Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne The Birds Of St. Marks: MOJO Premiere

August 18, 2014

By Danny Eccleston — MOJO Magazine

Ringing peals of guitar herald the coming of a great new Jackson Browne release, itself a harbinger of an October 6-7 album, Standing In The Breach, his 14th. Browne fans will find the rousing electric incarnation unfamiliar, but the song itself is from the archive.

The Birds Of St. Marks was originally recorded on April 6, 1970 as a demo for Criterion Music, and first emerged on Browne’s 2005 album, Solo Acoustic Vol 1. Concerning a medieval-ish queen sequestered in sadness behind castle walls, the song was inspired by Velvet Underground songstrel Nico, with whom the young Browne, as a dashing young-songwriter about town, had a dalliance. Browne songs and co-writes These Days, Somewhere Theres A Feather, The Fairest Of The Seasons lay at the heart of the Teutonic ice-maiden’s 1967 debut solo album, Chelsea Girl.

The new band treatment of The Birds Of St. Marks sees Browne (acoustic guitar), Val McCallum (electric guitar), Don Heffington (drums), and Bob Glaub (bass) joined by Greg Leisz on 12-string guitar, while McCallum and Kipp Lennon stir essence of Crosby into the vocal harmonies. The interplay between Val McCallum and Greg Leisz on this album the effortlessness of their chemistry is a gift really, enthuses Browne.

The album, Standing In The Breach, is available for pre-order now through Amazon and digitally through iTunes. Browne is currently on tour solo, to be joined by a full band in the States from September 14 and in the UK from November 17. For more detail on dates, visit www.jacksonbrowne.com.

Jackson Browne The Birds Of St. Marks

August 18, 2014

Hoy estrenamos la nueva cancin de Jackson Browne, The Birds of St. Marks. Es un tema conocido por los fans del msico, pues ya lo incluy anteriormente en el disco acstico Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1 y lo haba interpretado en directo, pero nunca lo haba grabado en estudio hasta ahora con banda.

Esta composicin de pop-rock clsico con aliento de folk es el primer single de adelanto de Standing In the Breach, el nuevo disco del veterano singer songwriter, emblema de la cancin de autor elctrica de California. El disco sale a la venta el prximo 7 de octubre.

Ya sexagenario, Jackson Browne no publicaba material nuevo desde el ao 2008.

El lbum, que hace el nmero 14 en su discografa, fue grabado junto a lo que Browne define como su “banda ideal”: Val McCallum (guitarras), Mauricio Lewak (batera), Jeff Young (teclados), Bob Glaub (bajo) y Greg Leisz (guitarra, lap steel, pedal steel).

Jackson Browne Returns to an Old Favorite Hear The Birds of St. Marks

August 18, 2014

Six years after Time the Conqueror, a Bush-era LP that found him addressing subjects like Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War,  Jackson Browne is preparing to release Standing in the Breach, a new studio album due October 7th. For the lead single, the singer-songwriter returned to “The Birds of St. Marks,” a tune he wrote when he was playing guitar with Nico in the late Sixties, and recruited his new ensemble of musicians to give the track a fuller arrangement.

“I was freeloading off friends on the Lower East Side,” Browne says. “I came to New York with no money at all, and I got this job playing for Nico, which sort of saved me because I had nothing going. I was suggested for the job by Tim Buckley. I went to go see Tim, whom I knew, and Nico was there with Sterling Morrison backing her up. And other nights it would be Lou Reed I guess. She actually offered the job to Tim Buckley, but he started laughing and said, ‘I don’t think she realizes that I have gigs!'”

“The Birds of St. Marks,” in turn, was inspired partly by the singer’s admiration for  Byrds guitarist Jim McGuinn: “This is a song I always heard as a Byrds song, and that was even part of the writing of the song because Nico loved the Byrds. She even said on a couple of occasions, ‘Oh, you can play something like Jim McGuinn?'” Her tastes were really eclectic. She also knew Ornette Coleman and he was really responsible for the way she began to play the pump organ. He told her, ‘Yeah, you should play the melody with your left hand.’ And she thought that McGuinn was like an avant-garde guitarist.”

