Music

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Requests, hits and humour -- Browne delivers it all

By: Melissa Martin

Posted: 04/4/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

THERE was an army of guitars, a simple keyboard, a chair and a microphone.

But there was no plan; and that, Jackson Browne explained to almost 2,000 ecstatic Winnipeggers on Saturday night, was the plan.

"You probably know this," the folk-rock legend murmured, moments into his marathon solo and acoustic concert at the Centennial Concert Hall. "But there's no set list or anything. I just kind of play whatever I feel like playing."

Pause.

"Or whatever you ask me to play."

And so, the floodgates opened: a surge of voices from the seats, calling out from every corner of the Centennial Concert Hall, hollering requests for Stay and These Days and all the other earnest and elegant Browne compositions from over the years and tears and tours.

"It's a little early for The Load Out," Browne quipped.

He did deliver These Days right away though, and other shouted songs too; only 20 minutes into the show it was, he admitted, probably also a little too early for the next song. "But," he mused, "there are probably those people who will tell you it's never too early for Rosie."

And there are those in the Centennial Concert Hall last night who would say it's never too early to hear anything from Browne. Or too late, for that matter: at 62, Browne doesn't sound a year over 40. His husky voice is still supple and strong, easily soaring over his emphatic guitar and keyboard chording.

And why not? After 45 years in the business, Browne is as comfortable on stage as in his own living room. Surrounded by a rack of almost 20 guitars, he'd lean back in his chair, a lock of greying hair falling over his eyes, and play... not just to the audience, but with them.

He'd joke; he'd grin. Musically, it was a mostly mellow show. But you wouldn't always know it from the hoots and hollers. After a 20-minute intermission (and, doubtless, a few more trips to the bar), Browne's fans reclaimed their seats in hot anticipation of a bouncier second set -- and boy, were they ready to rock.

And so he did, and the crowd hummed along, and when the final chord rang, the concert hall vibe crackled electric, the shouting grew to a fever pitch -- a taut energy that would last until the last note of concert-closers Stay and Take It Easy rang, tripping a standing ovation that lasted right into the encore.

Jackson Browne

April 2, 2011

Centennial Concert Hall

Attendance: 1900

HHHH 1/2

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 4, 2011 D3

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