Jackson with Shawn Colvin looking on...

Q: Malcolm Burn.

A: Malcolm Burn did this record. And so Shawn Colvin played me this record that Malcolm Burn had done. And I thought, this is an amazing record. This is really, really interesting. And then that's not the record they put out. And I went and got the record. And it was the demos for that record. And I think she did the right thing, because the songs were much more powerful than what Malcolm Burn had done with that record, although I'd like to hear it now, especially because I know these songs so well.

But then I was afraid that she wasn't going to make a band record. And so the next record she made, "Flaming Red", I think it was called, one of the most powerful rock and roll records of all time. And it kept all the beauty and the mystery of these really quiet songs and still did a really great job of arranging. So that was a real inspiration to me. I thought, you know, there's somebody who had taken the time to make sure her -- that she started and built a foundation of the strict, stark architecture of songwriting and then went on to find out how to make records of those songs.

Q: And so we're talking about the acoustic nature of what you do and the electric nature. There's also, I'd imagine, camps of people that were with you really strong around till the time of "Running on Empty" and "Hold On, Hold Out" and then people who kind of picked you up. Do you see that time as being maybe a division in your work, in the sound of it and --

A: No. I think what happened is at a certain point -- around the time I was playing with Craig Doerge and Danny Kortchmar and David Lindley -- I had been playing with David Lindley and making records just of -- the same way I do now, which is you go in and you play together and you sort of shape the best record out of what happens between and the chemistry that happens. But hanging around with Danny Kortchmar I started to like really think about band arrangement. And it's not something I did as well as I did some other things. So I got pretty involved in it for a while, but it may not have made the best records. And I think -- but I mean, it marks my being interested in that, arranging and writing songs for a whole band.

Like, there's a song of mine called In the Shape of a Heart, which was really based on stuff that people played in the studio. And it was something I started to write and played with them, because we were together all the time, and then finished later, but with those ideas in mind. And it sort of became -- but that song is a much better song, acoustically, or at least it became a much better song played solo, completely by itself than what we did a record of. The record was just a little bit, a little bit beside the point, really, because the real story was in the lyrics and the playing. And now, when we play it with the band, I get them to play it really almost as if we're not playing anything at all.

Q: Would you care to play that song now? I'm putting you on the spot. I don't know what you're prepared --

A: I could, you know. It would take me a minute to tune. As a matter of fact, it's not one I can really -- to go on with that story, I mean, I had to like figure out a way of playing acoustically because I had written it with the band in mind. That was a long time -- that was maybe one of the first times I did that. What I wound up doing is learning how to play it in a tuning on a guitar that is really set up for that particular thing. So this guitar wouldn't even work for that.
I can give you another example, though, of a song that's more recent.

Q: Yeah.

A: I started writing this song called The Night Inside Me. And it's -- I think the record of it came out really great. But it was -- it had this melody that was sort of based on this guitar figure. It went like this. (Plays intro). Very major.
(Plays early arrangement of The Night Inside Me and illustrates how the song then changed for the band arrangement)

The Night Inside Me (song)

Q: Jackson Browne playing live on the airwaves on KGSR. The Night Inside Me is from his new album, "The Naked Ride Home". Now, when you explained it to me and showed me how the song opens up to the band version, I see both side of the coin now. And --

A: I wouldn't have written it this way. I mean, this is the acoustic version, but it's not the way the song started. It was -- it's an acoustic version of the band composition.

Q: Right. You mention Spain in that song. Were you living in Spain or hanging out?

A: Yeah, I have an apartment in Spain that I get to usually once or twice a year. But during the finishing of this record it was probably a year between visits there. Especially at that moment in the song where I'm thinking, you know, I'm trying to describe what it is about night that is -- you know, that I rely upon to sort of inspire me and lead me on and sort of blur all the really kind of ugly reality, you know (laughs). And it's quite a natural thought to just go, well, maybe I should just go back to Spain. It's not that doesn't exist in Spain, it's just that for me in Spain, I'm on a completely different trajectory that when I'm at home.

Q: So in Spain, the telephones and the computers and everything else are kept to a minimum and you get to --

A: The telephone starts to ring about 9:00 at night, because that's when people wake up in L.A. So you have the whole day, you know. And then, of course, you can always say, "Well, I'll call you back later, because I've got to go out now." Because 9:00 or 10:00 is when people go out to eat. People usually go out to eat around 11:00, actually.

Q: In Spain?

