Jackson Browne Serves Music Of Intellect & Purpose at Biloxi’s IP Casino Studio A (SHOW REVIEW/PHOTOS)

If at any point during Jackson Browne’s March 29th show at IP Casino’s Studio A in Biloxi, Mississippi, you happened to close your eyes to just listen, you would have been hard pressed to say you hadn’t been transported back to the days of Running On Empty or For Everyman; those ethereal seventies when music was pure of harmony and intellect and purpose; when what you were singing about and how you were doing it was enhanced by honesty and young man vocal cords. Browne, now a seasoned seventy-year-old minstrel with a purpose, has held on not only to his youthful vocals but his passion for humanity. And throughout his ninety minute set at the IP Casino’s Studio A, you could stand and sing-a-long or sit and reminisce. Either way felt really, really good.

A beautiful man with an even prettier voice, Browne was the golden boy king of the singer-songwriters inhabiting the seventies, starting with his debut self-titled album in 1972, of which the single, “Doctor My Eyes,” sprang up into the upper regions of the music charts. Browne, not one to make simplistic songs that didn’t mean anything, kept reaching out further to his audience to be more mindful and aware and proactive as members of the human race as the years went by. He could be singing about love but that emotion came with consequences and incitations. And through the years, his ideals have not changed, as his last studio album, 2014’s Standing In The Breach, certainly attests to.

So when you have a career where your catalog is as vast as Browne’s, there is going to be a lot of fans calling out for a lot of different songs, as was the case in Biloxi. A sold out show, one that actually sold out when tickets went on sale proving that people were ravenous to hear him play live in this part of the country, Browne was inundated with requests, of which he had a good humor about. “If I wait long enough you’ll call out the one I’m about to play,” he joked before performing “Redneck Friend” on a black electric guitar.

Accompanying Browne during his set was pedal/lap steel player Greg Leisz, who has played with and on albums by Eric Clapton, Ray LaMontagne, Lucinda Williams and Joe Walsh among many others. Browne, who has always loved the sound of these instruments, most notably his collaborations with David Lindley over the years, utilizes the steel so powerfully on his songs. Where a ballad can be melancholy to start with, the steel empowers it to become so sad and forlorn tears will well up without any other provocation other than it’s soulful sound. Leisz just has that immaculate touch and songs such as “For A Dancer,” “Call It A Loan” and “These Days” became even more remarkable in this live setting.

Alethea Mills and Chavonne Stewart were a dream team of spirituality for Browne. Up front and center unlike most harmonizing singers, they held your attention whenever they opened their mouths. “The Pretender” became heartbreaking and “Lives In The Balance” mesmerizing due to these ladies.

Browne alternated between piano and electric and acoustic guitars, of which I counted about twenty onstage, including a beautiful signature Gibson he brought out for “Take It Easy” and “Lives In The Balance.” He played slide on the intro to “Your Bright Baby Blues,” while Leisz stood and handled electric guitar on “Doctor My Eyes” and “The Pretender,” and acoustic on “For Everyman.” Fumbling around with the pedals at his feet before starting “Call It A Loan,” Browne joked that, “I’ve always had a lot of guitar pedals but never used them.”

About midway through his set, as Browne sat down at the piano to do “One of the sadder songs,” aka “Rosie,” a woman slipped up to the front of the stage and set down a copy of an old Rolling Stone Magazine with Browne on the cover for him to sign. Good-naturedly Browne kind of laughed & and tried to continue. After a few piano missteps trying to get the song started, he got up and handed the magazine back to the woman, explaining he just couldn’t sing with it staring up at him, with it’s blue leather collar turned up in an attempt at coolness and the magazine’s faux fawning over him. After another fumbled note, he said, “Sorry, I should have never started talking about Rolling Stone.” Back on track, the song came out beautifully.

Explaining that he didn’t usually make up setlists, he had been doing so on this tour so he wouldn’t forget to play something he really wanted to perform. However, being that this was a casino with different rules for time, he was going to refrain from a lot of his storytelling and “Try to get in as many songs as possible;” also siting that he had watched a recent show and wondered why he didn’t just “Shut the fuck up,” especially when trying to introduce “Lives In The Balance.”

Pleasing the audience was easy, since he played “Take It Easy” and “Running On Empty” and “Doctor My Eyes;” but they were also satisfied with “The Pretender,” “Rock Me On The Water,” “For Everyman,” “These Days” and “For A Dancer.” He received at least four standing ovations and while people were yelling out song requests, almost overwhelming the singer at one point, a woman shouted, “Whatever you do is great!” And that is the perfect way to end this review: everything Browne chose was indeed cherished and applauded and worshiped and loved.

SETLIST: Rock Me On The Water, The Long Way Around, Love Needs A Heart, For A Dancer, Lives In The Balance, For Everyman, Rosie, Your Bright Baby Blues, These Days, Call It A Loan, Redneck Friend, Doctor My Eyes, The Pretender, Running On Empty ENCORE: Take It Easy.