Browne, Raitt Tradition: Raising Voices and Money

Parents who got stuck driving their teenagers to the recent KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas concerts got their reward this past weekend. A benefit for Central American victims of Hurricane Mitch featuring Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Sarah McLachlan, Los Lobos and Keb’ Mo’ at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Friday offered a more adult lineup, with less of the almost.

It’s not just that this concert was largely acoustic. While the KROQ shows benefit local organizations, this event existed only to raise money and awareness for the relief efforts of Doctors Without Borders, Madre and Carecen--no radio station promotional crowing, no sense that the acts were there mainly to market records.

Participants didn’t even use the occasion to comment on events in Washington, except to offer some perspective. “In a better world, it wouldn’t be us [helping Central America], but our government, instead of what they are doing,” said Browne before his strident but appropriate “Lives in the Balance.”

What this event did have was a tradition of commitment. Raitt, turning to Browne during her closing set of spunky blues and bittersweet ballads, asked, “You know how many times we’ve done this together?” Yet after 25 years of performaning for a variety of causes--political, environmental, friends in need--their spirits have not flagged, even if their music was low-key Friday.

Browne played several songs with Hispanic themes--aided musically by neo-flamenco guitar duo Strunz & Farah--plus, as a seasonal entry, his “The Rebel Jesus,” holding Christ as the model of social activism. And Los Lobos concentrated on the lively Latin American elements of their repertoire.

McLachlan was the new kid, the only non-Southern Californian and the only performer without blues roots, but she stepped right in. The solo acoustic setting restored an intimacy that was diffused by the larger setting of the Lilith Fair, as well as by her role as queen of Lilith Nation. Her most vociferous support came from the younger people on hand, but her passionately poetic writing, singing and presence impressed those less familiar with her.

Embraced by all was an encore featuring Raitt’s dad, former Broadway star John Raitt--and it wasn’t the “Oklahoma” duet he has performed often at his daughter’s shows, but, backed by Los Lobos, a lustily dramatic rendition of “Granada.” It was a rousing capper, no almost about it.