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June 26, 2022

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Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Jackson Browne is out supporting his latest album, Downhill From Everywhere and he made a stop at MGM's Center Stage last night. 

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Browne appeared last year at Blossom Music Center as the opening act for James Taylor.  This year, he is out on his own doing an "Evening With" and playing songs from his illustrious fifty year career.  

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Opening the show with "Somebody's Baby" from the Fast Times At Ridgemont High Soundtrack, I was immediately taken back to middle school when that film came out.  

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Browne's voice is as strong and distinctive as ever and his backing band are all outstanding musicians.  If it wasn't for the grey goatee and some greying around the temples, you would never know that Browne is seventy-three years old. 

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The twenty-five song set was broken into two parts.  The first set consisting of  new songs including the upbeat, "Downhill From Everywhere," the classic "Rock Me On The Water" and some deep cuts like "Fountain Of Sorrow."  

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Jackson took his time changing guitars between songs.  However, this extended pause gave people in the audience a chance to scream out song titles or just to yell to make themselves known.  Why people feel the need to scream when there is a pause is beyond me. 

 

Browne addressed the crowd by saying, "You guys must have been in Cincinnati last night."  After another song, the crowd kept it up.  This time Jackson said, "I hear you, "For A Dancer" is in the second set.  We don't have a violin on stage yet, but we will in the second set."  This still didn't appease some fans as they continued to yell.  He finally said, "This must be an Ohio thing."

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Some of them got the hint, but some didn't stop until "For A Dancer" was played.

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This constant yelling really took away from an otherwise excellent concert.

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The first set ended with the Little Steven cover of "I Am A Patriot."

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After a twenty minute intermission, Browne and the band returned and changed up the set list from what he has been playing on this leg of the tour.  Opening the second set with "My Cleveland Heart" and "The Dreamer" from his latest album.  

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Browne also made his way to the piano to sing "Sky Blue and Black."  However, when he played the opening chords of "Doctor My Eyes," most of the nearly sold-out audience got on their feet to sing and dance along.

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From that point on, it became a greatest hits show.  

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"Late For The Sky," "The Pretender," and "Running On Empty"  were all played in succession. 

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Jackson and his bandmates returned to encore with The Eagles hit, "Take It Easy" that he co-wrote with Glenn Frey.

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A second encore was demanded by the audience, so Jackson came out again but this time sat down at the piano.  He explained that the next song was a love letter to his crew, but it also became a love letter to the fans.

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"The Load Out" and "Stay" were the perfect way to close out the show.  Of course, Jackson had to change the lyrics from "a show in Chicago" to "a show in Ohio."

 

This Hall of Famer still has "it."  He hinted that he may come back and play an album in it's entirety.  He's just not sure which one to play.

 

If I have a vote, I would love to hear "Running On Empty" start to finish with some other hits thrown in for good measure.

 

 

Review and photos by Greg Drugan
 

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