Russ--I don't visit the website as much as I used to, but the wonderful surge of Jackson news, the new CD, the concerts with Petty, all pushed me to visit, and again, I soaked up this almost-shrine to this amazing artist we all love so much. So many voices writing about Jackson, continuing to write about him. Then, bless your heart, I got to read the msn chat with him, which was a special treat. It's always wonderful hearing Jackson talk in his own voice about himself and his music. And sure, he has his own website now, but it's characteristically modest. His fans NEED what you give us, which is Jackson Browne any way we can get it, from all sorts of different angles, in the voices of so many different fans, worldwide.

Thanks again, Russ, for giving us our needed dose of Jackson.

At the moment the music began on Jackson Browne's new CD, what were you imagining would be there for you on this release? Where did you think your train was going to go? Did you have any preconceived ideas of what you might find within the tracks?

If you were looking for Late for the Sky, you won't find it here, because Jackson isn't late any more. His life has brought order, and hopefully more harmony, into it, and those limos are probably getting him to his destinations in plenty of time. For him to give you Late for the Sky, he would have to be pretending, and he is not the Pretender anymore. He's also discovered he's alive in the world and doesn't have to declare that on a CD. He told us he was alive and now we just need to accept that. He's moving on.

In my opinion, Jackson has grown. When he told us "yeah, can we say that I've grown in some way that we may have yet to be shown"... he wasn't kidding. He has shared this with us in The Naked Ride Home. He's not Looking East, he did that already; he's looking back and he's looking forward. He is not a fool asking what his life is all about; he's been there, done that... he's a man living it the best way he can. And by that, he is still contributing to his commitment to be the best you can be, still singing, still performing, and most importantly - still Jackson. He has allowed us to be privy to this part of his passage. He's at the mid life point according to all the calendars. He doesn't run on empty any more simply because he's not empty.

In Performing Songwriter magazine (Sept/Oct) issue, when asked why so long before the CD, he answered that he had been spending more time with his family. He's making wise choices. Love needs a heart - looks like he found one for his. He decided not to Hold Out any longer, but to give in to the resignation that living brings, whatever that may be for him. Hopefully, this is not his Opening Farewell. He says "maybe you've had the best of me, but you could take another ten years and be sure." I consider that an invitation...and I'm taking it.

"May you always see what your life is worth"...Jackson Browne

Re: The Jay Leno show 10/2

I felt so badly for JB last night during the Jay Leno show. I think the previous guests talked a little too much and infringed on JB's time. The song was cut short during the most crucial part -- the great guitar riff at the beginning. Jackson seemed a little nervous too since there were obvious time constraints on his time to play. He didn't even get a chance to discuss what he was doing now with this album or his continued tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Hopefully, he will be able to show more of his talents and play more of the great songs from "The Naked Ride Home" on the Austin City Limits show airing on November 16th. Everyone make sure to watch!!

Heartbroken in Colorado,

Borrowing a little bit from the current Mastercard Television Commercials:

• Alicia Silverstone - Clueless
• Marcel Marceau - Speechless
• Jackson Browne - Genius

Russ,

It is good to read the posative reviews comming into your site. I have been a little mixed in my reactions. The title song, The Naked Ride Home, seems a closure to large chunck of Jackson's past and while the song itself is beautiful, it is set apart from the rest...like it is almost out there on its own. Yet it lends its title to the whole alblem. The type of kick off that we have grown accustomed to comes with the second tune: The Night Inside Me.

I think alot of Never Stop and am sure it will become a favorite of mine over time. Ditto concerning About my Imagination. My Stunning Mystery Companion also seems to have its own box. It is a great close for the collection and a great presentation of Jackson's personal growth. Jackson has put a true feast on the table.

Long may we run.

Hi! I am new to this site and have been soaking it all in for the past several hours...you've done a wonderful job!

I've been a fan of Jackson's for 25 years and never miss an opportunity to see him when he performs in New York. When I heard the he was coming to Barnes and Noble and would be signing his CD, I knew I'd finally get my chance to meet him.

I just want to say that Jackson was every bit as nice in person as I always had hoped he would be. I was especially touched by the way he reacted each time he encountered a child among the crowd. The expression on his face would completely change each time he saw one! While waiting outside the store, we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of him through the plate glass window. He was kind enough to wave to everybody, but once he saw a child among us, he came right up to the glass and waved directly to her alone. Very sweet.

As I waited my turn to get his autogpraph, I noticed how he took the time to speak to each and every person on line. There had to be three hundred people there, and he was extremely patient and pleasant with each fan.

Once it was my turn to meet him, I was lucky enough to be "inconvenienced", as he had to stop to bid a friend goodbye and to also take a phone call. I had the pleasure of staring at him, agog, while he kissed his friend and her baby goodbye then took a moment on the phone with another.

We had a very nice conversation and I was especially impressed when I mentioned a small concert hall he played in about 10 years ago. He not only remembered it, but mentioned a very specific incident that had occurred that night. When my friend mentioned another concert she had attended about 20 years ago, he was also quick to share a very specific memory from that night, too. And he was accurate on both counts! I must say, I was very impressed. You'd think that after performing hundreds and hundreds of times in countless places, most of it would be a blur. At that moment, he was my hero (well, he's been my hero all along, but he earned extra points!)

It was a thrill to have met him! My life is now complete!

Wow. I hope A & E reruns Harry Smith's interview this morning with Jackson. I thought it was great. After singing an awesome rendition of "Night Inside Me", Jackson spoke with sentience about his songwriting "roots" ---his craft, his father's influence, his early inspirations...very touching. Man, he's so articulate and sincere. How could anyone not love him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACKSON...from all your fans!!!! Toma la Suave.

