Jackson Browne. Photo courtesy of the BSO.
Lenox — Jackson Browne has joined the roster of pop artists performing this summer at Tanglewood. He will appear on Thursday, August 31 at 7 p.m. Yes, that’s a long way off, but in just a few days, tickets for Browne’s Shed performance will go on sale: Thursday, June 1 at 10 a.m.
If you haven’t heard Jackson Browne in a long time, you might wonder if he still has the sound you remember from the 1970s. In all ways that matter, he does. But don’t take my word for it, listen to this cut off his GRAMMY-nominated album “Downhill from Everywhere” and see if you don’t get everything you expect from Browne and a helluva lot more. But if you want to really put him to a brutal test, just listen to one of his home recordings like this one. (Spoiler: He passes with flying colors.)
Browne was hardly more than a kid when he wrote his first hit for the Eagles. Now he is 74 years old, and he has a bit more wisdom than he had as a fresh-faced twenty-something in Santa Monica, Calif. The truth is, Browne’s manner of performing on stage as a youth is now perfectly becoming of a septuagenarian who never embraced the onstage glitz of his spandex-and-big-hair compatriots of the 1970s. (Even the Eagles wore oversize hairdos for a while.)
At 74, Browne has more to say than ever before and still knows how to work out his thoughts within the framework of a catchy, well-constructed pop song. He does this better than almost any of his peers, and he puts a premium on very high-quality songs, evidence of which you can see in long lists of co-writers on some of the songs he has recorded. For example, “Barricades of Heaven” had seven writers. The cut is classic, full-strength Jackson Browne but presented in such sparse production that there is less than ever to separate him from his audience. It is raw but not ragged. The mix is completely transparent: Every relevant musical detail is audible, every word, every note.
Jackson Brown released his debut album on David Geffen’s Asylum Records in 1972. He has released upwards of two dozen records, the latest of which, 2021’s “Downhill From Everywhere,” was nominated for a GRAMMY award in the category of Best Americana Album. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2007. A co-founder of the groups Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) and Nukefree.org and a member of the Ocean advocacy group, Ocean Elders, Browne is known for his advocacy on behalf of environmental and human rights causes and for arts education. In 2002, he received the John Steinbeck Award, given to artists devoted to the same environmental and social values that Steinbeck espoused. In 2004, Jackson received an honorary Doctorate of Music degree from Occidental College in Los Angeles, for “a remarkable musical career that has successfully combined an intensely personal artistry with a broader vision of social justice.”
But Jackson Browne still doubts his powers as a songwriter. “What can I say that’s gonna make any difference?” he recently asked an interviewer on Browne’s YouTube channel. “It’s a little bit like being the house band on the Titanic. What is a song gonna do? … What can I say that’s gonna help at all? You know, what’s gonna make any difference? I know many activists who spend their lives trying to move the dial and really try to save the planet and save our political system. But that’s a question we all have to ask ourselves: What is my purpose? What can I do?”
Get tickets here on June 1 at 10 a.m. to hear Jackson Brown at Tanglewood on August 31. Or call 888-266-1200.