Don Henley is back at it again and has just released the best album of his career.
The 68-year-old former lead singer for the Eagles released his first solo album in 15 years when “Cass County” was released Sept. 25. Contrary to the style of the Eagles, all 16 songs on the album reflect Henley’s country roots.
In his career with the Eagles, Henley was always associated with the California-style of music while singing about beach girls with sun-kissed skin and playing songs that made you want to put on some swim trunks and sunglasses and grab a nice margarita.
The band’s most recognizable hits are “Hotel California,” “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “Lying Eyes,” but Henley has also written songs on his own for many years, including his top solo hit “The Boys of Summer.”
Despite Henley’s claims that he was not trying to make “the next Don Henley country album,” that’s basically what he did. He brought some new and classic country vocals to his songs in Miranda Lambert (“Bramble Rose”), Martina McBride (“That Old Flame”) and Dolly Parton (“When I Stop Dreaming”).
The Texas native emphasized that “Cass County” was a natural progression and that it reflects who he really is as a person and a musician, hence naming the album after the county in which he grew up.
But in the midst of a younger generation of country music, Henley’s album debuted at the top of the country charts, something Henley has never seen in his solo career.
In a time where country music is dominated by “Bro-Country,” which mixes hip-hop tendencies with modern country ideas, Henley implements roots of classical country in his music. Nowhere in “Cass County” does Henley sing about a southern belle dancing in the tailgate of a jacked-up pickup truck.
In fact, his songs are mainly about religion (“Praying for Rain”), growing older (“A Younger Man”), hard-working women trying to find answers in life (“Waiting Tables”) and growing up in a small town while dreaming of a more significant existence (“Train in the Distance”).
Despite being based on country rhythms, instruments and musical ideals, 14 of his 16 songs include a steel guitar, which is an instrument that was hardly present in classical country songs, but is featured in nearly all of today’s country. The steel guitar adds a bit of Henley’s rocker days with the Eagles to each of the 14 songs and is one of few reasons why “Cass County” isn’t one hundred percent classical.
Perhaps the most interesting part about “Cass County,” though, is that Henley spent 15 years between albums purposefully reading and researching life through his own parenting and life after the age of 53 to grow into the man who was meant to sing the songs featured on the album.
He has said in the past that his father was never religious, and his mother was never solely committed to attending church on Sundays either. He also spoke “a four letter word every fourth word.” Yet religion is littered throughout the songs on the album, the biggest difference in his music since his last album.
The same year as Henley’s last album “Inside Job” was released in 2000, Kenny Chesney released “I Lost It,” Keith Urban released “Your Everything,” Toby Keith released “How Do You Like Me Now?” and Brad Paisley released “We Danced.”
Few of Henley’s songs on “Cass County” sound like any of those hits, but his album debuted at the top of the charts last week, proving that Henley and classical country can still sell albums and satisfy listeners in the United States.
Taylor Lehman
