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By: Tim Donnelly
Jackson Browne :: 03.28.08 :: Borgata Music Box :: Atlantic City NJ
When a legendary artist like Jackson Browne throws the setlist out the window, the realm of possibilities is unquantifiable. As he has done on recent solo acoustic tours, he plays what he feels in the moment.
With an energized Friday night casino crowd in front of him, Browne did the unthinkable, he turned the Jersey Shore gambling hall's performance space into a beach town coffee house complete with requests, stories, miscues and triumphs. Beginning with "Barricades of Heaven" and ending with "The Pretender," every song choice was succinct, relevant and gripping, with humor and love being the common thread. The humor came often from the interstitial stories Browne told as he picked one of the 15 guitars onstage or as he sat at his keyboard.
Browne's story of having to explain to David Crosby where he was that day, without really knowing where he was, and having Crosby tell him where he was, was hysterical. "Crosby said to me, 'You are at the Borgata. There are good people where you are, don't worry,'" Browne recounted.
To satisfy an audience request, Browne started the song "Bright Baby Blues" and screwed up the lyrics. He stopped, asked his tech guy to go online and print out the lyrics. The tech did, but forgot to give the still-youthful Browne his reading glasses.
His older work was performed pitch perfect. Songs like "Love Needs A Heart" and the now-more-than-ever appropriateness of "For Everyman" and "These Days" (written when Browne was just 16-years-old in 1964) are timelessly tender in thought and intention. The newer songs in his expansive repertoire received equal love, especially the spectacular "The Night Inside Me," "Sky Blue and Black" and the poignant "Never Stop." I had said that parts of the gig were funny in a ha-ha way and they were. If there is such thing as a subliminal anthem for self-gratification it is "Rosie" from his Running On Empty period, where Browne had the crowd in the palm of his hand.
With a knowledgeable, friendly and loving crowd giving back to him, he granted a request for the Philly favorite written with his dearly departed comrade Warren Zevon. "I came up with the title 'Tenderness on the Block' and I passed out. When I woke up, the song was done," Browne laughed. By song's end, one sensed Zevon's Cheshire grin smiling down from above.
Perhaps the mot striking moment of the evening arrived during some truth telling about our current state of the union. Playing an anti-administration number would be overkill and obvious, so while he sat a mile away from the edge of America's coast, armed with just a guitar, Browne launched into the rising and powerful, "Looking East."
How long have I left my mind to the powers that be?
How long will it take to find the higher power moving in me?
Power in the insect
Power in the sea
Power in the snow falling silently
Power in the blossom
Power in the stone
Power in the song being sung alone
Power in the wheat field
Power in the rain
Power in the sunlight and the hurricane
Power in the silence
Power in the flame
Power in the sound of the lover's name
The power of the sunrise and the power of a prayer released
At the edge of my country, I pray for the ones with the least
With those words, and the words of follow-up "Lives in the Balance," the truth of the night was revealed - it's the power of me and the power of you, the power of things greater than us and the power of it all together.
Jackson Browne is a living legend and an old friend you haven't seen in a while, whose beliefs have never wavered and who, even after all this time, is nowhere near running on empty.
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