Jackson Browne has just released his new album Downhill From Everywhere via Inside Recordings. In support of the record, Browne will tour the US with James Taylor starting on Thursday, July 29th at the United Center in Chicago. He will also play a run of shows in September for his “Evening With” tour, featuring Browne backed by his full band. Ticket information is available at jacksonbrowne.com.
Album single “My Cleveland Heart” was released earlier this year with a music video directed by Alissa Torvinen Kouame and featuring a cameo by Phoebe Bridgers. Browne also recently performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Like much of Browne’s catalog, Downhill From Everywhere is fueled by a search—for connection, for purpose, for self—but there’s a heightened sense of urgency written between the lines, a recognition of the sand slipping through the hourglass that elevates the stakes at every turn. “Time rolling away, time like a river, time like a train,” he sings. “Time like a fuse burning shorter every day.”
And while such ruminations might suggest a meditation on aging and mortality from a rock icon in his early 70s, the truth is that Browne isn’t looking in the mirror; he’s singing about us, about a world fast approaching a social, political, and environmental point of no return. Clean air, fresh water, racial equity, democracy—it’s all on the line, and nothing is assured.
Browne’s never been one to rest on his laurels, and as Downhill From Everywhere proves, he’s still pushing himself into his storied career, which includes 14 studio albums, 4 collections of live performances, and 2 “best of” compilations. Recorded with a core band that included guitarists Greg Leisz (Eric Clapton, Bill Frisell) and Val McCallum (Lucinda Williams, Sheryl Crow), bassist Bob Glaub (Linda Ronstadt, CSNY, John Fogerty), keyboardist Jeff Young (Sting, Shawn Colvin), drummer Mauricio Lewak (Sugarland, Melissa Etheridge), and longtime vocalists Chavonne Stewart and Alethea Mills, the record is a truly collaborative work, one driven by group chemistry and an openness to new sounds and ideas.
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