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BLACKIE
DANNY BARNES GRUPO FANTASMA
JANIS JOPLIN
f; E
WINIER 20I6 /
ISSUE 65
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Flnding Her Groove
Going Home Agcin
BY MADISON SCARIE
BY DON
ft's not a career patb anyone zaould haoe planned: the daugbter
Don Henley returned to his roots1lbr his new solo album, Cass County, both literally andfgurativeQ. The legendary singersongwriter and drumtter greu up in Texas, neeped in the influences of country rnusic. He rnade his uay to Calfornin and helpedform the Eagla, one of the rnost popular and most reviled bandl
ofan acclaimed singer-songzuriter and sutcessful painter attends oiolin scholarship, transfers after a yar to studyfolk andjazz at another, graduates to a partnership zaith a legendary songtariter three titnes ber age uho teaches her boto to sing and ztsrite, launches a solo career playing uith jazz rnusfuians, discovers the music of her great aunt, and makes an albunr qttraditional Mexican songs mixed uith bilingual oiginals. Carrie Rodriguez learnedfom berfami$ tolfbllozo her muse, and it's prooed an expensiae lesson. She left a pile of scholara tony music conseraatory on a
ship monelt on the table ttben she dccided not to become a classical aiolinist. Instead ofa dependable salary usith a syntphony orchestra, she gets a guarter$ royalty checkfom Spoffifor about $15. Shei had to maintain a touring schedule that ztsould tax the 1970s ttersion o1[Keith Richards. But the payofis that she\ making tbe music she raants to play Madison Searle explores her idiosltncratic
musicaljourney and revieus her latest project, and assessnent qlfRodriguez's releases to this
point.
zue
qfer an
MCTEESE
-
-
went on to revolutionize counny-rock utith their blend of uellconstructed songs, instrurnentation and layered ztocal harrnonies. After tbe Eagles disbanded, critiu uho larnented tbe group's music were given a reason to embrace Henley as a solo artist thanks to impressizte albums likeThe End of the Innocence. Nou, 15 years after his last solo release, Henley drezofom hi earQ counry infuencesforCass County. "It's still home to me," Henley says oflinden, the smal! tozon zuho
zahere he
rlas raised. "I harte a home there.
It\
ultere I spent
nyfor-
rnative years." Senior editor Don McLeese reconsiders Henlelt\ career in light ofhis latest alburn, raondering ltou one should negotiate
Henley\ oft-criticized group work and admirable
solo career.
o o E
';o l
:o cOvER PHOTOcnapaz Luke Jacobs
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As a music oitic and columnistfor the Austin American-
Stttesman throughout the 1990s, senior editor Don MtLeese developed a dfferent perspexive on Don Henlel
than he'd brought
nou
teaches
uith himfom
his natioe Chimgo. He
joumalism at the Uniarsity of loua.
Psvcltolosists
OALL. IT ,,CO(iNlrruE DTSSONANCE" -
the strain of a brain struggling to embrace
two contradictory beliefs or values at the
across his spread
in a vintage pickup, wearing a
Let's turn this into a story problem: A lot of the music press hates the Eagles. I'm part of that press. Don Henley hates the press (see "Dirty Laundry"). I love Don Henley (his solo music, at
flannel shirt and well-worn boots. There's no air ofpretense in either his supple, soulfirl voice or his straightFonv"ard, matter-oFfact songs. And the classics from others he's chosen to sing (from Jesse Winchester, the Louvin Brothers and others) sound timeless, without a whiffof nostalgia. When he eases into a ladies' choice waltz such as Billy Sherillls "Too Far Gone," he brings nuance and wisd.rl understatement that makes it seem like a whole different song than Tammy
least).
Wynette's hit.
same
time.
In my case, here's the dilemma: How can love the music of Don Henley as much as I've long disliked the Eagles? And is the problem I
with me or is itwith Henley?
X= what? Henleys recent release of Cass Countyhas, if arything, raised the stakes, while altering the equation exponentially. The album takes its tide from the region in Northeast Taras where he was born and raised, and where he now has a 200-acre spread near his hometown of Linden. The album reclaims Henley's legacy as a quintessential Texas artist, one who came to the county side of country rock more legitimately than so many of the hayseed bandwagon jumpers of the early'70s. ICs an album that finds
in
him holding his own
with both Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton, while attracting the support of a younger generation of kindred spirits: Miranda Lambert, Jamey Johnson, Ashley Monroe, vocally
duets
Alison lirauss. It offers a musical landscape into which he setdes as comfortably as a guy driving
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It sounds like a Don Henley song, not like the sort of calpetbagging that so many rock stars (Brett Michaels? Steven Tyler?) have attempted.