I happened to catch Jackson Browne the other night on Leno and was glad to hear that he had a new record (cd) out and that he was going on tour. I live in Seattle and have seen almost all of the Jackson Browne performances in the area since the late seventies. I first became aware of his music while in college around 1977. His music had the ability to touch me in a way that I can't explain, but you know what I mean if you have been a fan as long as I have or longer. I think that the key is that his music is honest, even painfully so, and yet is rooted in a defiant optimism. In 1990 I became a born-again Christian and I found in Jesus a basis for my own "living hope". Many who come to faith in Jesus stop listening to secular pop music, but I am still a big fan of Jackson's music and I think that I can appreciate some of his music in a whole new light. Two songs in particular from his newest album stand out for me. In "about my imagination" Jackson confesses that his tendency towards sensuality as a balm for the soul has taken him off track in his quest for real Truth. And in "don't you want to be there" he invites us to try to qualify for entrance into a type of heaven where forgiveness reigns and childlike innocence is found. When the trumpets blow, I know I want to be there. I am glad that Jackson Browne is continuing to use his gift to make life a little brighter for those of us he touches. (p.s. if you happen to read this J.B. please substitute "I'm going to show you how they do it in Seattle" for "I'm going to try to swing you up into the saddle" when you do "rednecked friend" in Tacoma. Thanks,

VH1.com
October, 2002

Jackson Browne: The Pretender Gets Naked
Soft rock savior moves toward the cinematic on his new album.

by Courtney Reimer

Jackson Browne has always been a master of rumination. Back in the early 1970s, when he and his pals in the Eagles were spearheading the L.A. singer-songwriter movement, he was a romantic who turned songs of self into sensitive anthems embraced by audiences around the world. These days, he's got plenty of history to look back on. He's a political activist, stumping for ecology issues and fighting injustice on a number of fronts. And he's got a catalog of superb discs under his name.Late For the Sky and The Pretender are high water marks of cinematic pop, and with Running On Empty, Browne came up with a feisty live album that eloquently explains the travails of touring.

Over the years Browne's songs have enhanced their sense of drama, and his new The Naked Ride Home is built on both musical scenarios broad in scope and precise in execution. From the ominous tone of "Casino Nation" to the winding Sergio Leone ode, to the valentine closer that celebrates his current love, the music is detailed, elaborate, evocative.

We spoke with Browne about how living life sometimes gets in the way of creativity, how you can never control the translation of your songs, and how sex in a moving car ain't exactly easy.

VH1: It's been six years since your last album, Looking East. What took so long?

Jackson Browne: Life kept interrupting me! I kept stopping work to deal with other stuff. I toured the last record for 11 months. Then I started doing acoustic shows, and I toured in Europe. Then I got an apartment and started living in Spain. I opened the door into another world and started thinking about how I live and what I wanted to do. I enjoyed touring, but in a way, it was too much of a certain kind of work. It raised a lot of questions. Then when I began working on the new disc it was a really slow process. Maybe it's because I had three houses - one in the city, one in the country, and then one in another country!

VH1: You've been touring with Tom Petty this year. Have you performed together onstage at all?

Browne: We did it once last year. It was odd. Everybody had ideas [about what to sing] but there wasn't a song that everybody knew. We winded up doing "Take It Easy," which I wrote with Glenn Frey.

VH1: "Take It Easy" was a big hit for the Eagles. Does it bother you that the song isn't associated with you even though you wrote it?

Browne: No. "Take It Easy" wouldn't even be the song it is if Glenn hadn't insisted I finish it. Then he offered to finish it and made it a hit song. I was playing in Colorado and a guy invited me to come and hear him sing in a bar. I went down there and the guys he had been sitting in with were all packing up. He said, "These guys are going. Will you sing something with me?" We were trying to figure out what to sing, but we didn't know any of the same songs. Finally he said, "Well, do you know 'Take It Easy?'" I said, "Yeah, I guess I do." He had no idea I had written it! There are lots of covers of "Take It Easy." It's been done in Chinese, Spanish, Dutch and Finnish. A friend of mine who lives in Spain did a version. Instead of singing, "I'm looking for a lover who won't blow my cover," he said, "I'm looking for a lover who's not religious, not dangerous and will eat me like a lobster in pink sauce." I thought that was a pretty good addition!

VH1: There are lots of versions of your songs. Both Nico and Gregg Allman have covered "These Days."

Browne: I like Nico's version a lot. They used it in The Royal Tenenbaums. I hadn't heard it in so long that when I went to see the movie and it came on I thought, "I used to play just like that." Then I heard Nico's voice and I went, "Oh, it is me!" I played guitar on her version. I like other people doing my songs.

VH1: It means you've got all this reach beyond just the Jackson Browne catalog.

Browne: Songs have a way of going out into the world and having a life of their own. When the song's really working, the person listening to it adds pictures from their own life. They remember the first time they heard that artist. It becomes an accompaniment to a period of their life.

VH1: The title track of The Naked Ride Home is pretty literal. A girl takes her clothes off and you drive her home. Is that based on an actual experience?

Browne: Yeah, it was. I think a lot of people have had that idea themselves, whether they've done it or not. I engaged people in that really prurient idea. I mean, sex in a moving car has got to be pretty hard to do! Whatever you imagine when you hear the song, you're hooked up to a part of you that's willing to imagine something out of the ordinary. That's how you find yourself at the end of the song.

VH1: You're known for your political commentary. What are you digging at on the new song "Casino Nation?"

Browne: It's different in some ways to the political songs I've written in the past, because it's more kaleidoscopic in its approach. Life has become so chaotic compared to what it was 20 or 30 years ago. We fill our life with so much stuff, the only way to talk about what life is is to take a composite view of things. To take any of the subjects that are touched upon on "Casino Nation" and write a whole song about it would have been more like what I did in writing Lives in the Balance. It would impose a view of things upon the listener, but also imply that something must be done. This time I wanted to describe life in terms other people recognize, but let people come to what should be done in their own way. "Casino Nation" became the song it is when it stopped being a really loud, up-tempo rock song. I changed the melody and it became this hypnotic and cyclical piece of music that allowed me to say these things. There's something slightly too evangelical about rock 'n' roll when you start yelling!

VH1: How do you see the rest of the year unfolding for you?

Browne: I love being on the road. I actually get more time to myself when I'm touring. I can sleep as long as I want! Basically, I don't do anything but sing on those days that I play. On the days off, I get to read, sing and listen to music. It's a part I enjoy. I'm looking forward to the next two or three months, because I'm touring all the way up until Christmas - and hopefully writing some more songs!

Just wanted to post a Happy Birthday to Jackson. Didn't know where else I could send it. Hope he is reading your website. Thanks,

Been following Jackson Browne since he was singing back-up for the Eagles back in 1973 in a small gym in Wilkes-Barre. PA. Now in Boston Wife and Daughter , I'm a painter , with a love of music which helps me create. Jackson browne has always given me images and thoughts to work within, and for that I'm forever thankful.

