Win a Jackson Browne CD
‘Thinking man's rockstar' returns with new work
One of America’s finest singer-songwriters, the venerable Jackson Browne, is making a most welcome and much-anticipated return to New Zealand, and we have just the thing to whet your whistle ahead of what will definitely be a ‘history-in-the-making’ night to remember!
We’re giving you the chance to win a copy of his latest release — the much-lauded Downhill From Everywhere on CD. We have four copies up for grabs!
Reviewer Timothy Monger had this to say in part, and we reckon he’s pretty much captured the essence of what the album, and indeed Browne himself, is all about:
“Jackson Browne albums don’t come around all that often anymore. During his prolific years in the 1970s and 80s, he had plenty to say and said it with the sensitivity and poetic candour that is his stock-in-trade. ”
Downhill From Everywhere is Browne’s fourth studio album since the turn of the millennium and his 15th overall, and critics and fans alike reckon it’s a pretty darn good one.
Monger continues: “Recognised as one of the defining voices of the boomer generation, he epitomised the laid-back singer/songwriter sound of the West Coast, and in that respect, little has changed. At 72, Browne’s musical legacy remains undiminished, and if Downhill isn’t a particularly radical entry in his catalogue, it has the heart, craft and veteran presence of an artist who has little to prove, but still a bit more to say.”
Warmly arranged in the lean manner of his best 70s work, the 10-song set is a delight of tasteful guitar work, folk-rock charm and perceptive lyrics befitting the singer’s current position on the timeline.
Among the reflections on mortality (the wistful Still Looking for Something) and late-in-life romance (Minutes to Downtown) are more topical concerns like the environment (the title track’s punchy antipollution plea) and immigration (the poignant The Dreamer). In this way, Downhill adheres to Browne’s lateperiod
album template of presenting a fairly even balance of the personal and political. Captaining the expected band of LA studio stalwarts with easy grace, it’s an album full of strong performances, few missteps, and the weary charisma that has been one of the singer’s hallmarks.
A half-century into his career, that timeless feeling that signified even Browne’s earliest releases is still present, and we think this ensures concert-goers will get something of the same, yet at the same time, something just a little different.
Jackson Browne, probably best known here for his anthemic Running On Empty, has produced some awesome material that has been performed by such greats as The Eagles (Take It Easy), The Byrds, Tom
Rush, Joan Baez and Linda Ronstadt.
His work is recognised for its compelling melodies, clear, honest, and insightful lyrics, and a flair for composition rarely seen in the world of rock and roll. He was often referred to as “a thinking man’s rockstar”.
Fun fact: his standard closing number Stay is a cover of a numberone hit single from November 1960 by the Zodiacs, which only lost that spot when Elvis Presley’s Are You Lonesome Tonight came along.
Jackson’s version was released as a single and charted at No 20 in the USA and No 12 in the UK — just another reason you’ll want to catch this amazing show and ‘stay’ right to the very end!
How could you want to be anywhere else?