There's a generosity of spirit throughout, whether he's turning to the songbook offellow Tqras native Tift Menitt on the opening number that spodight on such a deserved - shining talent or conjuring the everyday lives of the small-town waitress in 'Waiting Tables," the drought-plagued farmer in "Praying for Rain" (an environmentalist manifesto in the plainest of terms) or admitting on the final 'lA/here I Am
No#'what
he never would to a joumalist: "IVe done some foolish things," he opens the hardest-rocking number ever to dose a Henley album. "And IVe been downright stupid." As he sings of days long gone, I can't imag-
ine a better taking-stoclg bringing-it-all-backhome, prodigal-returns-firll-circle of an album.
Since its release, I've been playing
then
tfing
it
incessandy,
a break, then returning to
it with
renewed and deepened appreciation. It's been touted as Henley's "country album," but it makes most of what passes for country these days sound like
kids'stuff(which it is).
And it isn't "Americana," that catch-allterm that owes more to marketing than music, and, like independent labels of an earlier era, tends to catch artists on their way up or on their way down (neither of which Henley is). As I write this, the Botde Rockets and Joe Ely are faring bâ‚Źtter on the Americana charts than Henley is. Cass Coun4t did debut at No. 1 on the country charts, but it was never destined to make the sort of ripples in those circles that, say, Chris Stapleton has. A 68-year-old artist, even one of those with greater country bona fides than Henley, will find the commercial airwaves tough
to navigate. And Don Henley ain't interested in being your bro, whoever you are.
Anyway, glad-handing is more prevalent Nashville than backstabbing. Henley pretty much assured that he wouldnt be making many friends in commercial country when he launched
in
the album with a ty?ically outspoken interview in Rolling Stone Country: 'T dont recognzn county music anymore,"
he said. 'The bar isnt very high right now I'm not naming any names. I'm just saying the bar isnt very high right now. fThere's] a lot of bad
songwdting going on, really sloppy stuff Not that country music is supposed to be an intellectual exercise, but it could be better than it is. It could have more meat to it than it's currendy got." I'd initially feared that Henley s own album might offer less meat than filler, as the advance publicity and the roster of all-star collaborators suggested a more calculated contrivance ofprefab "product," the kind of comeback release assem-
bled by blueprint and committee. Instead, it
lke a natural progression from everything previously admired about Henley solo, and much richer, deeper and more melodic than anything I'd rcaseems
I'd
son
And we haters are legion, among music critics and music fans alike. Even the Dude himself hates the Eagles. Mojo Nixon wrote an anthem for us, and he titled it "Don Henley Must Die."
know was a different guy than the chip-on-theshoulder Eagle he'd previously seemed. He was a regular guy you could imagine sitting down and having a beer with him. And that's the guy who, 20 years older and wiser, has returned with Cas.r
During his extended hiatus from that band, Henley reconfirmed his special relationship with
County.
Texas when he made a sulprise appearance in 7992 on the stage of Austin's tiny Hole in the
I suppose my affinity for solo Henley began when his music wasn't a side project but his main
Wall, joining Nixon in that anthem, showing he could take
a
joke. By
^ny to anticiPate
after the L5-yeat interval since his
last
release.
represents
It
a long
journey from the
Hotel California, not only in miles but in decades, the maturity the
of
music eclipsing a younger man's bravado.
And I think this may be the key to my strong feelings
-
both ways
-
toward Henley and the Eagles. The former has reclaimed his identity as a Lone Star native - a soft-spoken man of steely conviction, a sage who
doesn't suffer fools and hypocrites o
o
if at all while the latter will forever be lnked in my mind with gladly,
the
excesses and self-indulgences of much younger men, the cocaine cowz boys who became the quintessential o California band, and then the biggest ci band in America. z !
That band's popularity and ideno
tity still loom so large that iCs difficult o to separate Henleys musical legary z z from that of the Eagles or just o "Eagles," as the band prefers (like i "Cream"). o When I think of the band 9 that turned "Life in the Fast Lane" into o more of a thrill ride than a cautionary tale (and a o =
reduced'James Dean" to a ditty),
it remains the
epitome of self-mlthoiogizing rock star elitism. When Henley isn't recording as a solo artist and
o
making albums Like this, he's on tour with that band, making millions, singing songs of witchy o women and tequila sunrises, capitalizing on the z classic-rock nostalgia that Cass County so thor,;
o Lii
o
=
oughly rejects. So, yeah, I'm one of those, one of those critics who hates the Eagles (sorry, writing just
"Eagles" sounds funny to me, just another of those affectations to dislike about the band).
then, the capital city of Texas had become more familiar with a different side of Henley, the environmental activist who was a generous benefactor of the Save Our Springs movement and a donor who championed environmental
DESPERADOS: The Eagles then (top right) and now (bottom), and a still from the video for Henley's "Boys of Summer"(top left), a songforwhich he won a Grammy for best rock vocal performance.
