Songfacts®:

• Jackson Browne wrote this sobering song in response to the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Speaking with Rolling Stone, he talked about how it evolved:
  
  "This song started out to be about the earthquake in Haiti, but it was more than a year before I could finish it. I realized, in the first few lines, that I was taking on a subject that was a challenge:
  
  And though the earth may tremble and our foundations crack
  We will all assemble and we will build them back
  
  You can't build those foundations without dealing with the racism, colonialism, that were in there."
• Browne started playing "Standing In The Breach" live in 2012 and released it in 2014 as the title track to his 14th album. He played it at many of his shows in 2014 and 2015, which could be a bit of a downer for fans looking for hits like "Tender Is The Night" and "Somebody's Baby."
• Browne was 65 when the album was released. He remained active as a singer and songwriter well into his 70s, but at a much slower pace than his 1970s heyday when he was releasing an album a year (and running on empty).