![]() ![]() “I don’t think it’s in the bag or anything, but I have to hope,” he says. ![]() Browne says he doesn’t believe America will re-elect their president this year, but his optimism is shaded with caution. He’s an inspiration, and he was instrumental in starting the school.”Įnjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign upĪs if to underscore his point, the day we speak the Trump administration announces it is scrapping pollution protections for America’s streams and wetlands. “He’s a Catholic priest, but when he arrived in Haiti it was so rough he said: ‘These people don’t need a priest, they need a doctor.’ He went away, became a doctor and then came back to Haiti and built a hospital. “Father Rick Frechette is a major figure in this whole story,” explains Browne. In the song he’s riding a motorbike through the slums: “The father and the doctor to the poorest of the poor / Raising up the future from the rubble of the past”. They set about trying to capture the reality of the country in song, which brings us back to Rick, who Browne didn’t finish telling us about. On the island they also teamed up with members of the Haitian roots band Lakou Mizik. I love her music”) as well as Paul Beaubrun, Habib Koite, Raul Rodriguez and Jonathan Russell. The group he rounded up included the songwriter and producer Jonathan Wilson (“A very willing partner and accomplice”) and former Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis (“One of my heroes. “I think it took me longer to write than it took them to build the school.” “It’s a difficult subject, so it took me a long time to finish that song,” he says. Moved by the stories he heard from Haiti, Browne wrote “Standing in the Breach”, the title track of his 2014 album about the disaster and the long history of colonialism and slavery that preceded it. ![]() Browne has been passionate about their work since playing a benefit concert after the devastating 2010 earthquake, and was impressed by APJ’s ability to swiftly build a school in Port-au-Prince that now provides free education to 2,600 of the most impoverished children in the western hemisphere. Rick appears in the third verse of Browne’s song “Love Is Love”, the lead single from a new benefit album, Let the Rhythm Lead, which he recorded in Haiti along with a group of fellow musicians to support the charity Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ). “I just realised I didn’t finish telling you about Rick!” I stare at my phone in bleary-eyed confusion, trying to remember if one of the all-time great singer-songwriters had let slip anything scandalous he might be eager to recant, but when I pick up I hear his warm Californian tones overflowing with enthusiasm. The morning after our interview I get a call from Jackson Browne. ![]()
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March 2023
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