Jackson Browne talks politics, bandmates and the enduring popularity of 'These Days'

For a while, you might chat about Carlos Varela, the Cuban musician (and subject of the documentary “The Poet of Havana”) whom Browne befriended on his first trip to Cuba in 2002 after hearing about Varela years earlier from Bonnie Raitt.

“Carlos was immediately so inspiring. He’s funny as hell. He’s very buoyant and he’s truthful,” Browne said earlier this week on a day off before his show in Durham, N.C. “He’s definitely influenced me. He’s a different spirit.”

Or maybe the conversation will veer toward the title track of his current album, “Standing in the Breach,” which uses poverty and earthquakes as the backdrop to a message of hope nestled at song’s end.

Do you always make a conscious effort to bring a promising message into your songs? You ask.

“I guess I do,” Browne replied with a laugh. “I really do think there is potential in everybody to make the leap and start living in a way that takes into consideration the problems that we’re faced with. There might be ways that people can get out of these sorts of boundaries that separate them. It may be a wishful thing to say, but the possibility is there.”

His thoughtful response reminds him of a TED talk he recently observed online of Jane McGonigal, a video game proponent who believes the use of digital technology leads to positive real-world collaboration.

Browne highly recommends watching it.

Politics, of course, is a topic widely associated with Browne, who, along with creating 14 studio albums and a couple of dozen hits since the early ‘70s, is frequently associated with political causes, environmental activism and myriad human rights charities.

Longtime fans will not be surprised to learn that the self-described liberal is a firm supporter of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

“People dismiss Bernie out of hand. Why? Because he’s not handsome enough or that he’s a self-avowed socialist? I think it’s a great relief to have somebody who says what he really believes,” Browne said.

Eventually, conversation winds back to Browne’s lifelong job as a musician, and one who has been canvassing the world since March on a tour to support “Breach.”

He and his six-piece band, which at Saturday’s Chastain Park Amphitheatre performance will include Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, who will also open the show, plan to play a chunk of new material from the well-regarded “Standing in the Breach” album. But Browne added that the band knows plenty of other songs that might “jump out” if the mood strikes. Some of the hits — “Running on Empty,” “I’m Alive,” “Doctor My Eyes,” and “Take it Easy,” his co-write with Eagles co-frontman Glenn Frey — should be there, too.

He credits his group of longtime players, including bassist Bob Glaub, keyboardist Jeff Young and drummer Mauricio “Fritz” Lewak, with providing him the stamina to trek from Japan to Europe to the West Coast of the U.S. to this series of fall dates through November.

Credit: Melissa Ruggieri

Credit: Melissa Ruggieri

“They’re able to keep these songs fresh,” he said. “I’ve got these guys — and singer Alethea Mills — who are really playing emotionally. It’s a lucky grouping of musicians. … It’s gratifying that this album was, I think, received really well. People want to hear these songs as much as the old ones.”

Browne is always writing songs, always looking forward.

But he readily embraces a question about his history, about why he thinks “These Days,” of all the songs in his mighty catalog, is the one most covered.

“I really don’t know,” he said, and then paused. “It seems recent to me. I’m used to people coming up to me in airports and saying, ‘I love that song of yours! My favorite one is ‘Stay’!’ Hey, thanks, the one song I didn’t write!” Browne chuckles. “I have every kind of fan and some of them know every song I’ve done and some just know the hits and they both have their place in my wonderfully lucky career.”

But back to “These Days.”

“A lot of younger people come up to me and say they love that song,” Browne said. “To me, it’s a very ‘young’ song. I had to rewrite it when I was 25 because the lyrics weren’t reflective of me at the time.”

German singer Nico first recorded his song — the original version — in 1967 and Browne appreciated this “Nico version” covered by Replacements singer Paul Westerberg in 2003 as well as Glen Campbell’s 2008 rendition, which Browne noted for faithfully re-creating the “Nico version” with an accompanying string arrangement.

With an hour-plus conversation winding down, there is one more topic to quickly cover: Browne’s impending birthday, which he will celebrate the day before his Atlanta concert.

“I will not have fundamentally changed by my birthday,” Browne joked about his last few days as a 66-year-old, and then shrugged off the upcoming occasion. “There’s something not quite as valiant about 67 as there was 66.”

And with that, the guest is ready to leave the party.