By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor
Jackson Browne’s show at the Grand Annex Dec. 17 has long been sold out. But the very fact that he’s coming to San Pedro is worth a mention. Singers and songwriters who continue to produce 10, 25, or 50 years down the line and remain relevant are a special breed.
From Saturate Before Using to Standing in The Breach, Jackson Browne has never failed to surprise and please those who really appreciate good song writing with good content, particularly regarding social and political relevance. He has committed himself in action, writing, advocating, doing benefit concerts for organizations like Bread And Roses, Amnesty International, Musicians United For Safe Energy, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and the Occupy Movement. He has never settled for keeping quiet and playing it safe, which I greatly admire about him.
The show will likely include a nice mix of material from the 2014 album, Standing In The Breach including songs like The Long Way Around and Leaving Winslow mixed with older songs like For Everyman, For A Dancer, Fountain Of Sorrow, The Pretender and Running On Empty.
Joining Jackson Browne are longtime bandmates and backing vocalists Chavonne Stewart and Alethea Mills, and multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz.
Browne has released eight gold and platinum albums and a dozen Top 20 hits in the 1970s and ‘80s. His dominance and the number of influential bands for which he wrote hit songs makes him a cultural icon.
The albums he released from 1972 to 1983 have sold 17 million copies. His compilation disc Running on Empty, from 1977 alone, has sold more than 7 million copies.
Browne, 69, first hit the charts in 1972 with his self-titled debut album, which sold platinum and had a Top 10 hit with Doctor My Eyes.
His fourth album, 1976’s The Pretender, took him to the stratosphere of stardom.
His latest studio album was 2014’s Standing in the Breach, which hit No. 15 – his highest chart position since the 1980s.
Also released that year was Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne, which had two dozen artists, such as Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Don Henley, Lyle Lovett and Marc Cohn singing Browne’s songs.
It was Springsteen who inducted Browne into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Browne also was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.
In all, Browne has been nominated for seven Grammy Awards, most recently in 2010 for Best Contemporary Folk Album for Love Is Strange – En Vivo Con Tino.
Browne also played a sold-out show at the State Theatre in 2002 and played at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem in 1986.
But to focus on his album sales and the sales records he’s broken misses the point.
Even as Browne has continued to write and perform, he has also remained engaged in the great causes of our time, including environmental and human rights. He has donated to causes such as the demonstrators at Standing Rock protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline and with Prophets of Rage at the anti Inaugural Ball this past January.
Proceeds from the concert will benefit the nonprofit organization ExposHer Inc., a mentoring program for inner city girls run by Browne’s bandmate, Chavonne Stewart.
The organization’s focus is to expose girls to life and culture that will be conducive to their development from girls to young women through various mentoring programs.
“Our mission is to help change the lives of young girls by empowering them to reach their full potential by overcoming internal and external barriers in their lives,” Stewart said in a released statement about the nonprofit. “We also want to help girls build a positive self-image, motivate them to take responsibility for their future, and coach them in understanding their value to themselves and their community.”
Chavonne Stewart, formerly known as Chavonne Morris, is a vocalist best known for her work with Jackson Browne. She has recorded with John Fogerty, Father John Misty and others.