool. They lost.)

After that, Jackson did "Barricades of Heaven" with Jeff Young on the keyboards. Allison and I had gone to see him earlier in the week at Gengis Cohen and he's always wonderful, did harmony also. Then Jackson was joined by Chavonne and Althea, the two leads from the Levite Camp, who are amazing singers. They did about four of the songs off the CD that they did with Fred Martin and the Levite Camp. I've seen them several times and always enjoy them but they really knocked out the folks who hadn't seen them before.

Los Lobos was the headliner and they played for about an hour, had everyone up dancing. Jackson's girlfriend, Dianna, was sitting near us with her girlfriends and she's a fabulous dancer, I always enjoy watching her, being that I have no dancing ability at all despite having two professional dancers as parents. She went down to the front and really rocked. By the end, about 20 women were on the stage dancing with Los Lobos.

The live auction raised many thousands of dollars for a good cause. We were in the 11th row (it only holds 14 rows) but were able to see very well. The front seats went for $1,000 (with a dinner with the performers) and $500.00 for a cocktail party. We (and Dianna and her friends) were in the cheap seats.

These photos were taken with my camera by Nancy. I am almost 60 and totally inept with a digital camera so she took them for me.