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MusicRadar Jackson Browne talks guitars, production and new album Standing In The Breach
October 1, 2014
A sort of jammy, friendly kind of arrangement is at the heart of it.
You notice something very striking about Jackson Browne when listening to his new album, Standing In The Breach. Beyond its myriad, rich and sublime attributes – the dreamy bed of Byrds-like guitars on The Birds Of St. Marks, the spellbinding transposition to song of an unpublished Woody Guthrie letter, along with Browne’s engrossing examinations of human bonds and social-political concerns – there’s the singer’s sweet and soulful voice: It’s as pure and present as it’s ever been, an instrument that is, it would seem, ageless.
Browne laughs in almost an “aw, shucks” manner when I compliment him on his singing and how, unlike so many other veteran performers his age (he turns 66 on October 6), it doesn’t sound as if he’s making any noticeable allowances for changes in his vocal range. “The truth is, I never really liked my singing very much, especially in the beginning,” he says. “Then, at a certain point, I got comfortable with the way I sang because it seemed to work, especially live. I’d realize how not to do stuff that doesn’t work. I’m still settling for a kind of limited palate.”
The singer does admit to “studying” his voice in recent years, even going to see what he calls a “vocal repairman.” “I just said, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to figure out how to make some of the sounds I want,” he says. And on the new record, he even made some changes to how he tracked songs, focusing on one number at a time and sticking with it until he was happy with his vocal performance. “It worked out well, singing one song until I was finished rather than trying to sing them all at once,” he says. “It also allowed me to get a different sound on certain vocal so that they wouldn’t be engulfed by the tracks.’ Each vocal would hold its own.”
Browne recorded Standing In The Breach at his own Santa Monica-based facility, Groove Masters, with a group of players he’s worked with for years – among them, guitarists Greg Leisz, Val McCallum and Mark Goldenberg; drummers Jim Keltner and Mauricio Lewak; bassists Bob Glaub and Kevin McKormick – as well as some notable guests like keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Pete Thomas, bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, singer-songwriter Jonathan Wilson and Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith.
Browne sat down with MusicRadar recently to talk about recording the new album, the guitars he used, his own style of fingerpicking, politics in music, producing other artists and his recollections of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. (Jackson Browne’s Standing In The Breach, due out October 7, can be pre-ordered at iTunes, Amazon and at this link.)
Link to Article MusicRadar Jackson Browne talks guitars, production and new album Standing In The BreachRolling Stone Germany – Pre-Listening: Jackson Browne – Standing In The Breach
September 30, 2014
Hren sie bei uns vorab und exklusiv das neue Album von Jackson Browne: “Standing In The Breach”.
Am 6. Oktober wird mit “Standing In The Breach ” ein neues Album von Jackson Browne erscheinen. Es ist bereits das vierzehnte Studiowerk in der Karriere des in Heidelberg geborenen Musikers. Im Herbst ist Browne zusamen mit seinen langjhrigen Bandkollegen Val McCallum, Mauricio Lewak, Jeff Young und Bob Glaub auf Tour. (Termine fr Deutschland sind bisher noch nicht angekndigt.)
Link to Article Rolling Stone Germany – Pre-Listening: Jackson Browne – Standing In The BreachRTVE.es estrena Standing in the breach, el nuevo disco de Jackson Browne
September 30, 2014
El dcimo cuarto disco en estudio del cantautor ver la luz el 7 de octubre. “The birds of St. Marks”, primer single, fue compuesta originalmente en 1967. Jackson Browne presentar el disco en una gira por EE.UU y Reino Unido
RTVE.es estrena este martes Standing in the breach, el dcimo cuarto disco en estudio del cantautor estadounidense Jackson Browne. Standing in the breach, que ver la luz el prximo 7 de octubre, es un trabajo “con rasgos claramente personales y polticos, donde explora en profundidad temas como el amor, la esperanza y desafa de cara algunas de las incertidumbres que acontecen en la vida moderna”, segn la nota de prensa que acompaa al lanzamiento.
El disco, que cuenta con diez temas, se abre con “The birds of St. Marks”, que ha sido elegido como single del lanzamiento. Se trata de una cancin que Browne compuso en los inicios de su carrera, en 1967, despus de regresar a California tras una breve estancia en Nueva York.
Link to Article RTVE.es estrena Standing in the breach, el nuevo disco de Jackson BrowneEsquire Magazine Exclusive: Listen to Jackson Browne’s Yeah Yeah
September 29, 2014
“It’s like going to the pound and rescuing a dog,” Jackson Browne says of his penchant for picking up cheap, unusual guitars on eBay. “You know, ‘Let me make something out of this.'”
Whether it’s his undying love for the guitar or his ability to wring a great song out of thin air, Browne seems as inspired as ever on Standing in the Breach, his new album due out October 7 on Inside Recordings, as well as on his current tour.
The album, which features essentially the same band that Browne has used in his recordings and tours since 1993’s I’m Alive, harks back to the legendary songwriter’s best work, and will be a welcome addition for any fan of his music, especially those who favor his classic, early-’70s recordings. It’s been exactly six years since Browne’s last studio album, Time the Conqueror, though the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has released several live albums in the past decade.
“I’ve been more or less productive at different times in my life, but I had to become more industrious to get this album made,” Browne admits of his latest. “I put as much into the writing of the songs as I ever have with anything I’ve ever done, but when I started it wasn’t in the context of record-making. It was more in the context of living and trying to find an approach to certain topics that I figured were important to me and, I think, important to life.”
Remarkably, Standing in the Breach even holds its own against Browne’s landmark 1974 classic Late for the Sky, boasting the songwriter’s finely observed ruminations on love and the space between people. “Here” and “Yeah Yeah,” premiering exclusively here, are prime examples of the sort of writing that Browne is celebrated for.
Link to Article Esquire Magazine Exclusive: Listen to Jackson Browne’s Yeah YeahUSAToday – Hear Jackson Browne’s Standing in the Breach album
September 29, 2014
Standing in the Breach, the new Jackson Browne album premiering at USA TODAY (out Oct. 7), finds the singer/songwriter in a distressed but ultimately hopeful frame of mind.
Take the key line in If I Could Be Anywhere: “If I could be anywhere right now, I would want to be here.” It’s a lyric, and a delivery, worthy of Browne’s most sentimental love songs, but it’s not used that way. Except that it kind of is.
“It is a love song a love song to the oceans, the environment, to future generations,” Browne says. “It’s the idea that there’s a challenge that can only be met while we’re here, both in the sense of being present and also that we’re here at this moment in time. . . .”
Link to Article USAToday – Hear Jackson Browne’s Standing in the Breach album