Jackson Brown performs Saturday at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa. All photos by ANGELA TEMPLE
Longtime singer-songwriter
Jackson Browne performed for a near-full house Saturday at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa.
He was chatty and warm, and played often shared the stage with his opening act, accomplished fiddler and singer-songwriter
Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek.
Browne was casual, sitting with his guitar or at a grand piano most of the night. At 64, his sunny voiced, now tinged slightly rough like California sand, added depth to his lyrics and an emotive texture to his stripped-down acoustic show.
Songs swung the pendulum of his career, from upbeat, love-filled and even funny to heart-wrenching. He dedicated "For a Dancer" to his longtime friend -- and Norman-born musician --
Jessie Ed Davis, who died in 1988.
"He said he was thinking about all the great musicians from this state," he said, and mentioned musicians whom he'd known and met, mostly while living in California:
Jim Keltner and
Leon Russell among them. He also mentioned friends in
The Flaming Lips and influence
Woody Guthrie.
Fans hollered out requests through the show, and Browne often responded. No two sets of late have been the same, and songs included "Call it a Loan," "Doctor My Eyes," "Black and White," "Sky Blue and Black," "I'm Alive," "Looking East," "Red Neck Friend," "Linda Paloma," "Shaky Town," "A Child in These Hills," "Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate," "I've Been Out Walking (These Days)," "Running on Empty," "Take it Easy" (co-written by Glen Frey and made famous by The Eagles), "Before the Deluge" and more.
His classic California country rock sound was dappled with elements of Appalachia-influenced, folky, folksy bluegrass with Watkins on board with the band. She opened with her five-piece troupe, in which Browne also joined in as back-up guitarist and supporting vocalist.
