Utne Reader is proud to premiere the video of blues rocker Paul Thorn’s cover of Jackson Browne’s “Doctor My Eyes,” which is off the new Jackson Browne tribute album Looking Into You, out now on Music Road Records.
Album producer Tamara Saviano offered some thoughts on Thorn’s contribution to the album:
Can you go into the story behind the tribute album? What sparked its creation and what was your goal with it?
The tribute album is the creative brain child of Kelcy Warren. Kelcy hired me to produce the album because he liked my work on previous tribute albums. I pulled the pieces together on this one but it was Kelcy’s idea and he came up with the wish list for the artists and songs … I just ran with it and my goal was to deliver the best album I could.
How do you think Paul Thorn reinterpretated “Doctor My Eyes?” What does his rendition bring to the song?
Paul Thorn is such an independent spirit and he adds his own cool, southern signature on everything he does. His rendition of “Doctor My Eyes” is no different. He took Jackson’s song and made it his own. One of the things I love about tribute albums is the opportunity to showcase how a writer’s work can be reinterpreted and rearranged and the song still stands the test of time. Paul certainly did that with “Doctor My Eyes.”
What was like working in the studio on this project with so many iconic artists?
I was not in the studio for all of the sessions as I live in Nashville and sessions were done in many different cities. The sessions I attended were magical. I had a great time working with all of the artists and their managers and publicists whether I was in the studio or not. It was a joyful experience to see how much everyone loves and admires Jackson and wanted to honor him. Many of the artists had to rearrange schedules and change tour routings to be able to make it work. They all spent a lot of time thinking about the song and how they wanted to record. Kelcy’s wish was that each artist have the creative freedom to arrange and record the song the way they wanted to do it. It was fun for me to help each artist get to that place.
