Jackson Browne, July 13, 2009 Danbury, CT

Tonight I'm at a Jackson Browne concert at Western Connecticut State University. This is without a doubt the smallest venue I've ever seen an established "star" at. It is basically a big gazebo with 25 rows of folding chairs in front of the stage. This is the venue a band plays on the way up. When they live in a van and eat beef jerky to survive.

My 11 year is excited to be here but only because he likes going to concerts. There is no way he knows who this guy is. He isn't on Guitar Hero and his music is more likely to be heard over the PA at the supermarket than on a classic rock station. This definitely the oldest crowd I've been with this concert season. Makes me feel young though I saw the official sponsor of his tour is Geritol.

Nevertheless it's a beautiful night, the beer is cold and Jackson is banging Tender is the Night. Not bad on a Monday.

Jackson is employing a technique that has come quite common for singers 60ish years old. He's not only relying on his background singers to beef up the vocals, he's letting them sing entire songs that were once signature songs of his. On a rational level I understand the necessity of this. Given his age and touring schedule it isn't reasonable to expect his pipes to be that strong. Three/four shows a week is a grind for anyone, much less a member of the AARP.

However Jackson didn't charge a discounted rate for this show, he charged full boat so I would like the Full Monty. Jimmy Buffett does this as well and I think it sucks. Buffett has a background singer named Nadirah Shakoor. She has been with him for 20 years and Parrotheads love her. Nevertheless when she put out an album where she covered her favorite Buffett songs it sold about 500 copies. No one, not even Parrottheads were interested. We're fans of the stars and admirers of the company. That's an enormous difference. No one is paying $150 to watch Buffett be the rhythm guitar player or Jackson be the piano player. We'll applaud when he introduces the band, but that's where it ends.

The only band that ever pulls this off is the Rolling Stones. Keith has a handful of songs he sings, Happy, Gonna Walk Before They Make Me Run. The band breaks these out so Mick can run backstage and suck on an oxygen tank for 5 or 10 minutes. It works because these are in fact, Keith's songs and he is just as big a part of the Stones as Mick.

Of course the use of a pinch hitter to sing for a 60 year old rock star raises other questions. Do these guys use pinch hitters for other aspects of their lives. Rock stars live hard lives. They make some money by the time they are 60 but it's come at expense of taking a lot of tread off the tires. I assume most of these guys have trophy wives in their mid twenties. Can they use a pinch hitter for their husbandly duties? Do they hire some young dude to help with the kids' home work and to warm up the wife? Once you start down the slope of letting other people do your job it's difficult to stop.

Can't tell which Jackson Browne we are getting tonight. Late 70s and early 80s Jackson was the MAN and often recognized as one of the top song writers of the era. At that point the topic of his songs was the harshness and absurdity of LA life. Running on Empty, Boulevard and even Lawyers in Love were all commercial and artistic successes. Alongside the Eagles and Warren Zevon, Jackson was the hottest act from LA.

However, by the mid 80s he decided his fans were so interested in what he had to say that he would sing exclusively about his global and political beliefs. This decision had the unintended consequence of driving his career off a cliff. Obviously global awareness was very en vogue at the time. Remember the Live Aid concerts? Actually the title "We Are the World" shows the hubris of American artists but I digress...

In the 80s most bands learned the most important lesson of social consciousness which was no matter how far you stretch it, nothing rhymes with "Nicaragua" or "Sandinista". Even Bono knew this. Instead Jackson committed career suicide by forcing the issue in his music and no one cared. This probably explains why James Taylor is beloved and sells out nationwide whereas Jackson finds himself playing a venue a little larger than a high school auditorium tonight.