Pop music. I'm mostly underwhelmed by most pop artists and bands today, and then Harry Styles came along a few years back. He's so good, and getting better. So good in fact, that I keep listening to his new album, Harry's House like I used to listen to new albums. I think it's simply fantastic! Harry's a terrific person who's really lifting people up with this new album and it's perfectly timed to counter the hate in our increasingly 'cruel country.' Go Harry!
Last Friday, my daughter Shawna stopped by to help me take my car in for some service. While my car was in the shop, we drove together to get some breakfast at our favorite, DZ Akins. In her car, she starts to play Harry's House and asks me if I have heard any of the new songs?
She then tells me how Harry Styles is part of a group of artists with a special invite to Joni Mitchell's house (pre-Covid) to play, sing and just jam together. Harry's House is in fact a Joni Mitchell song (not on Harry's new album) but on her 1975 album, The Hissing of Summer Lawns (still part of my vinyl collection). I'm sure as polite as Harry is he probably asked for permission first, as Joni tweeted her approval when the album was announced in March. Oh Harry, the friends you keep.
In my opinion, I think Harry Styles is going to be the artist of his generation as his greatness has only just begun.
I was also pleased to discover that this was a great release month for new rock 'n' roll and Americana with a little something for everybody. I'll let my usual album focused playlist speak for itself this month.
But first, something more important from the editorial desk- My fellow 90% of Americans, enough. It is time to vote out all the politicians who don't support background checks on all gun sales. These same NRA funded politicians continue to support the insanity of letting the general public continue to buy assault weapons with high-capacity bullet magazines. I think the NRA's issue of Democrats taking away people's guns for hunting animals has never been the issue at all. But now more than ever, Americans face the much larger crisis of people hunting people with AR-15 style rifles (60 Minutes) as their mass weapon of choice in our schools, churches and public gathering places. It's way past time to throw these assholes out of office and their semi-automatic thoughts and prayers. Enough. If you didn't watch 60 Minutes last night, I recommend you click on the link above.
Now Harry Styles brought me to Everytown for Gun Safety where he has just donated 1 million dollars to this leading non-profit organization. I can't match that but Mike Bloomberg is tripling Harry's donation and yours too if you make a donation by May 31st. I just donated $25 so thank you Mr. Bloomberg for tripling that!
It's been 43 years since the Eagles played The Fabulous Forum for the first time. I did not see any of those famous Forum shows, but did see the band in 1979 at the Sports Arena in San Diego. Back in the day, both the Forum and the Sports Arena were designed for sporting events, not music concerts. But as rock 'n' roll acts got bigger and bigger arenas became prime locations for rock concerts.
I saw Elton John at the Forum in 1974 and remember what many would call "the sound bounce" off the walls, but nothing was worse than the Sports Arena bounce if you were sitting up high. Speaking of high, most were, so I guess the acoustics didn't matter much but to a nerd like me.
The Sports Arena today is a tad better with probably a $1000 worth of hanging ceiling panels to baffle the sound. I did still hear the sound bounce several times at a James Taylor concert at the Sports Arena (now called the Valley View Casino Center) in 2015. James Taylor, really... Yeah James Taylor and his wall of Marshall amplifiers!
Now the Forum is a whole different story these days and truly a horse of a different color. In 2012, the Madison Square Garden Company purchased the Forum and immediately put $50 million into a complete renovation including $18 million more by the City of Inglewood. A good deal of that money went into transforming the acoustics in the building. In 2015, I saw Don Henley on his Cass County Tour, I couldn't believe the sound quality of not only the excellent band, but the building itself, it was well, fabulous!
So this past week on September 12th, we continued (my wife) Mary Kit's passion of seeing either the Eagles or Don Henley somewhere on the west coast of the United States, as much as possible. This time it was the Eagles first night stay at the Forum.
On this first night of three concerts at the Forum, Don opened the show with the announcement that their manager, Irvin Azoff would probably be making a boxed set of these shows. I'm thinking to myself, how many boxed sets can the Eagles make of their 1970's material and who's going to buy that? Well, I looked to my immediate right, and my lovely wife says to me, "Oh I'm getting that!"
