Jackson Browne

"This is like one gigantic Main Point in here," said Jackson Browne last night, midway through his first of two nights at the Mann Music Center. It was at that long-defunct Main Line club that Browne got his first taste of fame. "Philadelphia," he had mentioned earlier, "is the first place I saw a line around the block to buy tickets for my show. " A lot has changed since the early 70s. For one thing, Browne became famous for songs that defined yuppie angst before the y-word had even been coined.

Three years after Joni Mitchell apparently dissed him in the song "Not to Blame," Jackson Browne is extracting his revenge by branding Mitchell "very embittered" for not getting her due as a musical innovator and a "violent" woman who physically attacked him twice. "She's not really well," says Browne in a Dallas Morning News interview. ". . . She has had deep fallings-out with many people in her life. . . . She's not a happy person, and what she said in that song is absolutely, 100 percent wrong.

Jackson Browne established his reputation during the early 1970s, when the singer-songwriter boom was in full swing. As an introspective post-folkie not averse to plugging in an electric guitar, Browne scored a hit single early on with the easygoing rocker "Doctor My Eyes" and became an FM radio favorite with melodic confessionals like "Here Come Those Tears Again," "Fountain of Sorrow" and "For Everyman. " Much as he strove to portray himself as one, however, Browne was never an Everyman.

Jackson Browne returned to the concert circuit for the first time since 1985 last night at the Tower Theater, and almost instantly reaffirmed his place as one of rock's premier singer-songwriters. Beginning with the biting and muscular "Lawyers in Love," Browne used humor, poignantly detailed scene-sketches and acidic insight to communicate specific messages, many related to human rights and U.S. involvement in Central America. The concert, part of a 19-city tour to benefit the activist law and policy organization known as the Christic Institute, surveyed Browne's familiar material - and showcased a number of songs from an album Browne plans to release next year.

Jackson Browne knows what he's in for. Among the love songs on his new album I'm Alive, to be released Tuesday, is an intriguing little number about a desperate man who vows he'll do anything to bring back the woman he loves. No, he says, when delicate inquiries are made: "I'll Do Anything" is only glancingly related to his personal life. But tabloid readers may think differently. In one of the more publicized star incidents of 1992, Browne and his longtime girlfriend, actress Daryl Hannah, broke up in a hailstorm of accusations and, some say, physical blows.

In the past I've sometimes feared that too much success had spoiled Jackson Browne, especially as a live performer. When he played the Mann Music Center three summers ago, Browne faced an overly zealous audience that only knew his rock hits. They were strangers to Browne's lovely, soul-searching ballads - the contemporary folk and folk-rock that first won him acclaim 20 years ago in coffeehouses like Bryn Mawr's late, lamented Main Point. Browne's need to pontificate (between songs)

I assume both of you watched top-ranked Alabama methodically defeat Penn State last Saturday. My question is, did they look like a No. 1 team to you? The Crimson Tide didn't look dominant but are there any other teams out there - Ohio State, Boise State, Oregon, Temple - that have looked better and are more deserving of No. 1? Oklahoma is the best team in country. The Sooners embarrassed Florida State. I put Michigan in the top five. Florida made a statement, too, but the Gators were catching a South Florida team that was exhausted coming off that tougher-than-expected opener against Stony Brook.

21st Annual Neighborhood to Neighborhood Festival Best known to West Philadelphians as the N2N Fest, this free annual all-day block party starts off holy and ends on a hot and sexy note or two. Hosted by State Sen. Anthony H. Williams (rumor has it he's especially good at making elaborate balloon animals for children), the day starts with a prayerful Gospel Hour starring the Abundant Life Youth Choir, Calvary Baptist Church Ensemble, and Kevin Jarido & Nu Virtu. Amen to that. It continues with carnival rides and balloons for kids, karaoke for adults, and Philly native singer Tamika Patton, the Urban Guerilla Orchestra, and the Universal Dance & Drum Ensemble for all. By dusk, the noise heats up. As the sun goes down, soul-hop chanteuse Chrisette Michele appears with songs from I Am and Epiphany.

Bally's Atlantic City, Boardwalk at Park Place, 609-340-2000, ballysac.com. Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, 1 Borgata Way, 609-317-1000, theborgata.com. Stone Temple Pilots, 8 tonight (Event Center), $85 and $75. Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, 9 tonight (Music Box), $50. Jackson Browne with David Lindley, 8 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday (Event Center), $76, $66 and $56. From Good Homes, 9 p.m. tomorrow (Music Box), $35. The Roots, 9 p.m. Sunday (Music Box), $55. Caesars Atlantic City, Boardwalk at Arkansas Avenue, 609-348-4411, caesarsac.

Jackson Browne, who performed a sold-out show at the Mann Music Center last night, is perhaps the most familiar example of the "singer-songwriter," a pop subgenre of sensitive souls whose well-phrased navel-gazing proved a boom industry in the mid-1970s. The combination of Browne's uncommon literacy and droopy handsomeness enabled him to become an esteemed pop star with at least one first-rate album to his credit, The Pretender (1976). In recent years, however, Browne has looked up from his navel to consider the world around him, and his new album, Lives in the Balance (Asylum)

In Concert 3680 Walnut St.; 215-898-6701. www.annenbergcenter.org . Joshua Redman & Brad Mehldau. $20-$45. 10/14. 7:30 pm. 227 Bridge St., Phoenixville; 610-917-1228. www.thecolonialtheatre.com . The Songs of Harry Chapin. $22-$35.50. 10/14. 8 pm. Mandy Barnett. $17.50-$29.50. 10/15. 8 pm. 1853 Wrightstown Rd., Washington Crossing; 215-493-6500. www.crossingvineyards.com . Fridays Unplugged. $10. 10/14. 421 N. Seventh St.; 215-569-9400.

