Not a singer/songwriter, not a celebrity, but a guitarist. A guitar freak who can not only fingerpick, play in different tunings, and solo, but a guy who can talk about the difference between a Gibson acoustic and a Martin. Someone who can talk at length about the difference between a 12-fret Martin and a 14-fret Gibson. A player’s player who haunts guitar stores and pawn shops seeking out unique acoustics. A guy who celebrates the quirks and idiosyncrasies of various guitars and spends time figuring out exactly how his music fits in with those quirks. That’s a Jackson Browne that we haven’t seen that much of. Until now. Browne’s latest release, Solo Acoustic Vol. 1 [Inside Recordings] gives the public just such a glimpse.
How did you decide to do a solo acoustic record?
Somebody suggested a few years ago that I do some solo shows. I didn’t even picture myself playing all alone then—I thought I’d bring David Lindley and maybe some other musicians. But then he said, “No, all by yourself.” I wasn’t thinking in those terms at all, and I thought I could do maybe an hour. But I discovered I could play just about anything in one fashion or another and, over several years, I began to come up with solo acoustic versions of my songs. After having done some of these shows, I realize now that this is one of the ways in which I play.
Let’s talk about some specific tunes. For the opener, “The Barricades of Heaven,” what guitar did you play?
I was playing a Gibson Roy Smeck model. That particular guitar was maybe the 12th one I bought looking for a twin to another I had. It was made in the ’30s. It’s got a very big mahogany body, a spruce top, and a 12-fret neck. It was designed to be played on your lap, Hawaiian style. It was made without any frets—just lines on the fingerboard—and the strings are a good inch off the fingerboard. When you find these things, you have to have the neck reset if you want to play them Spanish style. You also have to lower the saddle and lower the nut. It has a gigantic body but the scale length is like a Les Paul.
What is it you like about the tone of that guitar?
For some reason the deep body and the short scale project like crazy. I tune it low, down a half-step. I have another Smeck that I tune a full-step below standard. One of the things that make these guitars sound so good is that the neck is like the deck of an aircraft carrier. It’s really wide—like two inches across at the nut. Nobody but me wants a neck that size. I think the big neck has something to do with the sound.
Do you like the string spacing of the wide neck?
I like it, but I have to play differently—there’s a lot of stuff that I don’t even try to play on that guitar. Your hand is so stretched out that you can’t get around the same way, but certain positions become more appealing.
By contrast I have a Gibson CF-100 that has a very narrow neck, 14 frets, and a small body and that’s an amazing guitar. I tune that one to open E
for my songs “In the Shape of a Heart” and “I’m Alive.” Because the neck is so narrow, it works really well with the kind of chord shapes you come up with in this tuning. It sounds fantastic, but if I had to play it in standard tuning I wouldn’t like it.
With so many instruments, how do you choose which guitar you’ll play on a tune?
It’s an ostentatious display of wealth to have so many guitars up there but the truth is they don’t sound the same. They each present themselves in a certain tuning particularly well. I’ve got three different CF-100s and they’re all tuned to the same open tuning but in different keys—I’ve got one in E one in D and one in C#. See, there’s something that every guitar does really well. Go to the guitar and find out what it will play, never mind what you want it to play. Just sit and relax with the guitar and play. Eventually your hand will do something that is comfortable and sounds great for that particular instrument.
What’s an example of a song on your latest record where you did that?
“Looking East” was a song written with the band and I love the band version of it. I was having a tough time coming up with a solo version of this song that had the power and the dynamics of the band arrangement. So I created a tuning to play it. It’s a version of open G tuning that I made up, and it’s actually a half-step higher. I tune the sixth string down to C#, so it’s C#, G#, D#, G#, D#, D#. I didn’t want any thirds in there so I tuned that second string B up to D# so it’s got two D#s up on top. And that made it so you could chord all these things on the bottom but you’ve got these open strings on the top that are really ringy. It’s huge sounding.
Anyway, one day I was in a guitar shop and I found this beautiful little mahogany Martin 00-17 from the ’50s. This little guitar sounded fine in standard tuning, but when I tuned it to this open modal G# it just became magic. It’s taut and bright and has all that bursting quality. It almost sounds Appalachian, like a dulcimer. I made up a bunch of chords and then I had this little orchestra at my fingers to play “Looking East” on.
What are some other specialty guitars of yours?
I play “Runnin’ on Empty” on a little solid koa guitar. It’s all koa, all from the same tree. This guy Mickey Sussman lives in a valley on Kauai and this koa tree came down in a storm. He keeps the tree submerged in a little lagoon and he cuts off pieces of it as he needs it. The guitar has a small body and I have heavy-gauge strings on it. That thing sound likes a cannon.
