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Thursday, June 26, 2003

By Scott Mervis, Post-Gazette Weekend Editor

Why couldn't Jackson Browne have gotten a nice opener, like that Jack Johnson surfer dude or maybe that guy who sounds like Dave Matthews -- what's his name -- John Mayer?

Instead he went and got Steve Earle as if to prove perhaps he was more of a lightweight than we remembered him to be.

Steve Earle is an outlaw, an activist, a hillbilly, a punk, a guy whose songs reach out and grab you by the throat. Jackson Browne is the archetype of sensitive, early-'70s folk-pop.

Keb' Mo' was there to help bridge the gap with his crossover Delta blues update.

They all came out together Wednesday night at the Chevrolet Amphitheatre for an opening acoustic mini-set, wherein they showed no chemistry whatsoever. Browne did "Cocaine," Earle growled through "Ellis Unit One" and Mo' picked things up with banjo tune called "Don't You Know."

Then Earle summoned for his electric and out came the Dukes, setting their guitars on "loud and dirty." Earle, looking into the bright sun, was all business, singing with clenched teeth, the look on his face and the tattoo on his sizable arm offering a hint of where's he been.

The Dukes ground through one rocker after another, stressing songs about people who end up where they don't want to be. "John Walker's Blues" was about the American kid fighting for the Taliban; "Taneytown" was a wrenching song about a black kid on the wrong side of town. He sent a muscular version of "Harlan Man" out to the nine miners who came up alive, stretching the song into a mandolin stomp that eventually led into a "Copperhead Road" that The Clash would have envied.

He got about 40 minutes, after which Browne's polite fans made no plea for an encore.

Mo', borrowing Browne's band, came out with a rack of left-handed guitars and put them to good use in a tasty little set that showed off his blues chops and Southern charm. Rather than making it hurt, Mo's blues are the cool, funky type that go down easy on a steamy night. He has just the right grinning charm to put over songs like "Soon As I Get Paid" and "Dangerous Mood."

Browne arrived with "The Pretender" and quickly went about his business of mellowing the house. From a distance, he doesn't look a day older than when he first sang that song, and his voice is still in the same good shape, even if the delivery is less than exhilarating.

"About My Imagination," a newer song he introduced as being about the "revolutionary spirit," sounded more like a cute collection of rhymes backed by a track made for the minivan. The band lined up the songs -- "Barricades in Heaven," "Naked Ride Home" -- and put a gloss over them just the way studio musicians do.

"Lives in the Balance" had a bit of a spark, and he finished strong with "Late for the Sky," followed by crowd-pleasing versions of "Doctor My Eyes" and "Running on Empty."

The encore was a final stroke of absurdity. Mo made sense, but Steve Earle doesn't belong anywhere near "Take It Easy." When you're cruising the middle of the road, you don't bring along a guy who's going down "Copperhead Road."