Okay, if you read or watch TV you know that Glenn Frey died in 2016 and the Eagles then added Vince Gill and Glenn's son, Deacon Frey to the band. This has literally proven to be a sound move on the band's part to first- continue the legacy of Glenn through Deacon and then, bring in one of the finest singers and guitar players in Country music with Vince Gill. Both add tremendous new elements to a very familiar act and harmony of sound that has defined this band and a generation of fans. You'd think the sea of gray at the Forum was an AARP convention.
This new version of the Eagles were perfect from my old ear, and I mean perfect musically and vocally. Both the band and building made the sound magical, and this is an audience who knows every word of every song in this sing-along night with every guitar lick as clean and clear as their album recordings.
Now that brings me to Don Felder and his famous dismissal from the Eagles in 2001. Much has been made of this over the years. My idealistic hope was that after Glenn's death, maybe Don Henley would see the light like both Glenn and Don did on their 2014, History of the Eagles Tour when they invited Bernie Leadon back for that tour. I will say when I saw that that tour here in San Diego, I had tears in my eyes on that night when Bernie come on stage. Nobody even dreamed of Glenn's passing just two years later, but I was hoping against hope that bygones would some how be bygones, but that wasn't going to be. If you don't understand what I'm saying, just watch the 2013 documentary, History of the Eagles on Netflix.
Photo by Jon Gitchoff
So whatever you think of Don Felder, nobody can deny his contribution to the songs and sound of the Eagles. Today that lead guitar sound and back up vocals is filled by a very accomplished musician named Steuart Smith. Steuart replaced Don Felder in 2001 and has been with the band ever since. He is also a band member in Don Henley's band on his solo tours. In 2007, the Eagles last album of original material, Long Road out of Eden has five songs where Steuart Smith shares cowriting credits.
I thought for this post, I would be writing about Vince Gill, who was fantastic in his own right on backup vocals and guitars with also some great shining moments on several lead (Glenn) songs. I was glad they let him sing one of his solo hits, Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away. I guess if Joe Walsh gets to do his solo hits at Eagles concerts then the others can now get a solo hit into the Eagles' setlist. Hell, they even did Don's, Boys of Summer to our delight!
But for me, I kind of zeroed in on Steuart Smith as he has a unique position in the band- a first tier player on the front line, but with second citizen status as a band partner. He plays right next to Joe Walsh and shares as many lead guitar duties as Felder always did. In fact Steuart Smith had so many close up shots on the big screens behind the band simply because he's doing so much of the lead guitar playing.
I'm sorry but I was kind of appalled that he was never introduced during the evening, not even a shout-out after several great songs where he did most of the heavy guitar work. This just struck me as odd. He should have been out there with the band taking their final bow at the end of concert, especially with the future box set cameras rolling. (At a Paul Simon concert this year, Paul literally introduced every member of his large ensemble band, and that goes a long way with enduring fans.)
I'm sure Steuart Smith has no complaints, is paid extremely well, and is as happy as punch to be in the Eagles for the long run.
(And if the Eagles [=Don Henley] won't do it in their show, here's my appreciation for the man on the far right of this picture below. And to be fair to Don... here's an entertaining article of Don ejecting a concertgoer for shouting Don Felder's name while introducing Steuart Smith at a 2015 show in Detroit.)
Left, Vince Gill, Timothy B. Schmit, Don Henley, Deacon Frey, Joe Walsh and Steuart Smith @ the Forum 9/12/18
(Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
I haven't found a good Steuart Smith clip at the Forum (so far) so here's a phone video I found on YouTube from the Eagles 2017 show at Safeco Park in Seattle that Mary Kit and I attended, featuring Timothy B. Schmit and Steuart Smith on I Can't Tell You Why.
Here's a quality clip of Don and Steuart doing Boys of Summerwith Don's solo band and Steuart playing the Mike Campbell guitar composition for the song.
If you get a chance, try to see a concert at The Forum, you'll have a great experience. As for the Eagles, they are still flying high with their two new band mates. Deacon Frey is not a gimmick. At 25 he has big shoes to fill and is doing a great journeymen's job. The new pairing with Vince Gill is brilliant marketing but backed with a quality of sound that is unmatched, not even by the original members of the Eagles.
