Browne’s performance at Aladdin bolstered by Earle, Keb’ Mo’

Spencer Patterson

Friday, July 25, 2003 | 8:46 a.m.

Who: Jackson Browne with Steve Earle & The Dukes, Keb' Mo'.

When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Admission: $33, $43, $58.

Information: 785-5000.

After two years of seeing concert audiences shrink, the music industry finally showed signs of rebounding during the first half of 2003.

Jackson Browne isn't taking any chances, though. The man who recorded "Running on Empty" doesn't want to risk playing to half-empty theaters, so he has teamed with a pair of similarly established musicians alt-country veteran Steve Earle and bluesman Keb' Mo' for his current tour.

The trio land at the Aladdin's Theatre for the Performing Arts Sunday night at 7:30. Browne knows in today's uncertain musical climate, there truly is safety in numbers.

"Business is not so great all over. So it's the summer M.O., you know, to try to tour with multiple acts to try to maximize your attendance," Browne said in a recent phone interview from his Seattle hotel room.

"And this way, I think the audience is enticed to get there earlier, to see it begin. It's a pretty full evening."

Browne knows a bit about the challenges facing Earle and Mo' (real name: Kevin Moore) as support acts. In fact, the 54-year-old Californian opened for Tom Petty at the Aladdin in November.

"Both of these guys are headliners also, used to closing their own show, doing the whole night," Browne said. "But of course, it's different closing than opening. To play in the beginning, when people are still coming in and trying to find their seats, is a certain kind of task.

"I took a great deal of pride doing it well for Tom, and so far attendance has been pretty good (on this tour), as far as getting people there early."

To ensure fans arrive as early as possible, Browne has also spread the word that the show will open with all three acts onstage, bucking the traditional headliner-following-opening act arrangement.

Earle and his band, the Dukes, are up next, followed by a set from Mo'. Browne then finishes out the evening with his own performance, capped off by a few more numbers with the entire ensemble.

It all adds up to a concert experience Browne sounds excited to be part of.

"Fundamentally, we're three songwriters, even though Kevin is considered a blues singer because he's very blues-oriented and they call Steve's music country or Southern rock," Browne said. "They both defy description. You can call them by the genre they play in, but they're really pretty unique."

During his Aladdin appearance last year, Browne commented that he'd "steered clear of this place for years" before embracing Las Vegas only recently.

"When I was younger, I thought it was this great malignancy on the horizon," Browne said laughing. "It's funny because I really enjoy Las Vegas now.

"The turning point was a gig that we did a few years ago, a 'No Nukes' benefit with the Indigo Girls and Bonnie Raitt and Graham Nash. It just transformed the city for me, because I saw that there were all these people who were from Las Vegas, who were normal."

Browne's latest album, September's "The Naked Ride Home," includes a track titled "Casino Nation," but Browne said it has less to do with actual casino culture than one might think.

"I think it's really about the whole country," Browne said. "The metaphor about casinos is the whole idea that our society is kind of run like a casino. There's a house and there are a sprinkling of big winners, but otherwise everybody pays into the system on the idea that they might be one of the people to strike it rich."

Browne typically plays about half of the 10 tracks from "The Naked Ride Home," along with such standbys as "The Pretender," "Doctor My Eyes" and "Running on Empty."

And if you yell for it loud enough, he just might finish up with one last collaboration with his buddies Earle and Mo', a little ditty made famous by the Eagles.

"The other night we were all playing together and Kevin said, 'I want to play that "Take it Easy",' and I said, 'Cool man'," Browne said. "We pull it out when people insist, and it's always fun because it's a song everybody knows every note of.

"And I can also see in the audience, a sprinkling of people who look kind of perplexed and then the person next to them will say something and their eyes will kind of light up. Because they don't know that I had a hand in writing that song."