NEWS

Don Henley Santa Barbara Concert Review

Santa Barbara News-Press
By Josef Woodward

There are "classic rock" comeback kings and queens among us, making a living by cranking up the old hits and baiting the nostalgia of baby boomers everywhere, but some have achieved a more transcendent status. Case in point: Don Henley, whose return engagement at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Saturday night, after having played there in 2004 and again with his rebirthing super-group, the Eagles, put on a show that was somehow as powerful, or more, than ever.

Some kind of slow-burning, time-released artistic character and aura of timelessness seems to have settled around Mr. Henley's songbook and musical persona, defying seeming odds. Much of this year's model was the same as what went down seven years ago, in terms of the set list and the arrangements. While Mr. Henley, an excellent and instantly identifiable vocalist, sings with a present-tense, in-the-moment passion, he is also something of a perfectionist, who loves to "play it like the record," and has a large, killer band - replete with horns, nimble guitar players and gospel choir-like harmony vocalists - fully capable of the challenging task.

Emmylou Harris' opening set was anything but an afterthought addendum to this double bill of stellar musicians - both, coincidentally, born in 1947. She being the great ambi-country singer she is, like Mr. Henley, one of those great and signature American vocalists whose career goes back to the '70s. Her own artistic path has been more fruitful than Mr. Henley's in recent years, as she has embarked on recording her own original songs, right up through her new album "Hard Bargain," after many years of working with cover material (incidentally, three of the new album's songs were co-written by famed Santa Barbara- based songwriter Will Jennings).

It comes as no surprise that Ms. Harris is a gifted, late-blooming songwriter, as heard at the Bowl through her new songs "The Road" - written for her late musical comrade Gram Parsons - and the poignant civil rights tribute, "My Name is Emmet Till." For old time's sake, and Ms. Harris' musical history is a profound series of "old times," she also served up favorites like Mr. Parson's "Wheels," Townes Van Zandt's "Poncho and Lefty," which she made famous, the chugalugging up-tempo raver "Luxury Liner" and the gorgeous country ballad "Together Again." Once again, Ms. Harris shone brightly and delivered a wise and cool set, with heart and mind on sleeve.

Mr. Henley's solo career, while potent and chock fulla' hits during its heyday, was also surprisingly brief - basically between 1982 and 1990 - and a well-publicized fracas with his record company put a long hiatus in his forward motion back when. But here we are, nearly 30 years after he started his momentous solo life, and somehow his work seems stronger than ever, and renewably relevant. This much was clear as he kicked off with his ever- timely, yellow journalism-bashing "Dirty Laundry" (which he later commented also referred to the recently controversial Rupert Murdoch - "I've been badmouthing that guy for 30 years").

Up next was "Sunset Grill," certainly one of his mini-epic masterpieces, which deals with the honesty and grit of the working man/woman in a beautiful way, both very specific and metaphorical. And so it went on this night, as songs like "New York Minute" and "End of the Innocence" seemed to rise to new levels of emotional and social vibrancy, partly on the power of the songbook itself, and perhaps partly because of the lack of many contenders to Mr. Henley's particular lofty spot in the history of pop music culture.

Mr. Henley has often scoffed at the commonly held stereotype that his work has largely been built around an archetype of country-rock, a link based on certain periods of the Eagles' history in the '70s. True enough, the lion's share of Saturday night's journey through his solo discography, with select visits to Eagles material, had less to do with C&W than R&B, and integral, recurring doses of gospel music. Such was the case in his ecstatic, extended song finales and even in a romantic song like "The Heart of the Matter," with its simple, pleading and redemption-seeking refrain of "forgiveness, forgiveness." There's a lot of old time religion tucked in, and snuck into, the Henley songbook, an amazing body of work, all told.

He even punctuated the self-evident truth of his soul/R&B roots with a medley of Eric Hutchinson's soulful "You Don't Have to Believe Me" and Kool & the Gang's funky-time party confection "Can't Get Enough of that Funky Stuff." "I wish I could write stuff like that," he said afterwards, only half-joking. "Genius." Of course, part of Mr. Henley's problem is that he's a serious artist, who injects poetry and allusions in between the hit-making stuff of a hooky, well-crafted pop song. He may sing "all she wants to do is dance," but Mr. Henley, the smarter Eagle, can't keep his busy brain out of the equation.

But, in fact, despite the sturdy admix of rock, soul, gospel and other styles in Mr. Henley's musical being, the strong country side of his musical tastes are on his mind of late, linked to his work on a new country-geared album in Nashville. The most country-fried moment of the Bowl show came when he invited bill mate Emmylou Harris up to join him for a ravishing version of the classic old Billy Sherrill ballad "Too Far Gone," which was, tellingly, on Ms. Harris' first album, and now appears on Mr. Henley's forthcoming album.

For cover material on this night, Mr. Henley moved in diverse directions, from the appealing song "Everybody's Famous" by up-and-coming musician Jeffrey Foucault, to Randy Newman's "Guilty" and a faithful version of the Tears for Fears '80s hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," which somehow sounded more sincere and profound than when the actual band played it at the Chumash Casino last week.

After playing another Henley anthem, "The Boys of Summer" - another hit much deeper in intelligence and relevance than the hooks might suggest - the Eagle turned back to the Eagles book, and specifically the landmark, generational anthems "Life in the Fast Lane" and an encore blast of "Hotel California." These songs represent the transition between the breezier, easy-going early Eagles work and the upgraded poetic and musical intelligence of Mr. Henley's post-Eagles solo career.

At encore time, before capping off the evening with his classic lullaby-like "Desperado" (somehow blessed with greater significance since Johnny Cash recorded it, shortly before his death), Mr. Henley launched into another late period Eagles hit, "The Long Run."

Despite the distracting non sequitur of a couple of women tossing up over and under garments, as if this were a Tom Jones show, Mr. Henley seemed to invest special meaning into the song's time and epoch-pondering lyric. "Who can go the distance? We'll find out in the long run," he sang, underscored by the reality that this guy has clearly gone, and continues to go, the distance.
posted October 7, 2011