FILE: “Jackson Browne at Red Rocks Amphitheater Tuesday August 18, 2014. Photos by Evan Semón for Reverb”
drew mostly grey-haired fans to Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Monday night. He switched between his bevy of guitars and his piano for two sets of songs old and new. A 2016 inductee into the Red Rocks Hall of Fame, Browne opened with “Rock Me On the Water,” released in 1972 on his debut record. He followed with “Just Say Yeah,” released in 2008. That’s 36 years between the songs yet not the total breadth of Browne’s vast canon.
Browne’s vintage radio hits held up, thanks to his band that he nicknamed “The Embarrassment of Riches.” For diehard fans of deeper tracks, Browne segued from “Take It Easy” (co-written with Glenn Frey) into “Our Lady of the Well” just as he did on the album from 1973. Browne introduced “Call It a Loan” as the only song he co-wrote with David Lindley, his longtime musical comrade.
“Running on Empty” needed no introduction. The popular song from 1977 gave rise to controversy in the 2008 presidential campaign when Senator John McCain’s camp used the tune in an advertisement without permission. Browne, an outspoken leftie, won a copyright lawsuit leveled against the Republicans’ tone-deaf gaffe.
Browne got his political jabs in with “Walls and Doors,” “Which Side are You On” and “Long Way Home” from his 2014 record “Standing in the Breach.” During his encore cover of Steven Van Zandt’s “I Am a Patriot,” Browne sang “I ain’t no socialist,” before conceding: “Well, maybe I’m a socialist.”
Typically both troubadour and raconteur at concerts, Browne spoke less than usual but commented on the cannabis aroma. “It smells good in here,” he said. “It smells different when it’s legal.”
Browne’s struggles with vocals were evident yet forgiven of the highly decorated singer-songwriter who gave us “The Pretender,” “Fountain of Sorrow” and “Late for the Sky.”
Jackson Browne will play a solo acoustic show on in Colorado Springs.
Setlist: Jackson Browne, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 08/22/16
- Rock Me On the Water
- Just Say Yeah
- Fountain of Sorrow
- The Long Way Around
- Call It a Loan
- I’m Alive
- For Everyman
- Walls and Doors
- For a Dancer
- Doctor My Eyes
- Birds of St. Mark’s
- Bright Baby Blues
- Which Side Are You On
- These Days
- Somebody’s Baby (From the “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” soundtrack)
- Boulevard
- Redneck Friend
- Barricades of Heaven
- Late for the Sky
- In the Shape of a Heart
- The Pretender
- Running on Empty
- Take it Easy
- Lady of the Well
- I am a Patriot