The finished version of the song features Greg Leisz playing a McGuinn-esque 12-string guitar and can be streamed here. Browne, meanwhile, is in the middle of a tour that includes stops at venues like New York’s Beacon Theatre, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and London’s Royal Albert Hall.

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Jackson Browne Announces U.S. And U.K. Fall Tour Dates In Support Of His New Studio Album To Be Released October 6/7

July 15, 2014

Band Shows Begin At The Kennedy Center In September, Ending In November At Londons Royal Albert Hall

Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne announces fall tour dates in the U.S and U.K to support his new studio album, Standing In The Breach, scheduled for release on October 6 (international) and 7 (U.S.). The fall shows with Jackson and his band begin on September 14 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and end on November 24, at Londons Royal Albert Hall. new studio album can be pre-ordered with each purchased concert ticket, and is also available for pre-order now thru Amazon at:
…and digitally thru iTunes at : . . .and digitally thru iTunes

Accompanying Jackson on the road this fall are longtime band mates Val McCallum (guitar), Mauricio Lewak (Drums), Jeff Young (keyboards) and Bob Glaub (bass), with the addition of acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz (guitar, lap steel, pedal steel). Standing In The Breach, Jackson’s fourteenth studio album, is a collection of ten songs, at turns deeply personal and political, exploring love, hope, and defiance in the face of the advancing uncertainties of modern life.

This is my ideal band, with some of my favorite players, all of whom appear on the new CD, and whose combined gifts provide the musical foundation and emotional underpinnings of my new songs, says Jackson. The interplay between Val McCallum and Greg Leisz on this album – the effortlessness of their chemistry is a gift really, that just dropped into my lap. I feel fortunate to have them out on the road for this tour.

Currently, Jackson Browne is on a solo tour thru August 23rd, with two (2) band shows on August 4 and 5, in a co-bill with John Fogerty at PNC Bank Arts Center (Holmdel, NJ) and Jones Beach (Wantagh, NY).

For more information, visit www.jacksonbrowne.com.

SUMMER 2014 TOUR DATES:
Solo Acoustic
July 15 – Riverside Theater – Milwaukee, WI
July 16 – Overture Center for the Art -Madison, WI
July 18 – State Theater – Minneapolis, MN
July 19 – Paramount Theatre Cedar -Rapids, IA
July 21 – Orpheum – Wichita, KS

Full Band shows
August 4 – PNC Bank Arts Ctr (with John Fogerty) – Holmdel, NJ
August 5 – Nikon At Jones Beach (with John Fogerty) – Wantagh, NY

Solo Acoustic
August 9 – State Theatre Center for the Arts – Easton, PA
August 11 – Artpark – Lewistown, NY
August 13 – The Landmark Theatre – Syracuse, NY
August 14 – The Palace Theatre – Albany, NY
August 16 – Boston Opera House – Boston, MA
August 17 – Merrill Auditorium – Portland, ME
August 19 – Capitol Center – Concord, NH
August 20 – Providence PAC – Providence, RI
August 22 – Toyota Presents the Oakdale Theatre – Wallingford, CT
August 23 – Hippodrome Theatre – Baltimore, MD

FALL TOUR (U.S)
Full Band
September – 14 Kennedy Center – Washington, DC
September – 27 Newport Folk Fest Presents Way Over Yonder – Santa Monica, CA
October 4 – Strand Capitol Performing Arts Center -York, PA
October 7 – Beacon Theatre -New York, NY
October 10 – Academy of Music- Philadelphia, PA
October 12 – Benedum Center – Pittsburgh, PA
October 14 – Chicago Theatre – Chicago, IL
October 15 – E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall- Akron, OH
October 17 – Palace Theatre – Columbus, OH
October 18 – Murat Theatre – Indianapolis, IN

FALL TOUR (U.K.)
Full Band
November 17 – Symphony Hall – Birmingham, UK
November 18 – Bridgewater Hall – Manchester, UK
November 20 – The Sage – Gateshead, UK
November 21 – Royal Concert Hall – Glasgow, UK
November 24 – Royal Albert Hall – London, UK