;;..1:]irt.t"", Whatever his reputation with the media
at large (again, see "Dirty Landry," his breakthrough solo hit), he began sharing his phone number with members of the local media, making himself available for comment and conversation without going through channels. So the Don Henley that Austin came to
oudet, as it again sounds here. During the days when it seemed iike The Long Run was over for good, it appeared that Henley had no more use for the Eagles than I did. After the band disbanded on the cusp of the 1980s, its sweet harmonies onstage no longer a match for the discord behind the scenes, Henley had said he'd
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be open to a reunion when
"Hell Freezes Over."
He'd had enough. His music and musical persona then opened themselves to ffansformations that distinguished them from that of his former band. In the process, his solo career opened the ears of some of us who'd never been able to appreciate his work with the Eagles in quite the same way. Now the frontman and focal point rather than the drummer who shared vocal duties with the breezier Glenn Frey, he found an identity and sound distinct from that of the band that had minted his musical identity, and he enjoyed more success
than
I did. Soon enough, ofcourse, hell did freeze over.
Heading into the millennium, the Eagles had buried most of their hatchets (including one in the head of guitarist Don Felder, the guy who'd written the "Hotel California" music to which Henley set words). In some ways, the Eagles were bigger than they'd been before, drawing record crowds to outdoor arenas with fans who'd feared they'd never get the chance to see the band again, as well as legions of younger ones who'd
and critical renown as a solo artist than any ofhis former bandmates. He seemed like the one who had more of a musical future than a multiplati-
never seen the band at all. And, yeah, it once again brought out the critical disdain ofthose ofus who had litde use for the Eagles and had thought that Don Henley had been doing just fine on his own' As the kids
num past.
say, haters gonna hate.
To this day, the only thing dated about 7989's The End of the Innocence albrtm is the cover
photo that makes it looks like Henley got lost on his way to the Tears for Fears audition. There was no reason for reservation, no ambivalence, for an Eaglephobe to embrace the music of Henley then. This was another musical chaPter' with the past as prologue, and he'd left behind a body of music he didn't care to revisit any more
Don Henley
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as
a solo artist with his own musical
progression and legacy.
The band's extended absence had coincided
with a seismic shift in the musical landscape,
as
country music became the most popular sound of suburban America, and its demographic skewed younger and younger. So much ofcountry's surge
ROOtg O; HIS RAlilNG: "I rode my birycle to school," Henley
aa *
The commercial triumph
of the reunited Eagles marked the end of the end ofthe innocence, and seemingly the end of
says of
owed more to the soft-rock California'70s than it did to the earlier honky-tonk of Hank and
Merle.
In fact, it was likely the release of 1993's platinum-selling Cornmon Thread: Songs of the Eagles, wlich found many toP country stars of the day celebrating the bond between that music and the Nashville artists who'd come of age with it, that suggested the times were riper than ever for the return of American's biggest band. Not only the musical categories but the mass audience now blurred the boundaries between country and rock in a way different than what was called country-rock did some two decades earlier. A year later, the Eagles reunited, hit the road and released Hell Freezes Over,which debuted at the top of the Billboard charts. Henley put his solo career on the back burner (amid conffactual
with his record company). It wasn't until 2000 that he released Inside Job, tlac[uster afrak that seemed more like a side project than a wordisputes
thy progression to The End ofthe Innocence. So here's where we find ourselves. Henley has released his finest solo album to date, one even better than The End of tbe Innocence, one that has a sense of place and a sense of pride
growing up in Linden, 'hnd started driving
a car when
I was 14, sitting on
a
cushion to see."
firmly rooted in his native state of Texas.
If it
can position itself as country music, iCs at least partly because the country music of the past two decades caries the indelible imprint of the
the signatue sound that had its breakthrough with "Take It Easy'' and recaptured with I974's"Already Gone" but Henley had begun positioning himself as the reflective counterbal-
Eagles.
ance.
In
success
-
-
some ways, the best album of Henley's career narrows the gap between his solo music and his Eagles music, as both propulsive rockers such as "No, Thank You" and the centelpiece
The two seemed to contrast and complement each other like ebullient McCartney and sardonic Lennon, establishing themselves as firmly in command of a band that had once
balladry of 'Take a Picture of This" could be easily rearranged for the band. \A/hat marks this as country are arrangements that emphasize steel guitar and mandolin (suggesting the Eagles'earliest incamation with Bernie Leadon, before the harder edge that arrived with Joe Walsh). What marks this as great Henley music is the perspective he brings to both the present and the past, the musical maturity, the organic integrity. "A litde time, a litde distance, a litde space to think"" he recommends on'lMords Can Break Your Heart," one of the album's qpically under-
seemed more democratic.
stated and reflective numbers.