I kept my eyes open and tried to see
The point of what went on in front of me
I kept what moved me, and forgot the rest
and took my young imagination to the acid test.
--J Browne

Hi, I just wanted to thank you for your site about Jackson... I'm a priest, a peace activist and writer, and have been friends with Jackson for years. We met in the Los Angeles jail in the late 1980s, after we were protesting U.S. military aid to El Salvador. Besides being a great artist, singer and poet, he's such a great person because he stands for peace, justice and nonviolence. He has been consistently against war, nuclear weapons, poverty, and all the violence that's destroying us. I dedicated one of my books, "Jesus the Rebel," to him, since his song inspired me to write it. His music and life commitment inspire me to keep working for peace, disarmament and justice. May the God of peace bless us all!

Dear Russ, i'm running out of time and am desperate. As you probably know Warren Zevon has terminal cancer in both lungs and Drs. say won't live 2 months if that. I know Jackson is a good friend of his and producer. I wanted to get Warren in The Hall of Fame, while he is still alive. If not at least recognized by him. I started a petition, but there are so many out there for other groups and artist including Jackson. But i don't think many realize the severity of Warrens case. If we can't get him in i'd like to at least get a good number of signatures supporting the cause, and we could get it to Warren while he is still alive. PLEASE, if you can post the petition address somewhere in your site it would mean a great deal. The address is www.PetitionOnline.com/bucsrule/petition.html I only have about 260 signatures now. I'm asking those who sign to help me pass the imfo. on to all friends and any web sites, (sports, music, politics) anything that allows a post.And if you have anyway to get this to Jackson or have him contact me, it would mean so much. Please help me do something for Warren and his family while there is still time. ANYTHING YOU CAN DO WILL BE APPRECIATED. Peace and God Bless, ~ DUTCH SAMPSON, PS,` I love Jackson too, been a fan for years and play lots of his music on guitar. Next step is to help him, but he's so caring i know he would want to know about this.

The Express
October 11, 2002

Like his contemporary, James Taylor, did with his recent October Road album, Jackson Browne - one of the key figures of the American singersongwriter fraternity - reappears with only his 13th album in a solo career that goes back to 1972. It's a selection that is modern but still rooted in the genre's strengths: good songs, strong, conscious lyrics and impeccable musicianship. I'm not sure where the market for people like Browne is these days, but I hope it's there because it is worth it.

The Guardian (London)
October 11, 2002

By Adam Sweeting

On his first album of new material since 1996's Looking East, Jackson Browne strikes a convincing balance between the melancholy melodicism of his early work and the sometimes overwrought finger-pointing style that has emerged more recently. So, while Casino Nation takes aim at George Bush's stetson and Walking Town highlights the gulf between rich and poor, the title track finds Browne driving his car while the woman in the passenger seat takes her clothes off, and Sergio Leone is a brooding homage to the great Italian director. Most impressive of all is the sustained excellence of thearrangements and musicianship, the songs often serving as springboards forextended instrumental interplay. For instance, Don't You Want to Be There stretches out into a limpid, impressionistic coda coloured by Fernando Pullum's hazy trumpet, and About My Imagination builds to a pumped-up climax of gospel voices and seething guitar.

The Herald (Glasgow)
October 12, 2002

By Allan Laing

THESE days you could be forgiven for feeling a tad short-changed by a CD which boasts "10 original songs" on its cover. But on this, Jackson Browne's first studio album since 1996, it's the quality that matters. The man's on excellent form with a collection of uncharacteristically upbeat songs. Top of the heap is Sergio Leone, a broody, sweeping, tribute to the spaghetti western king ("What he stole from Kirosawa he bequeathed to Peckinpah"). There's not a lot new, but the musicianship is faultless and Browne's voice sounds as clear and as new as it did when it ran on empty all those years ago.

Scotland on Sunday
October 13, 2002

His songs have been hits for The Eagles and The Jackson 5, his voice is one of the most recognisable in American West Coast rock, but does Jackson Browne still have something to offer after all these distinguished mellow years? There is nothing here to disappoint devotees, and converts to the newly dubbed American genre will find this thoroughbred as spritely as all the younger bucks, especially the worthy 'Casino Nation'.

The young man's angst of 'The Pretender' is consigned to history, but the epic 'Sergio Leone' just about manages to be as sprawling and mysterious as the great man's movies.

Courier Mail
October 14, 2002, Monday

BYLINE: Noel Mengel

JACKSON Browne, above, is back with his first album of new material in six years.

Many of his finest songs have been about love lost: These Days, Late for the Sky, Fountain of Sorrow and so on. He has found some fresh topics to sing about on The Naked Ride Home, which includes Sergio Leone, Browne's tribute to the Italian "spaghetti" Western director.

One of Browne's goals was to write a positive song about love: "That's always been an elusive quest for me."

Mission accomplished on tunes like My Stunning Mystery Companion.

Ottawa Citizen
October 5, 2002

By Bruce Ward

Jackson Browne is at his best when he's working on the psychological complexities of love, which is why the personal material here is better than the agit-prop songs about the dark side of the American Dream.

Browne is rock's most cinematic writer, always has been. As critic Paul Nelson observed, Browne's 1977 smash Running On Empty plays like a documentary film with flesh-and-blood characters and a narrative arc. The best numbers here -- the title track and My Stunning Mystery Companion -- are like that.

There's some fancy writing, too. On Sergio Leone, a tribute to the spaghetti Westerns director, Browne gets off a killer couplet: "He came to see the masters and he left with what he saw/ What he stole from Kurosawa he bequeathed to Peckinpah."

This is thoughtful, highly crafted stuff, even if there's nothing quite as rocking as Running On Empty.

Tulsa World
October 5, 2002

By Thomas Conner, World Entertainment Writer

Browne set the tone for the 1970s Mellow Mafia -- all those laid-back,introspective singer-songwriters who, as Browne wrote when he co-authored the Eagles hit, were trying to understand and just "Take It Easy."

In a studious reverse of Bob Dylan's career, Browne started out introspective and only later became political. But his socially conscious work was always stilted and unsure of foot, and it jettisoned the bulk of his audience by the end of the '80s.