I decided not to do a playlist this week because you've already have heard the Eagles tunes a million times. If you can, try to see the Eagles live (see current tour) once before they are gone as a group; it's as crisp a sound as putting on a new vinyl record of the best selling album of the 20th century, Eagles Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975).
MK got us tickets for Timothy B. Schmit and Jack Tempchin last Saturday night at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, CA. We had never been there before as this venue opens at 6pm for people with reserved seats and general admission walk-in's. The Coach House serves dinner before the show as people come in to sit down at long row tables that are 24" deep. When you sit down, you realize that the two people (typically strangers) sitting across from you are going to be sharing a small space in a very up close meal with probable conversation. You wonder who are these people sitting across from you, but the close proximity forces you to quickly engage in conversation as you literally have to be a cooperative group just to lay the food and drinks out on your little table together.
MK and I had the pleasure to sit across and meet Michael and Cindy Langdon who happen to be neighbors of Jack Tempchin in Encinitas. Well that quickly got the conversation going as it was going to be awhile before the show started at 8pm. The food and service at the Couch House were fabulous by the way, in what I was thinking was straight out of a mid-west community tradition of combining food, conversation and music. Anyway back to our evening pairing, Michael Langdon is the wine buyer for Whole Foods in Encinitas and told us how he met Jack, became friends and helped him develop a brand of wine from his most famous song, Peaceful Easy Feeling the monster hit for the Eagles and sung by Jack's old friend and writing collaborator, Glenn Frey. Here is a LA Times article, Peace in a Bottle that tells the whole story as Michael told us on Saturday night. Here are the links to South Coast Winery in Temecula, CA and their Peaceful Easy Feeling Cabernet Sauvignon and Peaceful Easy Feeling Chardonnay.
Here's Jack singing at Whole Foods and Michael Langdon appears left of the screen as I'm assuming he organized this event at the Encinitas store.
Now, on with the show at the Coach House. Jack was the opening act of the evening and began his solo set with the same guitar pictured above. He told great stories of writing songs with Glenn Frey and then proceeded to sing them with single acoustic clarity. He also sang a song from a tribute album that is coming out soon of songs Glenn and Jack have written together, including several unrecorded songs. Jack deeply misses his friend. The fans at the Couch House were touched, I certainly was touched as we approach Glenn's passing almost one year ago on January 18th. Jack Tempchin simply belongs to the city (San Diego) and he belongs to our night. Man, I was enjoying this evening and Timothy hadn't even come out yet.
And then he did, with his wonderful band. The Couch House was packed full of hard core Eagles' fans who know this man's history back to Poco. We were altogether on Saturday night, the fans, the people of Southern California who grew up on country rock. We had come to see a native son from Sacramento who helped define an era. But, Timothy B. Schmit is not about the past, he embraces his roots as he crafts new music. His new album, Leap of Faith was selling well in the lobby (MK was all over it, t-shirt too). By the way, does this man look 69 years old to you? Timothy's voice was simply amazing as always as the fantastic sound of the Coach House piped out pure harmonies from the band. Pretty good for someone who battled throat and neck cancer in 2012 and now has a clean bill of health. Let's keep thinking good thoughts for Timothy! As he was the concern of the Eagles and their fans just a few years ago, nobody envisioned Glenn Frey's death. During the set, Timothy sang and played, Tequila Sunrisesolo acoustic guitar. The woman next to MK was openly sobbing, my eyes and many others welled up too. I thought of Glenn smiling down on his buddies Jack and Timmy still making fresh new music. As I listen to Leap of Faith as I write this, I feel blessed for the communal experience of Saturday night with the music and the fans at the musical church known as the Couch House in San Juan Capistrano.
Timothy returns to the Couch House January 11th (Sold out) and January 24th at the Belly Up Tavern (Sold out). Here is his current tour schedule.
Here's Timonty B. Schmit's new album on YouTube. Go buy Leap of Faith here. Enjoy my friends!
