You Take Sally and I'll Take Sue: A Night with Jackson Browne

Photo courtesy of musiccitytexas.org


Monday night my friend and I went to see Jackson Browne perform at the VBC Concert Hall here in Huntsville. The hall quickly filled up with a pretty homogenous group of fans looking to rekindle that old feeling. For me, I have always had a soft spot for this singer/songwriter from California who always reminded me of some guy who could have been one of my brother's friends in high school.

The stage was set up with two persian rugs, a keyboard, and an impressive set-up of 14 acoustic guitars. At the number of guitars my friend and I were dumbfounded. As JB explained it, the number suggests versatility where there in fact is none. In fact, the number of guitars onstage was really so that he could perform efficiently without having to spend time before each song tuning the guitar.

JB's vocals were impeccable as was his playing, but he seemed to forget lyrics frequently. Indeed, before beginning one song he stopped and asked a woman up front if she could tell him the words to the second verse because he didn't want to have to stop later, haha. Sans setlist, he seemed to get a little lost amidst all the requests coming in from the crowd. See, with a southern crowd, if you’re going to admit that you don’t have a setlist they’ll take it upon themselves to tell you exactly what you need to play. Of course, the obligatory drunks were in the audience responding to everyone’s requests by saying “PLAY JAY-KSUN BRAY-AWN!” and “PLAY HWAT YEW HWANT!” In some way this made the performance seem very natural and intimate. On the other hand, it made it seem a little aimless and drag on a bit.

I think my friend and I would also have liked to hear more upbeat tunes like Boulevard to keep the energy going, but honestly I have to work at finding anything truly negative to say. JB is a legend and it was a great night. Well, except for the one woman who kept yelling “TELL IT!” and screaming “YEEEAAAAHHH!!!” behind me. Every time JB would begin introducing a song I was anticipating a banshee-like scream coming from behind so I spent a good portion of the night waiting for those moments.

Jackson played crowd favorites Rosie (to this request he stated that in his experience it’s best to not delay haha), Running on Empty, Cocaine, The Pretender and my personal favorite Somebody’s Baby. He also threw in new material as well as a cover of Take It Easy. He did not play Doctor My Eyes, which my concert mate was hoping for. I give this one an Unexpected. -K