On "The Naked Ride Home," Browne sounds better than he has in a decade -- relaxed, comfortable, unburdened. Well, not totally unburdened -- he's got a few more social concerns to try and strangle with purple prose ("Casino Nation," "Sergio Leone") -- but, as usual, Browne is at his best recalling those misty romantic highs and lows that have left little hollows in his heart.

The title track, to my surprise, is not a metaphor. It's about the narrator giving a ride home to a woman who takes her clothes off before getting into the car. Despite the initial tackiness of that idea, the song comes off surprisingly sweet and tender. Other tracks maintain the same warmth and spirit.

The Morning Call (Allentown)
October 5, 2002

By Geoff Gehman

"The Naked Ride Home" is Jackson Browne driving a '65 Mustang with the engine of a Honda Hybrid. It's muscular, efficient and kind of new. "Don't You Want to Be There" is a typically cleansing portrait of a place ruled by forgiveness, with a beat that's atypically tidal and nearly hypnotic. "Casino Nation" is a familiar protest of selling souls, with an unfamiliar soundscape that bobs, shuffles and crackles with distant thunder over the plains. Browne turns a new leaf in "About My Imagination," a rock-gospel rumination that ends with a roiling call-and-response and a packed playout reminiscent of Steely Dan's "Reeling in the Years." Browne's bad habits are everywhere: wincing lines, story-spoiling allusions, rubbernecking at ancient mistakes. Most sins are absolved by his alert, nicely dog-eared voice; ear-popping production, and a band that turns on a dime. Jeff Young offers shimmering organ and pleasingly throaty harmonies; guitarist Mark Goldenberg spanks, flays and shoots stars. "The Naked Ride Home" isn't nearly as memorable as Browne's '70s studio albums, arranged so astutely by David Lindley. But it has the sparks of "Running on Empty" and it's certainly more alive than "I'm Alive."

MAIL ON SUNDAY
October 13, 2002

By Tim De Lisle

Jackson Browne's first album since 1996 is probably the most literate record of the year. At 54, he doesn't just print his words on the sleeve, he has them translated into five languages on his website. They earn their place with their incisive views on marriage, ageing, the state of the union and the films of Sergio Leone. The music mixes magical moments with rather a lot of amiable chugging, but this is still a fine record.

Sunday Times (London)
October 13, 2002

By Dan Cairns

WITH Warren Zevon recently diagnosed with incurable cancer, here is an opportunity to seek comfort in the work of a fellow chronicler of California's (broken) promises.

Many fans' relationships with these jaundiced troubadours have been fraught; Browne's co-authorship of the Eagles hit Take It Easy is, after all, cause for both celebration and regret. But the albums he, Zevon, Randy Newman and others made in the 1970s captured a post-Arcadian era just before it toppled over into unashamed ugliness.

On his 13th release, Browne balances ennui, reflection, romance and polemic to often beautiful effect. Okay, it's not going to shoot the lights out, but on standout tracks such as Casino Nation (with its Popstars-society putdown, "All those not on TV only have themselves to blame") and the wistful Walking Town, this album proves itself a fine addition to the JB canon.

Coventry Evening Telegraph
October 11, 2002

JACKSON BROWNE ends a long wait for new material on Monday when he releases new album The Naked Ride Home.

It's his first studio set since Looking East in 1996 - he marked time with greatest hits collection The Next Voice You Hear - and it cements his reputation as one of America's finest singer-songwriters.

Remarkably it's now 25 years since he made his major breakthrough with Running On Empty. But his continuing relevance was underlined earlier this year when he became the fourth recipient of the John Steinbeck Award, which honours work that raises the same environmental and social issues as the great man.

Those standards certainly shine through the 10 tracks here because, although Browne has one of those voices that you're just as likely to hate as love nobody could doubt the power and integrity of his lyrics.

The Jerusalem Post
October 15, 2002

By David Brinn

Possibly the greatest singer-songwriter to emerge in the 70s, (Springsteen's a rocker, not a singer- songwriter), Jackson Browne's career has remained in neutral for the past 20 years. Sporadic albums of varying quality appear, but nothing lights up the ears like his 70s masterpieces.

The Naked Ride Home is Browne's best in a long time, with the metaphor-heavy title track and the spunky "The Night Inside Me" conjuring of the grandeur of Late for the Sky and For Everyman. Browne's rich, distinctive voice still makes him sound like he's 21, and the cover photos add to youthful persona. Browne can't keep up the pace for the whole disc, as his once masterful writing has become more ordinary and his insightful lyrics on the human condition are now hit or miss.

But when the old spark is there, The Naked Ride Home reminds fans of what was and what can still be.

My name is Ron and I live in Prestwick, Scotland. I am approaching 50 and have a family of four, and have been a Jackson Browne fan since 'Saturate Before Using'. I can honestly say that he has influenced my life in many ways with regard to his words and music. I have, and know almost all his work and have had the priviledge to have seen him on 3 occasions in Glasgow. I am not alone. I have many friends and family who love his work. I think I could could fill a bus with local fans for his keenly awaited world tour, which, hopefully will include Scotland. He has an army of fans here. All his concerts are sold out very quickly. To me he is the thoroughbred of all singer/songwriters. Long may he continue. Regards from Scotland.

Hi Russ, Jackson was on our BBC Radio 2 (UK) this week http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/ken_bruce/index.shtml choosing his top ten tracks of all time. Just thought you & the readers maybe interested to see what he chose, great site Russ, Thank you!

The Gazette (Montreal)
October 3, 2002

By: Mary Lamey

He isn't the only guy to ever build a career on introspection and the vagaries of the human heart, but Jackson Browne has always made those themes more personal than most. Thirty years in, he sounds as tuneful as ever, though perhaps a little more wry. The title track sketches the excitement of attraction's first flush, but then there's the problem of keeping the fire alive, tackled on About My Imagination. Keb' Mo' lends a reggae hand on the loose For Taking the Trouble. Marc Cohn adds a gospel tinge on Don't You Want to Be There. As always, politics come up. The scathing Casino Nation takes predictable aim at the decline of U.S. civilization.

DAILY MAIL (London)
October 18, 2002

Return of the Pretender
By Adrian Thrills

JACKSON BROWNE was one of the original 'California cowboys', rising to prominence in the early Seventies. Armed with an acoustic guitar and a clutch of autobiographical country-rock songs, he helped set the template for the modern singer-songwriter.

