Jackson Browne

Los Cenzontles launches Supporting Roots Capital Campaign

August 22, 2013

Jackson Browne headlines Richmond benefit with special guest David Hidalgo

SUNDAY, SEPT 29
CRANEWAY PAVILION
RICHMOND, CA
7:00 SHOW

Featuring:
Jackson Browne
David Hidalgo
Los Cenzontles

Singer songwriter Jackson Browne and David Hidalgo will kick off the campaign drive with a very special concert to benefit Los Cenzontles at the Richmond Craneway Pavilion on Sunday, September 29 at 7:00 PM.  Los Cenzontles touring group and students will also perform. Tickets go on sale at 10 AM on Saturday, August 24th:

Los Cenzontles (pronounced los senn-sont-less) announces the launch of its “Supporting Roots” Campaign to raise funds to expand and renovate its facility and expand its renowned cultural arts programming. Los Cenzontles (The Mockingbirds) is a factory of musical culture based in California. Deeply rooted in tradition, its professional musicians and mentors redefine Mexican American culture with a contemporary voice. Through a nationally acclaimed musical group, a media production company, and a youth Academy, Los Cenzontles focuses on the future by bringing our youth to the forefront of our mission and music.

The $2 million campaign will allow the nonprofit organization to renovate and expand its storefront providing 30 percent more space for additional classrooms that will include a new dance studio, art room, sound proofing, storage and kitchen for cooking classes. The campaign will also provide production equipment upgrades, staffing and reserves to ensure long-term organizational stability.

The “Supporting Roots” capital campaign, co-chaired by singer Linda Ronstadt, Dr. Sandra Hernandez and Steve Oliver, was recently bolstered by a $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation.

Says Los Cenzontles Founder and Director Eugene Rodriguez “To receive major support from Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and the Ford Foundation is recognition that Los Cenzontles has come a long way since its grass roots origins. We now sit among the top California organizations and have statewide and national impact in the field of the cultural arts. Many communities are looking to us as a model for community arts programming. We want to fulfill this role. The Supporting Roots Campaign significantly enhances our ability to serve our mission.”

Eugene Rodriguez formed Los Cenzontles as an arts residency in 1989. He incorporated the nonprofit organization in 1994 and moved into the Dias Plaza storefront on San Pablo Avenue in 1998. “We have been bursting at the seams with our Academy classes, production projects, storage and office space needs.  Our goal is to have the project completed by Spring 2014, in time for Los Cenzontles’ 25th Anniversary.

LC Academy serves 650 students each year. It creates dozens of cultural videos and songs with over 1.4 million upload views online. The performing group performs for 25,000 people per year in partnership with numerous agencies nationwide and internationally. The organization promotes cultural investment and dialogue to strengthen youth, families and communities.

The Ford Foundation gift for the Supporting Roots Campaign joins gifts from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Walter and Elise Haas Fund, The Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation and others. Los Centzontles has raised  $1.1 million and strives to raise an additional $900,000 to complete its campaign

Linda Ronstadt says that Los Cenzontles uniquely high quality arts education for young people and families to build their voices and strength of character is especially important as young Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in the nation. “Their success is our success. I invite and encourage the public to join in support of this important organization by giving to the Supporting Roots Campaign and allowing it to continue to train and inspire new voices.”

Tickets for the Craneway Pavilion benefit with Jackson Browne, David Hidalgo and Los Cenzontles can be purchased beginning Saturday, August 24, 2013:

For more information about Los Cenzontles and the Supporting Roots Campaign visit www.loscenzontles.com 

Benefit for a Pesticide-Free and GMO-Free Kauai

August 2, 2013

Just announced: An Evening with David Crosby and Graham Nash special guests, Jackson Browne, Donavon Frankenreiter, Mike Campbell

A benefit for a Pesticide-Free and GMO-Free Kauai

August 30

Proceeds to benefit GMO-Free Kauai, Ohana O’Kauai, Kauai Rising, Regeneration Botanical Gardens, and KKCR.

Tickets available through KKCR – 808 826-7774

Review: Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center

July 30, 2013

The new CD/DVD set is entitled Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center, but in fact, Woody never made it past 55. This document of an altogether lively concert program from a wide assortment of admirers proves, however, that his music has not only lasted ’til 100, but will likely survive us all. This is a celebration, yes, but a celebration with a conscience. A strong thread of morality and social awareness ran through all of Guthrie’s songs, as he believed music could make a difference in America. That same belief is shared by the performers who took the stage of Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center on October 14, 2012, including Jackson Browne, Joel Rafael, Rosanne Cash, Donovan, Judy Collins, Tom Morello, John Mellencamp and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. That evening, they showcased the spectrum of Guthrie’s work from protest songs to children’s sing-alongs.

“Woody at 100!” Available Now!

Another singer-songwriter to write a melody to a Guthrie lyric is Jackson Browne, who has never shied away from expressing his own political beliefs. He and bassist Rob Wasserman co-composed “You Know the Night” to a rare romantic lyric from Guthrie recounting the evening he met his wife. To Browne and Wasserman’s loping country-by-way-of-Laurel-Canyon melody and arrangement, Browne sings of a woman with “hopes and plans for the good of the people”: “You know, the night I met you, my eyes had been looking for you all over everywhere. Did you look at me and think, ‘here’s this guy that hopes like I hope and sees the same kind of dreams I see?'” In Browne and Wasserman’s hands, the song could be a lost hit of the 1970s.

Read entire review . . .

Jackson Browne to play The Love Ride to Benefit the USO

July 29, 2013

On Sunday, October 20, 2013,The Love Ride is proud to benefit the USO. All proceeds from the 30th Anniversary Love Ride will benefit the USO. Sign up today and start doing your part to support our troops and their families.

With a minimum $60 donation, you can enjoy an entire day of motorcycle and music, all for a great cause. The Love Ride kicks off at the Harley Davidson of Glendale, with a short concert hosted by Jay Leno and featuring Jackson Browne, jackshit, Chevy Metal and Special Guests.

After the music and introductions of our special guests, Jay and other celebrity guests, including Willie G. Davidson, Robert Patrick and Lorenzo Lamas, will lead a ride from Glendale up to Castaic Lake, where the fun continues.

At Castaic Lake, riders, drivers and families from all over Southern California are welcome to the all day music festival, including the Peter Fonda Ride-In Bike Show, motorcycle stunt show, food trucks and a beer garden, and more.

Click here for the complete Love Ride event schedule.

CONCERT REVIEW: Jackson Browne stands in at Tanglewood

July 15, 2013

With a makeshift and malleable set list, help from opener Sara Watkins and old friend Danny Kortchmar, and an in-tribute cover of Taylors Sweet Baby James, Jackson Brownes two hour set at the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood served as a formidable stand-in on Thursday night.

LENOX _ With the mountains, the music, fireworks and songs about the Turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston, there is little that can match the magic of a James Taylor Fourth of July concert at Tanglewood.

But Jackson Browne came close.

With a makeshift and malleable set list, help from opener Sara Watkins and old friend Danny Kortchmar, and an in-tribute cover of Taylors Sweet Baby James, Jackson Brownes two hour set at the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood served as a formidable stand-in on Thursday night.

Browne acknowledged that he was a guest in James Taylors house and privileged to perform in that Fourth of July slot while Taylor tends to writing and recording his first new album in a decade. He also noted that he had played the shed many times, back in 1978, and the year before that, and once as an opening act for America. . . .

Read the Entire Review at Masslive.com