A: Yeah, oh, yeah. People -- it's a night culture, basically.

Q: Well, it's good that The Night Inside Me has the Spain reference in it. It's all making sense to me now, man. You mentioned Patty Griffin, you mentioned Shawn Colvin, two ladies who live here. Why don't you move here? Come on!

A: That's an idea! That's really an idea I've had more than once. Well, there's the distance to the ocean. That's one thing that would have to be kind of, you know, finessed in some way or other.

KGSR's Bobby Ray and Jackson Browne

Q: Maybe we could just get you a little apartment like you have in Spain and this could be another --

A: I thought of that. I thought of getting like an Air Stream and getting one of those trailer parks somewhere. You know, I can just get a little Air Stream place to go sit and play and come here like I go there. That's not a bad idea.

Q: Well, you know, the ocean is a wonderful thing. And I miss it.

A: But you have some waters here. You've got some lakes.

Q: Yeah, we have the lake. You know, it's a different -- it's a variation on a water theme, I think. But the lakes are beautiful and the Hill Country is beautiful. And actually, someone had told me you passed a comment last night at the taping about maybe moving here or something to that. I'm sure it was an offhand remark. But I thought, what the hell, it's --

A: No, being from L.A., I'm always looking for someplace to live. I mean, L.A. is a terrible place to be from, because, you know, you always -- you know, my family is there. I've got all kinds of stuff going on there. I've got -- my band is there. I've got my studio. I built a studio. And it's a good place to have a studio. Not that if I wasn't, you know, to sort of form an expedition to go find some other place to live, I wouldn't -- you know, I'd probably have all kinds of people jumping on that.

Q: Well, we'll hold down the fort for you. And -- because we need you to come back anyway. I'm hearing that perhaps the tour you're on with Tom Petty may actually find its way here before the end of it, so...

A: I'm hoping. But they've changed that. I'm sure it's never really decided until the last possible minute. They change that schedule all the time. Yeah, I think that -- I thought Austin was one of the cities we were supposed to be playing.

Q: Hopefully. The new album, "The Naked Ride Home", sometimes I hear an artist's album and it harkens back to an earlier record. When I heard Bruce Springsteen's new record, for some reason, I was thinking of "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", which seemed to be a simpatico. And for some reason, there's parts of this record that harken back to "The Pretender" for me. Is that just me projecting? Do you feel that at all?

A: Well, for me it's all new and there's a kind of contact with the rhythm section of these songs. There's a kind of way in which is sort of -- I finally, I took the time to really let these songs emanate from that. I mean, in the writing, in the completion of it. But I think more of like "Late for the Sky", because the simple fact that "The Pretender" was cut with a lot of studio people coming, studio musicians and had Jim Gordon and Jeff Porcaro and various -- Russ Kunkel. I had a lot of different drummers. I had a lot of different guitarists coming in and playing. But "Late for the Sky" was a record that was made with just the players. And the band was David Lindley playing guitar or lap steel. And then we had Jai Winding playing organ when I was playing piano and playing piano when I was playing guitar. And so it was that kind of a band. And a bass player the same guy that sang the harmonies on most of the songs. So it was a very self-contained album made by just a few people. And that's what this is like. This is more like "Late for the Sky" for me in that regard.

Q: This question may seem somewhat rote, but I am truly interested in the answer. And how you decide if you're going to -- when you feel a song germinating whether you pick up the guitar or go to the piano to work on it.

A: I generally do both at one time or another. I mean, there are some songs that -- there are some songs that I don't bother trying to play on guitar, that are just piano songs. But they start at both. They start at guitar and piano. And sometimes they start where there's no instrument -- where there is no instrument. And I generally carry a little recorder around and sing ideas into it wherever I might be. And then maybe or maybe not go back and listen to those things. And sometimes the idea stays in your head and it comes up different every time you think of it. But it generally is a good idea to try to play it on the other instrument. If you start it on the piano to try it and play it on guitar.

On "The Naked Ride Home", I actually wrote The Naked Ride Home in D and I couldn't get -- I couldn't -- and it was cut in that key. D-flat or something. But it took hearing another guitarist play it and put the capo on and played in C for me to figure out, oh, that's how to play it. Because it's not that I'm a stickler for playing it exactly the way somebody played it on the record, but if there's a passageway or a little door opens and you can get away with playing whatever in that key. Yeah, so it took me learning the song from the guy that played it on the record and doing what he did.