But while contemporary troubadours such as Ryan Adams owe him a huge debt, the influential Jackson - who once spoke proudly of his 'ambition deficit' - has maintained a low-profile for the past six years.

'I guess I'm an enemy of commerce,' he says.

'Someone recently asked me how many records I'd sold, and I didn't know. Maybe I'm privileged, but I've always been very idealistic about my songs. I need to work with a coroducer, simply to finish my records.

'I took a break for family reasons, too. There was a situation with the health of one of my sisters and the wellbeing of her child. So family life became a priority. The break has been good for my songwriting, though. It's given the songs a longer gestation period.' Browne - in London to promote The Naked Ride Home, his first album since 1996's Looking East - is in a talkative mood when we meet at a hotel near Hyde Park. The singer turned 54 last week, but with his dark floppy fringe and gaunt features, he still looks boyish.

The Naked Ride Home - out this week on Elektra and dominated by Browne's piercing vocals and Mark Goldenberg's immaculate guitar - should delight fans of his emotional, romantic songwriting.

Bookended by the superb title track, about a disintegrating relationship, and My Stunning Mystery Companion, about an affair in full bloom, it strives to be optimistic, even though its underlying mood is one of deep melancholia.

'I've always been willing to sing about sorrow,' says Jackson. 'There's something beautiful about sad songs. But I want to be uplifting as well. In order to be uplifting, though, you have to start from the bottom.' Browne began performing on the Los Angeles folk circuit in the Seventies, appearing at such legendary venues as The Paradox and The Troubadour. He played beside Tim Buckley, worked with Nico in New York and co-wrote Take It Easy for The Eagles, giving them their first hit.

His own albums, particularly Late For The Sky and The Pretender, classics both, have been scrutinised for confessional insights into his private life.

The Pretender was written in the wake of the suicide of his first wife, Phyllis, while 1993's I'm Alive was widely assumed to have been about the end of his tempestuous six-year relationship with actress Daryl Hannah.

'People are always trying to figure out who the songs are about,' he says.

'But who they are about in the life of the listener is more important. It doesn't matter who Van Morrison's Moondance was about. What matters is that it is a great song.' One of Jackson's new numbers, About My Imagination, was inspired by an end of 'the idealism so many of us had in our youth, in the Sixties'.

The era obviously still holds many colourful memories for the singer.

'California was filled with hippies and freaks,' he recalled, 'but having long hair was a serious matter back then. If you heard the screeching of car brakes, you had to grab your stuff and run!

'I remember going on a road trip with Tim Buckley and a friend from high school. We all ended up living in a cave in Big Sur for two weeks.'

Not all of Browne's work is so introspective.

During the Eighties he introduced more political elements,singing songs such as Lives In The Balance, and his patriotic, but questioning, attitude is still evident.

His activism was recently recognised when he became only the fourth recipient of the John Steinbeck Award, an honour given to artists whose work best exemplifies the same environmental and social issues as the Californian author. (The previous recipients were Bruce Springsteen, filmmaker John Sayles and playwright Arthur Miller.) 'It's humbling to be in such fine company,' says Jackson.

After three decades in the limelight, however, Browne remains a secretive superstar, happy to shun celebrity and concentrate on his music. 'Even in the Seventies I wasn't on television very much, so I can still walk around Los Angeles. And if I do get recognised, people are usually respectful.

'Oddly enough, it even happened to me on a trip to Mali. I got out of a car in Timbuktu and a guy came straight up to me - he had an Arabian-issued bootleg of one of my records and got me to sign it. It's nice to be recognised for what you do.'

Hi Russ - I have a favor - wanted to know if I can post the extra tickets I have for the Boston Dec 14 TPATH/JB show? My husband purchased them and didn't realized I had already secured tix through the Guacamole Fund....so I have two extra tickets!

They are for Section FLOORG, Row 5, Seats 13 and 14. Just asking what I paid for them (including that ticket*** fee!) for a total of $134.05.

If anyone is interested contact me at mariaaobrien@yahoo.com

Thanks very much - if you can't do it - no problem..

All good things to say for the new album. Although many people comment on the title track and Casino Nation , I am more drawn to "For Taking the Trouble" and "Mystery Companion".

"For Taking the Trouble" is written and performed with the same sincerity as "sky black and blue" from I'm Alive ,both speaking of the disappointment and powerlessness of a romantic's wholeness but inclusive of the personal dignity and humility after another broken heart.

Also wondering if the subject of Mystery Companion is the Cat in the photograph?

The Age (Melbourne, Australia.

By Mike Daly

Jackson Browne is at it again, exploring his own rocky emotional landscape on The Naked Ride Home and reminding us of ours in the process. In a career that evolved at the end of the freeflowing '60s, Browne has perfected the confessionalrock ballad. After helping The Eagles take it easy in the early '70s, he found solo stardom and then embraced political activism before it became fashionable, entering the new millennium with his integrity intact. If the title opener on the new CD - his first in six years - reminds me a lot of Late For The Sky, the 2002 song is a curiously superficial narrative compared with his '74 classic. Those polished poprock arrangements, however, remain consistent. Elsewhere, Browne's contemplative lyrics hit home internally (The Night Inside Me and Don't You Want To Be There) and externally (Casino Nation and Walking Town). Outstanding are the catchy For Taking The Trouble (aided by Keb' Mo' on steel slide) and the widescreen epic tribute Sergio Leone, with its deliberate, slowtracking opening and incisive biographical details. Browne is the thinking person's singer/songwriter.

Sunday Mercury
October 20, 2002

By Paul Cole

JACKSON BROWNE is an artist who flatters to deceive. Each time he releases an album, you rush home, play it and feel disappointed because it's so damnably pleasant. Not any more. His first studio album in six years is a revelation, adding passion and power to his songwriting skills. The Night Inside Me recalls Tom Petty, while brooding Casino Nation, with its bitter criticism of global inequalities, could be a Neil Young song. But it's About My Imagination that lingers longest with its southern rock opening and gospel-tinged soul climax.

Scripps Howard News Service
October 21, 2002

By Richard Paton

It sounds in some ways as though time has stood still, so immediately recognizable is the vocal and instrumental sound of Jackson Browne's latest CD.

