Jackson Browne is the dean of Southern California singer/songwriters and McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica is So Cal’s most treasured spot for troubadours. So the combination of the two for McCabe’s 60th anniversary promised to be special. It turned out to be unforgettable.
HOLLYWOOD, CA – SEPTEMBER 20: Jackson Browne performs during the 2018 LA Film Festival opening night premiere of ‘Echo In The Canyon’ at John Anson Ford Amphitheatre on September 20,2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Film Independent)
Every so often you see a show announced that you feel has the potential to be transcendent for one reason or another. Jackson Browne, the dean of Southern California singer/songwriters, playing for 150 people at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, had that promise.
As Browne himself said when he took the stage for the first of two sold-out gigs to help the venue celebrate its 60-year anniversary, there are very few places left like this — so community driven and intimate. McCabe’s is hallowed ground for the L. A. singer/songwriter community.
I recall seeing the great John Hiatt there many years ago and he quipped, “There’s no place else on earth like McCabe’s, just look at those lampshades.”
I spoke with Matthew Sweet and Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn this week, both McCabe’s veterans. I mentioned seeing Wynn open for himself, doing an acoustic set before Dream Syndicate took the stage. He laughed. “I closed my set with the same song Dream Syndicate opened with. That was very high concept, the kind of thing you do at McCabe’s.”
Sweet replied: “McCabe’s is great. It’s fun to have that little audience and it’s really no pressure.”
That is what makes McCabe’s so special, it’s the place where great singer/songwriters go to play and not be famous for a night. Think of it as the best open mike night maybe in the U. S.
Over the years, some of the best shows I’ve ever seen have happened at McCabe’s, including Cat Power playing for over two hours, the incredible Maria McKee giving a performance that still lives in L. A. lore and Basketball Diaries author Jim Carroll read there. I have a friend who talks often about seeing Lucinda Williams play there for more than three hours.
Others who have graced the one of a kind stage, one that is flanked by dozens of guitars, it’s a guitar shop, include Tom Waits (what I would give to have seen that show!!!), Linda Ronstadt, Alex Chilton, John Lee Hooker, Emmylou Harris, Ray Manzarek, Beck, Cowboy Junkies, John Densmore, Aimee Mann, Richard Thompson, X, Steve Earle, the vastly underappreciated Lori Carson, Fairport Convention, Chet Atkins, Los Lobos, Vince Gill, Eliza Gilkyson and the list goes on and on after 60 years. That’s right, McCabe’s opened their doors in 1958 (the shows began in 1969).
I saw Browne there once before, when he played a Grammy after party celebrating his long time friend Warren Zevon in 2004. But to see Browne on his own at McCabe’s offered the promise of what it would feel like to see one of the all-time greats coming home.
Browne and long time musical friend Greg Leisz took the stage around 8:20 opening with a powerful “For Everyman,” one of the very few songs Browne did on this night from his prolific ’70s period. This wasn’t the greatest hits set some might have expected, but no one complained as Browne and a rotating set of musical collaborators, including a spectacular Val McCallum on electric guitar (McCallum plays in a band called Jacks**t that frequents McCabe’s often and Browne is just one of the notables who have performed with him at McCabe’s) delivered a two-hour performance that will one day be L. A. legend.
The number of highlights and unexpected moments was staggering. Among the most memorable songs were the joyous “Off Of Wonderland,” off of Browne’s underrated Time The Conqueror, an achingly beautiful “Something Fine,” last year’s “The Dreamer,” a moving song written in the midst of the immigration battle, a powerful “Barricades Of Heaven,” a celebratory “Lives In The Balance” and a raucous rendition of Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns And Money,” which Browne introduced by asking, “Anybody want to hear a Warren Zevon song?”
The two-hour set did end with a run of greatest hits, starting with “These Days,” a song that actually gets more perfect as the years pass, Browne on the keys for “The Pretender,” a joyful “Running On Empty” that got the whole room on their feet and an encore of “Take It Easy.”
The song selection, while not obvious, was masterful and as my friend pointed out, most importantly, you could see Browne was having fun up there. Watching Browne up there, so relaxed and in his element, you could feel the magic of McCabe’s again wash over all, creating a night that soared beyond all expectations to create an experience that no one in that room will ever forget.
I have written for Billboard, Rolling Stone, the L. A. Times, Yahoo, Vice and every other major publication as well as host the Hulu interview series Riffing With and teach music journalism for Grammy Camp. I have had countless amazing experiences in music, from tea with Neil…
