For Everyman

With the great multi-instrumentalist David Lindley adding his musical voice to Jackson Browne’s nuanced songs of love and loss, *For Everyman* is an entrancing follow-up to his stellar self-titled debut (also known as *Saturate Before Using*). The Eagles had a hit with his “Take It Easy” (Glenn Frey adding a verse when Browne didn’t complete the song), and “These Days” became a calling card for Gregg Allman. Browne turns up the rock ‘n’ roll for “Redneck Friend” but elsewhere finds his groove as a singer/songwriter with an eloquent way of saying things. “Our Lady of the Well,” “Colors of the Sun,” and “The Times You’ve Come” show rich lyricism balanced with melodies that ache and weep like no other early-‘70s music, shy of Neil Young’s. Browne’s excellence comes to a dramatic close with the epic “For Everyman.” However, his lighter side comes to the surface on the joyful “Ready or Not” about pending fatherhood. All of Browne’s ‘70s work is essential. It’s scary to think that he’d actually surpass himself with his next album, the classic *Late for the Sky*.

Jackson Browne faced the nearly insurmountable task of following a masterpiece in making his second album.