James Taylor and Jackson Browne keep things mellow during joint Xcel Energy Center concert

Nov. 30—Two Rock and Roll Hall of Famers — James Taylor and Jackson Browne — shared the stage at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center on Monday night for an evening of the sort of extremely mellow folk rock that made the men famous in the '70s.

Taylor and Browne — who are both 73 — continue to record new music to this day, but Monday was mostly about the familiar oldies that held the crowd of about 10,000 in a quiet rapture.

Browne kicked off his 70-minute set with "Somebody's Baby" at 7:30 p.m., a time when a significant number of fans were still making their way into the arena. (The concert required proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test and while venue staff appeared to be doing a great job, some concertgoers slowed lines down as they fumbled for their vaccine card.)

From there, Browne worked his way through his set at a leisurely pace, occasionally chatting with the crowd between numbers. Back in July, Browne released his 15th album, "Downhill from Everywhere," which just earned a best Americana album Grammy nomination. He played three songs from the record and while they didn't get a huge reaction, they did fit in quite well with Browne's otherwise laid back sonics.

By the time Browne got to his 1977 hit "The Pretender," Taylor emerged from the wings to join him and stuck around for Browne's finale, "Running on Empty."

After a 30-minute intermission, Taylor returned to the stage with his 13-piece band, which includes five backing vocalists, one of whom is Taylor's 20-year-old son Henry. As he usually does, Taylor built the set around his 1976 "Greatest Hits" compilation, a staple of boomer record collections and Taylor's best seller by a wide margin. "Mexico" was the first to show up, four songs in, and it brought a much-needed boost of energy to the stage, where Taylor often sits and tells rambling stories and dad jokes between numbers.

Midway through his performance, Taylor performed his only new song of the night and, well, it actually dates back more than 80 years. Taylor's most recent album, "American Standard," is filled with what he told the crowd were popular standards that everybody knows. And then he went ahead and played the most obscure track on the record, "As Easy as Rolling Off a Log," a song written for a 1938 "Merrie Melodies" cartoon. (Taylor also noted that "American Standard" came out just before the pandemic lockdown and joked that it felt like he was dropping his baby down a well.)

For the end of his main set, Taylor pulled out the big guns with a run of "Sweet Baby James," "Fire and Rain," "Shower the People" (which inspired the crowd to clap along), "Carolina in My Mind" and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)." Given that the Beatles have zoomed back into the pop culture conversation thanks to the just released, nearly nine-hour docuseries "Get Back," it was kind of a surprise Taylor skipped "Something in the Way She Moves." Taylor landed his first record deal in 1968 after playing the song for Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Not only did the Beatles sign him to their Apple Records label, Harrison used the song's title as the inspiration for "Something."

For the encore, Browne rejoined Taylor for a run through the Eagles' "Take it Easy" (a song Browne wrote with Glenn Frey) and Carole King's "You've Got a Friend," capping off what's likely to be the year's most polite Twin Cities arena show.