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Meeting Jackson Browne

Poet recalls how singer/songwriter inspired him

Jackson Browne will perform Oct. 17 at the AMP.
Jackson Browne will perform Oct. 17 at the AMP.

It was at the incense-infused Mother's Earth Shop on 23rd Street in Oklahoma City I first heard the self-titled, debut album "Jackson Browne." At 16 in 1972, I became a fan for life. Since then, I have attended many Jackson Browne concerts, but none top the For Everyman tour in OKC in 1974, when I first saw Jackson Browne live and met him after the show.

My girlfriend, two other friends and I got to the Civic Center early. With an English paper due the next day in the genre of an interview, I approached a roadie who granted an interview after the loadout.

FAQ

Jackson Browne

In Concert

WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17

WHERE — Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers

COST — $32-$72

INFO — arkansasmusicpavili…

The opener, Bonnie Raitt and band, provided a proper teasing before Jackson Browne and his band exploded through the dim, blue intermission. Heart-provoking songs were blended with upbeat crowd pleasers, leaving us numb and translated to a higher plateau.

Still in the afterglow, I waited for my roadie. However, first out of the stage door came the guitarist for Bonnie Raitt, Will McFarlane. I struck fast, changed my pitch with the lie that I was a writer for my college newspaper, and got an interview at the Holiday Inn across the street. (I am evil and still feel guilty about ditching the roadie.)

The tall and gregarious McFarlane was disarmingly transparent. In the one-cocktail interview that wrapped up in the parking lot, he treated me like an equal. I was shaking hands to leave when Bonnie Raitt and other band members walked up. McFarlane qualified me as a writer and a "cool dude." Raitt was more gorgeous and shorter than she appeared on stage, and her handshake was firm and full of nurture. Shyness vanished when she looked me over and said, "He's so cute."

Upon noticing my friends in the car, Raitt tapped on the window and waved them into the circle. Like an easy Oklahoma breeze, I turned to see Jackson Browne walking across the parking lot. No limo, no security, no steam rising from a street vent. He just walked up with a guitar case as big as he was and in the other hand a bottle of sangria wine.

After introductions, Browne raved about the OKC audience as if we were the sole representatives. He took a swig of wine and passed the bottle around the circle. It's so weird now to think that we all drank after each other with no thought except the taste of sweet wine. In studying him, he was as unpretentious as his songs.

Browne suddenly glanced toward the marquee that promoted the upcoming Thanksgiving feast. "Come on, Will, " Browne said, as he jogged to the sign with McFarlane close behind. We watched as Jackson Browne crawled on McFarlane's lanky frame, switching the letters to read, "Turkeys are here. This place stinks!' He was 24. Not the best work from the Rock and Rock Hall-of-Famer who would steadily sail through 50 years of countless musical evolutions, never wavering from his sublime poetic craft.

In the October autumn air at the AMP, I will join the fans of Jackson Browne. Together, we will mouth the lyrics while attaching their meaning to our life-scape. We will stand, some more stiffly than others, to clap, to cry and to smile. We will be transformed, again, by one of the greatest singer/songwriters in the history of music.

Later at home with a bottle of sangria wine, I will lower the needle to hear the piano intro of "Jamaica Say You Will." There, I will remember, "and count the time in quarter notes to 10..."

Clayton Scott is a teaching artist with Arkansas Arts in Education, the recipient of the 2013 Governor's Award for Arts in Education and the former Poet Laureate of Fayetteville. As a teenager, he was inspired to write by the songs of Jackson Browne.

NAN What's Up on 10/09/2015

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