No Pretender? Jackson Browne returns to roots with solo acoustic show at MCA

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Along with his pals in the Eagles, Jackson Browne’s baby face was the picture of the Southern California-spawned wave of folk-rock that washed across pop music in the 1970s.

Browne, who performs in a solo show at the Maine Center for the Arts’ Hutchins Concert Hall in Orono on Monday, and again at Merrill Auditorium in Portland on Tuesday, epitomized the singer-songwriter of that decade.

From the introspective, mostly acoustic folk of his first album, “Jackson Browne” – known to fans as “Saturate Before Using” – Browne’s sound evolved into full-tilt rock ‘n’ roll. Live performances from the late-’70s era were captured in “Running on Empty,” an album whose songs dominated FM radio in 1978 and still can be heard on classic-rock stations.

Dubbed one of the “New Dylans” early in the 1970s – along with John Prine, Loudon Wainwright III and others – Browne proved himself a master explorer of the inner, emotional landscape. His self-titled debut, released in 1972, still holds up 30 years later, with such gorgeous tunes as “Song for Adam,” “A Child in These Hills” and “Rock Me On The Water.”

“Doctor My Eyes,” the only real rocker on the album, became a Top 10 hit, earning radio airplay in part, Browne has said, because David Crosby contributed backing vocals.

“For Everyman” (1973) and “Late For The Sky” (1974) continued in the acoustic vein, with many of the songs featuring Browne accompanying himself on piano. As a writer, he grew beyond the verse-chorus-verse song structure on these albums, penning longer, contemplative pieces such as the title track of “Late For The Sky.”

Browne’s friends, the Eagles, launched their career with his song “Take It Easy” in 1973. The story is that Browne and Eagle Glenn Frey were living in a low-rent apartment complex in Los Angeles, and Frey could hear Browne writing “Take It Easy” through the thin walls. Frey took the song Browne had not finished and added another verse, and the Eagles recorded a banjo-driven, twangy electric guitar version that became a hit.

In 1976, Browne released “The Pretender,” an album whose darker tones may have been influenced by the death of his wife by suicide. The title song is perhaps the most poignant lament written about the death of the spirit of the 1960s, as idealism faded into disillusionment and compromise:

I want to know what became of the changes

We waited for love to bring

Were they only the fitful dreams

Of some greater awakening?

Caught between the longing for love

And the struggle for the legal tender

The narrator of the song concludes:

I’m going to be a happy idiot

And struggle for the legal tender

Where the ads take aim and lay their claim

To the heart and the soul of the spender

And believe in whatever may lie

In those things that money can buy

Thought true love could have been a contender

“Running On Empty” captured Browne in full flight with his stellar band, celebrating the joys of playing live rock ‘n’ roll music with tunes including “The Load Out.” Maine was immortalized in “Nothing But Time” from that album, which opens with the lyrics:

Rolling down 295 out of Portland, Maine

Still high from the people up there and feeling no pain

Browne joined a pack of musicians who united in the late ’70s to fight nuclear power, performing a series of benefit shows and appearing in a concert film. “Lives in the Balance,” from 1986, took on Reagan’s foreign policy. His other ’80s offerings were 1980’s “Hold Out,” 1983’s “Lawyers in Love” and 1989’s “World in Motion.”

In the last decade, he released “I’m Alive” in 1993 and “Looking East” in 1996.

Now 53, Browne remains political. His Web site features letters from liberal and progressive luminaries, decrying what they perceive as a jingoistic atmosphere dominating the post-Sept. 11 American scene.

Browne’s current tour includes just 22 shows. He is writing some new songs, a source at the concert promoter’s office said, which may find their way into his performances in Maine, but recent set lists posted on the Internet show a heavy sampling of fan favorites.

Browne most recent release is 1997’s best-of collection, “The Next Voice You Hear.”

Tickets for the Orono concert are available at the MCA box office or by calling 581-1755.