Someone from the crowd yelled out a birthday greeting to Jackson Browne shortly after his first song ended on Sunday afternoon, to which he responded "Today I am 58....and tomorrow I'm 59!"
Ojai then sang "Happy Birthday" to the activist performer, who was in Libbey Bowl as the headliner of a benefit concert for the Ojai Raptor Center. The day was perfect even by Ojai Valley standards, which included a healthy dose of magic.
Just several minutes before 1pm (showtime), there was still a healthy - and growing! - line to enter the Bowl, as well as lines for tshirts, concessions, and information about the Raptor Center's programs and resident birds. Inside, the Bowl was elbow-to-elbow full and the lawn was getting there.
From the stage we were greeted warmly and introduced to about a dozen of the Raptor Center's resident birds of prey. Up close, i could tell that a couple of them had eye problems and one was even missing an entire wing. The others - whole, beautiful, powerful - gave no outward indication of what care they were needing. The Center's mission, we were told, is the rehabilitation and release of orphaned and injured birds. Metaphors abound. [To get on the ORC's mailing list for news, volunteer opportunities, and event schedules, click HERE.]
The Household Gods graced the stage first, putting me that much closer to losing count of the number of times i've seen and heard them perform. Their opening set was short but energetic and included songs both ancient and old, with plenty of the playful stage banter between J.B. White and Jim Lashly that is a hallmark of their shows. They sealed my fan-hood yet again with their hauntingly beautiful rendition of Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows" and their better-than-the-original version of Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'". For extra magic points, they invited local goddess Perla Batalla (of recent Locally Grown 2 fame) out for a gorgeously heartfelt closer (bird-themed, as i recall, but not in a corny or cheesy way), for which she and they received a standing ovation. Hearing her made me so proud to be honoring her with the Earth Charter and the Arts award this coming weekend at Ventura College.
About 25 minutes later and with no ado whatsoever, Jackson Browne simply walked on stage in a tshirt, jeans, and the same haircut he's had for 30 years. He looked great. With a row of acoustic guitars behind him (One for each song, i had joked earlier with an ORC volunteer), he simply sat and played and sang with a voice as fresh and clear at 59 as it was the first time he set foot in a recording booth.
For the next hour and a half, we were treated to a meandering and thoroughly enjoyable collection of songs ("I've never performed with a set list", Jackson confided in us), given fresh voices by the two young women who joined him on stage. Of note to me were the stinging "Lives in the Balance" (written during Reagan but just as poignant now), followed smartly by the Steven Van Zandt-penned "I Am a Patriot". At the end of the day, though, it's Jackson's first single that continues to ring in my mind.
"Doctor my eyyyyyyes!
Tell me what is wrong,
Was I unwiiiiiiiise to leave them open for so long?..."
We cheered him out for an encore that included a cute and clever song "about people who don't know about Ojai, and who you don't WANT to know about Ojai": the good folks of Culver City. Before we left, i got one more story:
In 1986, a very famous Jackson Browne was performing in Iowa City or some such place when a few dirty hippies with backstage passes invited him to come out and see their little camp an hour or more away. He hesitated because the band was due in Chicago the next day, but said he'd talk to the bus driver and see if they could arrange a stop. Back in camp, nobody but the nightwatchers were up to see three huge buses rumble up the road at about midnight, but the word was quickly spread about their special visitor. Jackson came out alone, hoarse from the night's concert, and sang for about an hour and a half around a campfire for a couple hundred peaceniks.
The camp was the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, a close-knit family of activists who still have reunions to this day. There are several Marchers living in this valley, including the one principally responsible for Jackson's roadside concert. If she wants to, she can correct and expound upon the second-hand, twenty-one-year-old tale above.
Meanwhile, Jackson's off to co-host a Pray for Peace concert and prayer ceremony at the National Cathedral in Washington DC to coincide with the Dalai Lama's visit to receive the Congressional Gold Medal for "his enduring and outstanding contributions to peace, non-violence, human rights and religious understanding". The event is a call to the religious community to advocate for an end to violence and to denounce the "most 'un-religious' of actions": killing in the name of God.
Rock on, and Peace out.
[continue for photos]
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