Jackson Browne at Ravinia

Jackson Browne at Ravinia
In my long career of concert going, I must admit somehow I have never seen Jackson Browne, though I have many of his songs on my IPod and still in my record collection. His amazing career spans over 40 years with such iconic songs as Take it Easy and These Days, written and recorded by Browne but performed by many famous artists and bands over the years.
The opening act of vocalist Teresa Williams and her husband, the incredible guitarist Larry Campbell was a nice warm up to the start of the evening. Accompanied by Browne’s band, made up of some of the industries most talented live and studio musicians really elevated Browne’s ballads of love and social consciousness to a beautiful level. Williams has a real country sound and Campbell’s fancy finger picking was just a warm up for him before taking the stage again as a member of Browne’s band.

It is amazing the amount of songs Jackson Browne has written and co written with just about everyone in the music business. His voice still has that sexy California sound to it. He still sings and writes songs about broken hearts, lost loves, social and environmental issues. He has always been involved in political activism most of his life.
Browne performed first at Ravinia in 1977 and returns for his sixth season. He played songs from his newly released album (from October 2014) Standing in the Breach. It is his 14th studio album. This is the kind of guy you want to take your kids to see. He is a rare breed of songwriter and has a vast array of commercial material and pop hits. He has played with the best and was active in the Woodstock era. The crowd was very mellow and seemed to enjoy the breaks between songs when Browne would engage the audience with stories and funny moments from his career. The crowd especially loved when Browne made a comparison to the Hollywood Bowl being California’s answer to Ravinia, and that he always enjoyed playing the North Shore venue. It was an awesome show, his band was phenomenal and the songs mellow, just like Jackson Browne.

Reviewed by Joseph Paul

 

www.ravinia.org