Running on Empty

Also available with JACKSON BROWNE (SATURATE BEFORE USING) on 1 cassette.
Personnel: Jackson Browne (vocals, guitar); Danny Kortchmar (guitar); David Lindley (lap steel guitar, fiddle); Craid Doerge (keyboards); Leland Sklar (bass); Russ Kunkel (drums); Doug Haywood, Rosemary Butler (background vocals).
Recorded live in 1977.
An audacious concept album about life on the road, this is a mix of in concert performances and informal sessions taped in various hotel rooms (see "Shaky Town," although it's hard to believe that Browne, by then a major star, was actually staying at a Holiday Inn). It's very '70s--the overall aura of cocaine-fueled decadence is almost palpable--but it works far better than you'd expect, and the songs are consistently memorable, even if Browne didn't write them all.
High points include a stunning half hotel/half concert version of Danny O'Keefe's "The Road," still the best song ever written about the life of a travelling musician, and the closing medley of the roadie anthem "The Load-Out" and Maurice Williams and the Zodiac's doo-wop classic "Stay." The hard rocking title tune features typically lyrical yet stinging slide guitar from long time associate David Lindley.