There are few contemporary artists as worthy as Jackson Browne for the tribute album, Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne. Sadly, there are just as few who have been overlooked for their contribution to the American cannon of great songwriting.
The man who virtually created the template for the signature California sound of the ’70s, richly populated by far bigger household names like James Taylor and The Eagles, gets a dose of payback from other artists deeply indebted to his influence. The real winners here are contemporary music lovers, previously unaware of Browne’s brilliance and older fans, who are richly rewarded with new versions of his classic material.
This two-CD treasure includes 23 songs from Browne’s luminous catalogue, including such bright stars as Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen Lyle Lovett and the Indigo Girls, whose own work may have sounded very different without the influence of this songwriting master.
Henley—who had the good fortune of living and working with Browne in the early ’70s when the Eagles recorded the song that Browne and Glenn Frey wrote the to propel the Eagles to their own astonishing heights, with what became the band’s breakout song, “Take It Easy”—offers a true-to-the-artist rendition of the haunting “These Days.” The emotional impact of the song is all the more astonishing when you realize that Browne was barely in his ’20s when he wrote it.
Jackson Browne at the height of his ’70s stardom.
Springsteen puts his own stamp on “Linda Paloma” and Bruce Hornsby brings a little country to a later Browne offering, “I’m Alive.”
The combination of the strength of the material and the lineup of stars delivering their versions of it, make this a can’t miss disk…not only for Jackson Browne fans…but people who would benefit immensely from learning about his body of work.
—Mike Hammer