Here again are the sweet melody lines, the subtle and often low-key rock accompaniments with guitars to the fore, the voice that has sung so many classic songs, and lyrics that are literate yet with emotional focus.

Leading off with the mellow title track and heading into the harder-rocking "The Night Inside Me," Browne sounds assured and comfortable with his music as he casually - so it sometimes seems - drops another of those memorable choruses.

Elsewhere on the disc he eases through the funky, bluesy "Casino Nation" with its socially conscious lyrics; gives a light reggae spin to "For Taking The Trouble," and accents the gentler "About My Imagination" with another great chorus.

The disc ends with the somewhat countrified "My Stunning Mystery Companion."

But there's no mystery to why Browne is still making such enjoyable discs after all these years. The values of quality songwriting, a sure melodic touch, and obvious intelligence behind the lyrics endure through all the faddish changes in the music scene.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
October 20, 2002

The title cut, about a woman who would never turn down a dare, reveals that Jackson Browne still writes evocative songs that intrigue and mystify on this, his first album of new songs in six years. The boyishsounding Browne is all over the map here, with songs of romantic longing that surround the political "Casino Nation," a purposely vague indictment of various things, although nothing very definite gets a shout out except "a thousand Ruby Ridges." "For Taking the Trouble," as sweet as anything Browne has ever done, has added icing on it, thanks to the steel guitar of Keb' Mo' that creates a perfect touch, while "Sergio Leone" is an ominous, appropriate tribute to the director renowned for "spaghetti" Westerns. "Don't You Want to Be There" is wondrous, made even more so by the trumpet flourishes of Fernando Pullum. The final song, "My Stunning Mystery Companion," ends things on a promising note, with Browne saluting someone who has apparently given him new reason to continue creating music. The musicians who surround him toss down one tasteful guitar lick after another, making everything sound as amazing it did when Browne was backed by David Lindley.

The Associated Press
October 28, 2002

By Richard Benke, Associated Press Writer

The whole country is dressed down in Jackson Browne's latest CD, "The Naked Ride Home." Nobody is off the hook.

Continuing a tour of the West that stopped here in August and ends in Los Angeles on Nov. 23 before heading east, Browne has joined thousands across the nation raising voices against war with Iraq. He's in San Diego on Tuesday, Mountain View, Calif., on Wednesday, Las Vegas on Friday and Phoenix on Saturday.

Americans, he says, should equalize their definition of terrorism worldwide and not try to exempt what America has done. So "The Naked Ride Home" is in stride with a 36-year body of work that tugs at the heart, mind and conscience at once.

"But I think musically it's a huge departure," Brown says by phone, "because the music was really developed at the same time as the songs and in many cases actually ahead of the songs. I mean it led the composition process."

The band would find a groove, have fun and something would happen musically that became a song or part of a song.

"The Naked Ride Home," on Track No. 1, like so many Browne creations, is a sad, lonely love song about people too distressed by their own pain to find each other, even when they're right beside each other.

Songs might start out as pieces of his own life, he says, "but by the time they're songs, they're really more universal. ... That's the songwriting process. It stops being specifically about one's self."

Other tracks include a tribute to Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone - "what he stole from Kurasawa he bequeathed to Peckinpah" - and "Casino Nation," the indictment of a "weapons-producing nation under Jesus."

It is his first album of new songs since "Looking East" (1996).

Browne, 54, born in Germany in 1948 where his father worked for the armed forces newspaper "Stars and Stripes," went to school in Los Angeles and Fullerton, Calif.

He woke up in the shade of a freeway, diverged from mainstream and wrote such songs as "Running on Empty," "Take It Easy," "The Pretender," "Lawless Avenues," "The Shape of a Heart," "Lives in the Balance," "Doctor My Eyes," "Rock Me on the Waters," "Desperado" and "For a Dancer."

Now, the country marches toward war again. Browne is passionately against it and against withholding food and medical aid from Iraqi children, who he says have died by the hundreds of thousands because of sanctions imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War.

Browne urges people to demonstrate against U.S. "war plans."

He says the government has been "usurped by self-interested and very dangerous radicals" and that war, if it comes, will be about oil.

Even the definition of terrorism is cropped to fit just Sept. 11, he said.

"I think we have to let our definition of terrorism be one for the whole world, not just for those acts that are perpetrated against us."

The world watches as we convince ourselves we are above reproach, he suggests.

Is Jackson Browne writing songs about it?

He says no: "Songs are not really the place to get the information."

But he says someone asked him that question during the Reagan years, and next thing he knew, he had written "Lives in the Balance," rebuking U.S. policy in Central America. Browne got arrested protesting that policy in Los Angeles years ago, as he did protesting nuclear power at Diablo Canyon on the California coast.

"I've written songs I could sing in opposition to the war," he said, "but what we have to address is what kind of people we are and what we think of as peace. Our version of peace has got to be something more than just victory in a perpetual war - that's not peace, that's perpetual war."

Surely, principled people cannot remain silent, he says.

"There comes a time when the wheels of all that ambition and aspiration, one's ideals and goals that you have for life, come to a grinding halt, and you say, 'Not in my name. I can't stand this. I can't stand the idea that, as part of the fare, millions of lives are going to be extinguished on the other side of the world."'

Copley News Service
October 28, 2002

Musicians sing out publicly on war Browne, Novoselic add their voices

By George Varga, Copley News Service

Count Jackson Browne and ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic among the few prominent rock musicians who publicly oppose President Bush's plans to wage war against Iraq and worldwide terrorism.

"I disagree that we should react with a military response - that doesn't make a safer world," Browne said during a recent visit to San Diego. "I just don't trust the militaries of this world, who have created Saddam Hussein's role and who, by the way, created a fundamentalist military force in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union. Why should we put our faith in their hands?"

Novoselic agreed, and voiced other concerns about U.S. foreign policy.

"All the borders in the Middle East are colonial constructs," Novoselic said by phone from his rural home in Washington. "Most of them are corrupt and anti-democratic, but it seems like the U.S. doesn't have a problem with that.

"I was incredibly saddened and shocked when (the terrorist attacks of) Sept. 11 happened, but I wasn't surprised. Because the U.S. meddles all over the world and our government is very inconsistent. We talk about democratic government but our government isn't a democracy."

