LOVE IS STRANGE: EN VIVO CON TINO

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I was never a Jackson Brown groupie, but liked many of his songs and live concerts. He was usually on with a fine performance and surrounded himself with really good musicians, particularly the polyester man, David Lindley. I’ve been listening to this recording a lot lately. I think it’s one of his very best.

rŌbert

Love Is Strange: En Vivo Con Tino is the fourth live album by Jackson Browne, and 16th official studio or live album. A 2-CD live set released in 2010, the album documents a March 2006 tour of Spain that Browne and David Lindley took part in with Spanish percussionist Tino di Geraldo. The seven shows of the tour in Spain were followed by four in the United Kingdom.^[1] The album preserves performances by guest Spanish musicians flutist Carlos Núñez, vocalists Kiko Veneno and Luz Casal, and banduria player Javier Mas. Some songs have introductions spoken by Browne in Spanish.

The album won at the 2011 Independent Music Awards in the Live Performance Album category, and was nominated for a 2011 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. It peaked at No. 46 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Magazine Folk Albums chart. It reached No. 17 on Billboard’s Rock Albums chart and No. 5 on Billboard’s Independent Albums chart.

History

In the liner notes to the album, Browne wrote that the 2006 tour of Spain was the idea of Paco Pérez Bryan, who suggested Browne bring Lindley, who has toured off and on with Browne for almost 40 years and has recorded off and on with him since 1973’s For Everyman.

In his review for Allmusic Thom Jurek wrote that the album “could have been an experiment that failed miserably, drenched in nostalgia and excess; instead, it succeeds grandly because of a sparse, tasteful approach with excellent arrangements and genuinely inspired performances.” He also wrote: “beautifully recorded, this set shows what Browne is capable of when he has musical foils who will not allow him to simply rest on his laurels.”

Rolling Stone rated the album three and a half out of five stars. Music critic Will Hermes said the album is “an album to please fans who didn’t follow Jackson Browne on his Eighties detour into fight-the-power songs.” Commenting on the performances, he wrote: “Browne’s voice has barely aged, and Lindley’s liquid slide is exquisite; versions often rival the originals.”

For Uncut Magazine, Bud Scoppa, who reviewed Browne’s debut album in 1972 for Rolling Stone, noted that “several of the songs Browne chose to revisit are from records on which Lindley didn’t appear, enabling the onetime partners to see what they could bring to the more recent material in tandem. The resulting performances are less renderings than transformations.” Browne, “with a crucial assist from Lindley, … fluidly unifies his entire body of work.