Jackson Browne, Loretta Lynn Among Top Americana Honorees

July 8, 2014

by Adam Gold – Rolling Stone

Known the world over for such hits as “Running on Empty,” “Somebody’s Baby” and “Doctor My Eyes,” and revered for classic albums the likes of Late for the Sky and The Pretender, Browne straddles the roots-y space between Sixties folk, Seventies song-craft and country-tinged classic AM radio rock that defines the Frankenstein DNA of Americana. His contributions to the Eagles, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Nico and Linda Ronstadtcatalogs alone — including penning “Take It Easy” and “These Days”; and not to mention basically teaching longtime friend Glenn Frey the discipline of songwriting — are a lifetime achievement unto themselves. Browne will receive the AMA’s “Spirit of Americana, Free Speech in Music Award,” which is presented in conjunction with the First Amendment Center.

“In Seventies post-Vietnam America, there was no album that captured the fall from Eden; the long, slow after-burn of the Sixties — its heartbreak, its disappointments, its spent possibilities — better than Jackson’s masterpiece Late for the Sky,” Bruce Springsteensaid of Browne’s 1974 signature LP in his 2004 speech inducting the singer into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “When those car doors slam at the end of the record, they still bring tears. And there was no more searching, yearning, loving music made for and about America at the time.”

Lynn will receive AMA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting. No stranger to such accolades — and a bona fide trailblazer with a canon boasting such indelible classics as “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” “Dear Uncle Sam” and “Rated X” — the 82-year-old living legend is already a Country Music Hall of Fame member and, like Browne, a Songwriters’ Hall of Fame inductee, as well. Lynn’s hard-worn, rags-to-riches life story was immortalized on celluloid in the classic 1980 Academy Award-winning biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter — based on her best-selling autobiography named after her most iconic song.

But the singer’s story didn’t end there. Lynn’s 2004 Jack White-produced, Grammy winning smash Van Lear Rose ignited a twilight career resurgence for the singer, who still tours to this day.  This makes Lynn’s third lifetime achievement award. She received at the 2010 Grammy Awards, in addition to receiving a Kennedy Center Honor in 2003.

Harlem-hailing, genre-journeying multi-instrumentalist Taj Mahal (nee Henry Saint Clair Fredericks) is being honored in AMA’s Lifetime Achievement category for Performance. The voracious musicologist has had an incalculable influence on the blues by way of integrating styles ranging from jazz, folk, country, gospel, rock, R&B and zydeco, to reggae, Latin, Carribean, African and beyond, over a 40-plus-year career. Fredericks, 72, has inspired and performed with heavy hitters like the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Etta James. A two-time Grammy winner, he first rose to fame in the early Sixties alongside Ry Cooder in California blues-folk outfit the Rising Sons.

Somewhat of a wild card among this class of recipients, but by no means less deserving of the honor, Grammy winning Texas accordion virtuoso Flaco Jimenez — whose country, rock and tejano punch card includes names the likes of Bob Dylan, Doug Sahm, Dr. John, Carlos Santana, The Mavericks, Dwight Yoakam, Buck Owens, Ry Cooder and the Rolling Stones — gets the AMA Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist.

Previous Americana Lifetime Achievement honorees include Levon Helm, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Bonnie Raitt, Gram Parsons, John Fogerty, Gregg Allman, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Townes Van Zandt, Wanda Jackson, Joe Ely, Jason and the Scorchers, Duane Eddy, John Mellencamp, Guy Clark, Cowboy Jack Clement, Joan Baez, John Prine, Billy Joe Shaver, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Old Crow Medicine Show, Sam Phillips and T Bone Burnett.

Lynn, Browne, Fredericks and Jimenez will be celebrated as part of the Americana Honors and Awards Ceremony September 17th at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The event kicks off AmericanaFest 2014. Now in its 15^th year, the festival and conference runs September 17^th through 21^st and will feature 160 acts at various Nashville venues. Appearing artists include the Avett Brothers, Lee Ann Womack, Marty Stuart, Rodney Crowell, Hayes Carll, Rhett Miller, Billy Joe Shaver, Tony Joe White, Robyn Hitchcock, Buddy Miller and more.