["The Road And The Sky"] written by Jackson Browne over four years ago, was the catalyst for an idea which evolved into Running On Empty, a live album and conceptual statement about the physical and psychic consequences of being on tour. It is an unusual and powerful work. All the songs are new, all of them except one are about life on the road, and they were recorded in all the places where life on the road is lived—in motel rooms, on buses, in backstage dressing rooms, as well as on stage itself. The seamless fashion in which the motel songs and the stage songs are fused together is part of the magic.

The theme has been continued in each cycle of Jackson's development…. But it was his collection of songs on The Pretender which established his position as both a major poet and musician.

Jackson has...