In the 1960s, '70s and '80s, it was common for socially conscious rock musicians to speak out on issues, from war and political corruption to the environment and world hunger.

But the times they keep a-changin', and Browne and Novoselic find themselves being part of a conspicuously small minority - including Steve Earle, Bonnie Raitt, Ani DiFranco and only a few others - who are speaking out against war.

"The people who blew up the World Trade Center are criminals and you have to apprehend them," Browne said backstage at Coors Amphitheatre, prior to a late-August concert with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

"But I have serious questions about this steamroller of retribution. The real enemies of this country, and all civilized countries, are poverty, ignorance and religious intolerance."

Browne sings about social responsibility on his engaging new album, "The Naked Ride Home," but he doesn't address any foreign-policy concerns. Neither does Novoselic on "Eyes Adrift," the impressive debut album by the band of the same name, which teams him with former Meat Puppets' guitarist Curt Kirkwood and ex-Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh.

But Browne (who will open Tom Petty's concert Tuesday at the San Diego State University Open Air Theatre) and Novoselic (who performs Nov. 6 with Eyes Adrift at Brick by Brick) are both veteran musical activists.

Browne co-founded Musicians United for Safe Energy, which in 1979 staged the star-studded No Nukes concerts in New York. A longtime member of Amnesty International and Greenpeace, he pointedly questioned U.S. foreign policy on his 1986 and 1989 albums, "Lives in the Balance" and "World in Motion," respectively.

In 1995, Novoselic founded Joint Artists & Music Promotions Political Action Committee, an organization designed to battle censorship. He is also part of the electoral-reform organization Fix Our United States, and his Web site - www.fixour.US - airs his views on issues of the day.

"We have to turn things around," Novoselic said. "Liberty is what it's all about."

There's a very good review -- definitely worth reading -- by Steve Stockman at:

www.stocki.ni.org/news/items/item-293.phtml

Mojo magazine
November 2002 issue

Into The Labyrinth. Broken-heart surgery from America's greatest romantic.
By Johnny Black.

While most of his coked-out Californian contemporaries were mapping every last detail of the geography of their navels, endlessly rhyming "illusion" with "confusion" for consumption by hordes of stoned early 70's bedsitters, Jackson Browne carried the flag for shameless romantics everywhere.No matter how bad things got in a Jackson Browne song there was always a nugget of optimism before the final chord.Two decades later and a little more world-weary, he still details the complexity of relationships between men and women with disarming compassion and tenderness. The political activism that informed his work in the '80s and early '90s remains in evidence, but rather than pounding out PC slogans, he opts in Casino Nation for the subtler approach of simply describing what he sees around him, "In a weapons producing nation under Jesus" where "entertainment shapes the land", letting his audience draw its own conclusions about the parlous state of the American Dream.

There's also a beautifully-wrought slice of musical biography, Sergio Leone, presumably inspired by Browne's late 90's sojourn in Spain, but mostly, this is a return to the feel of his 1974 classic Late For The Sky, an impeccably played band-driven album with lyrics that, at their worst are wonderfully empathetic, and at their best, briefly illuminate the darkest corners of the human heart. There are too few songwriters now with the courage to craft a love song suggesting there might be a choice to be made between "That girl who catches every eye, or the one you can set your compass by", as Browne does in For Taking The Trouble;too few who will admit "Right now, I can't quite remember the cause of all my tears";and certainly too few who will set themselves up as the fall guy, as he does in the title-song, sucker punching the testosterone-driven male imagination with a cautionary tale that turns out to be much more complex than it first seems.

This is the territory he carved out for himself long ago, but in an increasingly cynical world, it's more valuable now than it ever was. The only pity is that,as was the case then, Jackson Browne will almost certainly continue to be overshadowed by infinitley lesser talents, because he doesn't pander to our expectations and he doesn't trade in cliches. But for those who stil think it's possible that love might be the answer to at least some of our problems, and whose attention spans haven't been completely washed away by TV soap, this could be the album of the year.

Jackson Browne talks to Johnny Black.

Q. Your last album, Looking East, was in 1996. Where have you been?

We toured that album for 10 months, America, Australia,Japan, then did some acoustic shows in Europe, during which time I came into posession of an apartment in Barcelona that some friends of mine had given up.I lived and played there for a while, then had some personal problems, family matters, that occupied a lot of my time.

Q. This album reminds me of your Late For The Sky period.Was that your intention?

I can't really tell if I'm heading back to that territory, musically or emotionally.One thing I was aware of was that, entirely by accident, I got to combine the way I play acoustic guitar with the way my band plays.I really consider them seperate things, but the band wanted to do that too.

Q. You have a couple of guests on the album.

I was very fortunate to get Louis Conte on percussion, and he became very important to the tracks he worked on. And Keb' Mo', who plays the National steel on For Taking The Trouble virtually rescued the song.I'd cut it several times and was finaly certain that I'd got a perfect version, which was a big loud song but, after over-dubbing a solo on that, he asked me just to play him my vocal and acoustic guitar, and he played some really cool stuff to it.Gradually the whole band came in.We sat in a circle, the drummer went to the cajon, the guitarist went to a high string, and it turned out much better.

Q. You've received the John Steinbeck award.

I'm still trying to feel worthy (laughs).It's only the fourth time they've presented it, I was honoured to be in the company of the other recipients, John Sayles, Arthur Miller, Bruce Springsteen- incredibly elevated company.They made a point of saying that it was for people who embraces some of the ideas Steinbeck embraced in his writing.It's nice because I have tried in my music to explore the struggle for justice, and the occupational hazard of that is you have a varying degree of success.There was a wonderfully informal dinner in Redwood City, near where Steinbeck lived.They presented me the award, a little bust of Steinbeck, in such a personal way that I felt warmed by it, reassured and encouraged.

I had the good fortune to see Jackson Browne open for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in Santa Barbara. The Santa Barbara Bowl is a very nice outdoor venue and it was a beautiful night under the stars.

Jackson arrived on stage about a half hour before the start of the show and did a brief "sound check". Jackson started off with "Boulevard" and then a really nice version of "Your Bright Baby Blues". He finished up with "Everywhere I Go". Someone tossed a bouquet of flowers on stage... Jackson said he'd be right back and left the stage.

