Jackson Browne - Running on Empty

Running on Empty is an album I associate with the early '80s, even though it came out in December of 1977. "Running on Empty" was the big song, and boy oh boy it had legs. Reading up on this one it was up for a couple of Grammy Awards in 1979. One for album of the year, and another for male vocal performance for "Running on Empty" which was pretty cool.

As a record, Running on Empty was a bit of odd duck when it comes to live albums. Rather than the usual best of approach with crowd noise, Jackson Browne took a hard left at Albuquerque and road tested and recorded new songs. There were live songs, rehearsal songs, songs on a bus (which is really good, you can hear the bus), songs in a hotel room, and songs recorded backstage. He recorded it all over, everything recorded was part of the touring experience.

Jackson Browne assembled a band featuring the best of the best. Russ Kunkel on drums, Leland Sklar on bass, Danny Kortchmar on guitar, and the incredible David Lindley on pedal steel and fiddle. The way these guys play together is jaw dropping. I'll throw in the keyboard player, Craig Doerge, but I'm not as familiar with him, but he's all over this one too.

I'll be honest, this isn't a desert island platter for me. It's always been one of those albums I enjoy, but it's really just the title track that opens the album and the one-two punch of "The Load-Out" and "Stay" that truly hold my attention. Who doesn't get a chill hearing David Lindley's pedal steel and then burst into a big grin when he takes his turn on the microphone singing.

Having said that, the rest of the album is hardly filler, it's just that I have to be in the mood for Mister Browne's singer songwriter moments. I know it is a bit counter productive considering that's his shtick. I will admit to being a bit of a musical crow - I'm drawn to the shiny things, but when I'm in the right mood the other songs will sparkle. Of course as I write this I'm in the mood for his singer songwriter stuff, and I have to say he delivers. His voice conveys a lot of emotion.

One thing I always enjoyed was the packaging on this record. In addition to the standard insert with the lyrics to the songs, there was a booklet as well with tour photos and stuff which was an added bonus. While this may never make it to a desert island, it's a hell of a record. I've run with it for a while and it hasn't run out of gas yet.

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