Winter 2016 / Issue 65

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WINIER 20I6 /

ISSUE 65

50

44

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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TEXAs MUSIC WINTER

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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

46 *

TEXAS MUS|C WTNTER

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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
btter 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

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

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

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

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

TExAs MUSrC WINTER 2016

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

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

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

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

SodoI.

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