A few minutes after the official starting time, Jackson came back on stage. His set list for the night was:

1. The Pretender
2. The Night Inside Me
3. Fountain of Sorrow
4. The Barricades of Heaven
5. The Naked Ride Home
6. Never Stop
7. Casino Nation
8. Culver Moon
9. Running On Empty

I liked having Katherine Russell on backing vocals. I thought she did great. The band sounded tight and Jeff Young's backing vocals were right on as well.

Everything went very smoothly and Jackson got a very favorable response from what was mostly a Tom Petty crowd. Jackson did forget the lyrics to "The Barricades of Heaven" for a few seconds near the beginning of the song, but otherwise his set was near perfect. Jackson did get a standing ovation after "Running On Empty" and a good percentage of the crowd seemed disappointed that he did not come back out for an encore. Jackson's set lasted about one hour.

Tom Petty and Heartbreakers were great. I'm a big Tom Petty fan. He REALLY knows how to rock! They played a lot of songs from the new album and seemed to be a little off on their timing and pacing, but it was the first show on this tour, so I guess that's to be expected. But when they got going, they really heated up the night! So many great rock and roll classics from which to choose...

Enjoyed the show very much. Can't wait until next year when Jackson returns as the headliner instead of the opening act.

SANTA BARBARA NEWS-PRESS
October 29, 2002

PETTY, BROWNE DON'T BACK DOWN
MUSIC REVIEW

By STARSHINE ROSHELL, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

While Rod Stewart is crooning "It Had to Be You" and The Rolling Stones are milking fans for more than $100 a ticket, Sunday night's classic-rock double feature at the Santa Barbara Bowl proved there are still a couple of legendary fiftysomething rockers who remain true to the music -- and grateful to the fans -- that made them famous.

Both Tom Petty and Jackson Browne delivered separate but equally impassioned messages about integrity to the sold-out crowd.

Between jangly folk tunes that seemed to be lit from within by the crystal California sound he helped to invent, Santa Barbara's own Jackson Browne used his easy-as-ever voice to urge the crowd to vote no on Ventura's Measure A, an initiative that would allow a significant hillside development there. Browne's set opened with a heartfelt rendition of "The Pretender," included the title track and lightly groovy "Never Stop" off his new album, "The Naked Ride Home," and finished with a nostalgic "Running on Empty," during which he looked and sounded much the same as he must have in '69, when he was 21.

Less earnest and more charismatic were the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers that followed.

"We're Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a genuine, traveling, American rock 'n' roll band," said Petty. "We're very proud to say we're here tonight on this tour with no corporate sponsors."

Unlike his hit-heavy, crowd-pleasing Bowl gig last year, Petty had an agenda this time: to promote his new concept album "The Last DJ," a scathing attack on what he sees as an increasingly corrupt rock culture characterized by impersonal radio playlists, money-grubbing record producers and sell-out musicians.

Petty (whom ticketholders paid $48 to $71 to see) can wail all he wants about the sour state of the music industry -- and good for him for doing so -- but he still clearly exults in performing his 13-album catalogue of wry, rollicking and rebellious rock tunes, and goes out of his way to share that joy with those lucky enough to be in attendance.

Under a cresting tsunami of fabric panels dazzlingly illuminated in jewel tones, Petty and his sport coat-sporting bandmates bopped around for two straight hours on wall-to-wall Oriental rugs. Looking like a skinny, eccentric duke with spun-gold tresses draping over the hunched shoulders of his regal red velvet jacket, Petty energetically high-stepped across the stage, launched into spontaneous boogies and graciously -- almost compulsively -- thanked the audience for, among other things, inviting him to play "one of the best gigs in America."

The sound was opulent but crisp, as though the distinct timbre of each instrument hung suspended over the amphitheater in its own roomy space, never jostling up against that of another, even on dense ditties like "Runnin' Down a Dream."

Petty and right-hand axe-man Mike Campbell -- whose countless solos are forever burned onto the collective American brain -- shared an arsenal of nearly 20 guitars ranging from Rickenbackers to Gretsches, and 12-strings to mandolins.

Scott Thurston's gorgeous harmonies warmed up Petty's tinny twang, and Benmont Tench was a twinkling bright spot on the grand piano. The low and tasty growls of original bassist Ron Blair combined for dramatic rhythmic precision with the razor-sharp whacks and thumps of drummer Steve Ferrone, who returned for the encore in Angels regalia minutes after the World Series was won.

The band played nearly all of its new songs, including the first-ever outdoor performance of the soft and memorable "Like a Diamond" and the head-banging, executive-slamming "Joe," about which Petty said, "It's really one of the meanest songs that I ever wrote, but I kind of enjoy it."

The group surprised the crowd by eschewing hits like "American Girl," "Refugee" and "Even the Losers," instead dusting off lesser-known numbers like 1979's "Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)," 1981's "A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)" and 1989's "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better."

But they weren't cruel, either, giving in on "The Waiting," "Free Fallin'," "I Won't Back Down," "Yer So Bad" and the stoney "You Don't Know How It Feels," on which Petty led the audience in a call and response of "Let's roll another one."

In a seeming celebration of their own enduring vitality, and perhaps a gibe at musical complacency, the band members thrust several songs forward into fever-pitch finales that swirled with psychedelic guitar licks, breakneck drumbeats and strobe lighting. Such was the case with an extended encore performance of "Mary Jane's Last Dance" that seemed especially appropriate as the final puffs of toke smoke wafted lazily through the spotlight beam before disappearing into the dark sky above.

I saw Jackson again on 10/29 - I have NEVER BEEN SO DISAPPOINTED IN MY LIFE!

This is probably around the 12th time I have seen him - he is my all time favorite - saw him in August with Tom P and again with Tom P last nite - I think he is really really tired from the tour.

I can't believe he would do almost the same set in San Diego as he did in Aug! And the songs he did - they didn't "take me anywhere" - not like his songs do - they weren't songs that "spoke" to me in anyway.

I just can't believe it - !
Submitted by: GVGERAK@aol.com (Gloria G.)

You can find a transcript of Jackson's interview on Austin City Limits at:

www.pbs.org/klru/austin/interviews/jbrown_interview.html

This interview was taped on October 9, 2002 and will be shown in November.