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Jackson Browne – Downhill From Everywhere
The Scoop: Acclaimed singer-songwriter Jackson Browne returns with his first new album in six years, Downhill From Everywhere, which arrives today on his label Inside Recordings. The 72-year-old Browne, who also produced the album, brought together a core band made up of guitarists Greg Leisz (Eric Clapton, Bill Frisell) and Val McCallum (Lucinda Williams, Sheryl Crow), bassist Bob Glaub (Linda Ronstadt, CSNY, John Fogerty), keyboardist Jeff Young (Sting, Shawn Colvin) and drummer Mauricio Lewak (Sugarland, Melissa Etheridge) who recorded the follow-up to 2014’s Standing in the Breach. Others contributing to Downhill From Everywhere include Leslie Mendelson who provided vocals on “A Human Touch,” which she co-wrote with Browne and Steve McEwan, while “The Dreamer” is a bilingual collaboration with Eugene Rodriguez of Los Cenzontles. Browne took on social and environmential justice issues within the lyrics that appear accross the 10-track LP.
“Songwriting is a mysterious thing,” said Browne. “Sometimes it feels a bit like consulting the oracle … I see the writing on the wall. I know there’s only so much time left in my life. But I now have an amazing, beautiful grandson, and I feel more acutely than ever the responsibility to leave him a world that’s inhabitable … There’s a deep current of inclusion running through this record. I think that idea of inclusion, of opening yourself up to people who are different than you, that’s the fundamental basis for any kind of understanding in this world … I think racial and economic and environmental justice are at the root of all the other issues we’re facing right now. Dignity and justice are the bedrock of everything that matters to us in this life … As a songwriter, you want to catch people when they’re dreaming. You want to find a way into their psyche when they don’t see you coming.”