Some of my small-bodied Gibsons have this great self compression—they almost sound like electric guitars. I’ve got a J-128 that’s amazing that way. It’s so even it sounds like you’ve got a compressor on the guitar. It all comes out in a burst, like it’s coming out of an amp. There are uses for guitars like that.
Talk about your slide playing on “Your Bright Baby Blues.”
I use a slide that Martin Simpson gave me. It’s stainless or chrome and the end that’s at the tip of your finger has a smaller diameter, so there’s more mass at that end. It makes single notes resonate and sustain a little better. I play with the slide on my little finger so I’ve got fingers free to fret behind the slide for minor chords—I do that all the time. That song uses an E major tuning but capoed at the second fret. That makes all the dots in the right places. I have always played slide and it becomes this sort of meditative thing. Anybody can play slide on the edge of their bed. Playing slide live, though—you can almost use that as a barometer of your own peace or well being. If you’re not at peace, you won’t be able to play slide in tune. It’s a good thing to try to do.
How do you amplify your acoustics?
I use a pickup and a mic. The pickup is called the Lens from Trance Audio. There are two pieces to the pickup: one that goes under the treble strings and one for the bass strings. It’s tricky to find exactly the right spot for both parts. Bill Asher, who works on my guitars, has gotten really good at finding the sweet spot. We’ve made peace with the installation process and I think it’s worth it.
This Trance pickup is inspired by the original Frap pickup from the ’60s and ’70s. I learned about the Frap from Neil Young. We did a gig together and I thought my sound was pretty good until I heard him. I couldn’t believe how big and loud and true his guitar sounded.
So I use the Lens system in all my guitars. There’s a special 5-pin cord that comes out of the guitar into their preamp. Then I plug into a Clark Technics stereo EQ. That allows me to balance both sides of the Lens pickup and balance my levels for strumming or fingerpicking. When I play solo, I also use a mic—a Neumann KM 184—pointed where the neck joins the body.
Do you ever record with the pickup signal?
I would use the pickup in the studio just for convenience, because I track in the control room often. But I was making a record with Pops Staples and I used the pickup signal and it sounded great. I figured I would put a mic on it later and make it a lot bigger, but bigger wasn’t better in that case. Bigger got in the way of the bass and the vocal.
Describe the difference between hearing one of your songs sung by you or covered by another artist.
There’s nothing like hearing your own voice on the radio. The first time that happened it was so surreal. I had been on tour and my album was released while I was away. My girlfriend picked me up at the airport and we heard one of my songs on the way home. It was amazing. But to tell you the truth, it’s a bigger thrill to hear other people sing my songs. Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt—I love what they do with my songs. I don’t hear every version that gets recorded. I sometimes hear people do them in clubs and that’s always really instructive. I’ll start playing it the way they do it because I find it so interesting. Gregg Allman recorded “These Days” on piano, really slow. I heard it and thought it worked really well. For many years I played it his way, on piano, although I’m back to fingerpicking it on guitar for this record.
What was the music scene like in the ’60s and ’70s in Southern California?
I started playing in Fullerton and I always wanted to go see gigs. There was a great bar in Newport called Sid’s Blue Beat, but I wasn’t old enough to get in. The bar’s windows were painted black, and I got someone to scratch a hole in the paint at eye level so I could look in. My dad took me to see Lightnin’ Hopkins when I was 13. I would go see Hoyt Axton play a lot. His mom wrote “Heartbreak Hotel” and he was just a monster. He would play acoustic and sing his songs and I think he was a big influence on me.
What about later, when you, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and the Eagles were all emerging?
It was an exciting time. It was great to watch James’ success—he got huge. He was on the cover of Time. He became the recognizable face of our generation of singer/songwriters, like Simon & Garfunkel had a little bit before. But the person we need to mention is Bob Dylan. No language could be an exaggeration of what he did. He took folk music away from being played by three guys with big smiles in matching striped shirts. He took what he heard and reshaped it in a completely new and entirely valid way. He led the charge and definitely paved the way for us all.
Folk music was a huge part of what happened in the ’60s. True history was in those songs. The people that embraced that music were able to write truer and more honest songs—honest accounts of their own lives. And the acoustic guitar was the vehicle. I think acoustic music was so powerful because it was so portable. Anyone with a guitar could go anywhere with their music. I guess in my own way that’s what I’m doing now.