His main collaborator is Stan Lynch, for-
\Mith the deparnrres of
multi-instrumentalist Bernie Leadon and former Poco bassist Randy Meisner (also a member of Rick Nelson's seminal Stone Canyon Band), much of the country influence of the bands early music gave way to the arena-rock trajectory with the recruitment of Joe Walsh. By the time of I976's Honl Calfomia, this was all but a new band, with a new signature song - the tide number, its ominous lyrics sung and written by Henley and a new dynamic. The center - the three years it took to record couldn't hold and release a follow-up to the band's most massively successfi.rl album brought The Long Run
ascent
of the Eagles: '.A long, long time
let alone nrles, and Cass Counly recognizes the illusion for what it is, a younger man's fantasy. There's a clarity and conviction to the perspective here, the testament of an artist who no longer feels he has anything to prove, or anlthing to hide.
On initial listenings, 'A Younger Man" could pass as an elder statesman's successor to "It Ain't Me Babe," a warning to a woman that he isn't what she wants, or perhaps even what he seems. Dismissing the image in her mind as "a faded photograph of the man I used to be" he proceeds into some of the saddest, dearest-eyed disillusionment I've ever heard: "Ifyou believe in better days ahead, for this crazy human race," he sings, "that we will somehow be delivered by goodness and by grace / And
ifyou're looking for believers, in faith and hope
mer drummer for Tom Pettys Heartbreakers, who co-produced
and charity / Then you're looking for a younger man. Not me." It's often a mistake to con-
with Henley, co-wrote most of the
fuse a song's point ofviewwith its write/s. Henley has rarely been a
songs and likely served as the main
sounding board. Riding shotgun on the sessions is Steuan Smith, virnrosic guitarist who established himself in the Cherry Bombs the band
confessional sort, and he's inhabiting characters throughout this autumnal song cycle. Think of the complex relationship between the very funny Randy Newman and
-
once shared by Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash before joining Henley as Don Felder's contracted replacement in the Eagles. The liner notes "gratefirlly acknowledge Steuart Smith for lending his extraordinary musical talents and insights to this project," which is about as close as you'll get to a third co-producer credit (he was involved in some of the songr,vriting
as
well).
The album holds together so well as a
6
o o ts
il o !
o o F.
reflection of an artist comfortable in his own skin that it could well please Eagles fans as much as those who like Henley solo just fine but never cared much for the Eagles. Funny thing is, the album in the Eagles catalogue with which this seems to have the closest connection is 1973's
that seemed at the time to all but knock the band out of its saddle. It was a much-derided concept album that cast the fledgling rock stars as modern-day oudaws, though the tide track carries a premonition, both musicalll and lyrically, ofthe progression to Desperado, a sophomore effort
o 6
o o >
z >
"Desperado, why don't you come to your in a ballad that was perhaps the first to call attention to the bittersweet richness of his vocals, broken of all illusions. Glenn Frey's exhilaration was still the key to the band's senses?" sang Henley
ago,
when we were young and pretty," he opens the song, "we nrled the world, we knew it all, we stopped the time. We owned this city." This city is no longer where Henley lives,
the best of his material, which isn't very funny at all. Henleys creative tnrth here is emotional, not literal, in its depth and nuance
of coming to
tlBERAl ARI!
terrns with what a life can mean. Let's then give Henley the last word, as he sumHenley, a committed environ-
mentalist, has helped preserue Walden Pond he presents Robert Redford
- here with Walden's environ-
mental leadership award
and Caddo Lake,Tixas'
-
lone natural lake, where he caught his first fish.
to an unhappy end. Don Henley today is clearly no self-styled desperado, one ofthe "foolish things'he'd likely attribute to the folly ofyouth and the sort ofpride whose rejection permeates this album. \Vhether it's the focus of a song or not, pretty much every lyric features some rumination bemreen how it was, how it is and what the singer has learned on the journey from then to now. "Empires rise and empires fall," he sings on "Too Much Pride." "Stick around here long enough, you
see
maized this material for Rolling Stone Countrya "It's songs about the circular nature of life and how life is one big circle with a lot of smaller circles inside ofit," he said. "I'm at an age now where I'm thinking about mortality, what kind of world my kids are going to inherit when they grow up, and how
in resignation of a marriage the singer is leaving, the image he invokes could as easily apply to the
can prepare them to be resil-
a personal credo:
it all."
Or, in "Take a Picture of This," in singing
I
ient in the face of that because, let's face it, the world has gone batshit crazy." In a world gone batshit crazy, Henley's found something like peace, a stoic's serenity, accepting what he cannot change, challenging what he must. The song that follows 'A Younger Man" (on the expanded edition), the last song on the album, is the dosest you'll ever hear him come to '14/hen people say would you go baclg I say I like where am now."
no way, no how," he sings. "Because
I
SodoI.
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