I assume both of you watched top-ranked Alabama methodically defeat Penn State last Saturday. My question is, did they look like a No. 1 team to you? The Crimson Tide didn't look dominant but are there any other teams out there - Ohio State, Boise State, Oregon, Temple - that have looked better and are more deserving of No. 1? Oklahoma is the best team in country. The Sooners embarrassed Florida State. I put Michigan in the top five. Florida made a statement, too, but the Gators were catching a South Florida team that was exhausted coming off that tougher-than-expected opener against Stony Brook.

Bally's Atlantic City, Boardwalk at Park Place, 609-340-2000, ballysac.com. Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, 1 Borgata Way, 609-317-1000, theborgata.com. Stone Temple Pilots, 8 tonight (Event Center), $85 and $75. Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, 9 tonight (Music Box), $50. Jackson Browne with David Lindley, 8 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday (Event Center), $76, $66 and $56. From Good Homes, 9 p.m. tomorrow (Music Box), $35. The Roots, 9 p.m. Sunday (Music Box), $55. Caesars Atlantic City, Boardwalk at Arkansas Avenue, 609-348-4411, caesarsac.

21st Annual Neighborhood to Neighborhood Festival Best known to West Philadelphians as the N2N Fest, this free annual all-day block party starts off holy and ends on a hot and sexy note or two. Hosted by State Sen. Anthony H. Williams (rumor has it he's especially good at making elaborate balloon animals for children), the day starts with a prayerful Gospel Hour starring the Abundant Life Youth Choir, Calvary Baptist Church Ensemble, and Kevin Jarido & Nu Virtu. Amen to that. It continues with carnival rides and balloons for kids, karaoke for adults, and Philly native singer Tamika Patton, the Urban Guerilla Orchestra, and the Universal Dance & Drum Ensemble for all. By dusk, the noise heats up. As the sun goes down, soul-hop chanteuse Chrisette Michele appears with songs from I Am and Epiphany.

Some major entertainment figures are being forced to cough up cash they got from a Wall Street swindler who sweetened their investment accounts with ill-gotten gains. The New York Daily News reports that Cameron Diaz, Alanis Morissette and Hollywood power-broker Richard Lovett, who heads Creative Artists Agency, are among those who have agreed to pay back money improperly diverted to them by jailed fund manager Dana Giacchetto. And more stars are being sued by trustees assigned to Giacchetto's defunct investment fund, Cassandra Group.

"Gee, do you really think we're competition for the Philly Folk Festival?" frets Bonnie Raitt, when told that her collaborative concert with Jackson Browne, Shawn Colvin, Bruce Hornsby and David Lindley is happening at the Blockbuster-Sony E-Center on Wednesday, just three days after the annual bash in Schwenksville concludes. "Sure, we're all folk-rooted" - and all but Hornsby have played PFF in bygone years. "But we're really on a different plane these days," Raitt figures. "And frankly, we really didn't have much choice with the timing of the tour.

Well, Ricky Martin seems to be doing all right. So why not take some of his advice? "Don't tell me you can't dance! You've got to trust yourself, because it's in the blood," urges the Puero Rican pop phenom. "You have to leave the ego out the door and go. " OK, now we're dancing! What else? "You've got to be spiritual," Martin opines to tvguide.com. "You've got to connect your heart and your mind, and when you do that you don't make obsessive or compulsive decisions. That definitely helps.

Three years after Joni Mitchell apparently dissed him in the song "Not to Blame," Jackson Browne is extracting his revenge by branding Mitchell "very embittered" for not getting her due as a musical innovator and a "violent" woman who physically attacked him twice. "She's not really well," says Browne in a Dallas Morning News interview. ". . . She has had deep fallings-out with many people in her life. . . . She's not a happy person, and what she said in that song is absolutely, 100 percent wrong.

Jackson Browne knows what he's in for. Among the love songs on his new album I'm Alive, to be released Tuesday, is an intriguing little number about a desperate man who vows he'll do anything to bring back the woman he loves. No, he says, when delicate inquiries are made: "I'll Do Anything" is only glancingly related to his personal life. But tabloid readers may think differently. In one of the more publicized star incidents of 1992, Browne and his longtime girlfriend, actress Daryl Hannah, broke up in a hailstorm of accusations and, some say, physical blows.

Indigo Girl Emily Saliers has a new friend. Her name is Virginia Woolf. "I feel as though I have a living friendship with her," Saliers says of the British author who died in 1941. "Through her diaries, I've made a very immediate, personal connection. " Typically for both Saliers, 29, and Amy Ray, 28, the other half of the Indigo Girls, that connection turned to song. Virginia Woolf is one of 13 tracks on the Indigos' new album, Rites of Passage (Epic). Informed this time out by Irish pipes and Gypsy strings, the Girls' acoustic folk-rock tradition of angst-filled, personal and impassioned lyrics - supported by strong-voiced solos and clean harmonies - continues.