The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon

WHY WE LOVE ATLANTA

One advantage of having an online journal is its virtual reach over a range of cultures and into the lives of as many readers as we can find who in turn find interest in The Grapevine. We are grounding our journal by paying attention to Atlanta, north by northwest in the state of Georgia, USA, Planet Earth, where most of us who write for The Grapevine live and move and have our being.

NANCY LAW WATCHES THE EAGLES LAND (AND SING!)

I love Atlanta because The Eagles came to town and soared in concert at State Farm Arena on February 11. They have long been on my bucket list of entertainers to see in person, ones that I've considered necessary for my wellbeing. I've seen the others, with the exception of Tina Turner, all at concerts in Atlanta. They include Elvis, Tom Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen.

In casual conversation while working out with MaryAnn, a personal trainer at Health Place, we discovered we both love the Eagles. I asked her if she was interested in going to the concert on Tuesday. The weekend shows were sold out. She was.

Her husband Craig loves the Eagles also but didn't want to see them if he couldn't see Glen Frey. I said that wasn't going to happen since Glen Frey was dead but his replacement on the tour is Vince Gill, an award winning vocalist (who can hit the high notes) and guitarist in the country music field. Later, Craig and MaryAnn filled me in on the Eagles in the seventies. The original members were Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner. Don Felder joined in 1974 and was fired in 2001. Joe Walsh replaced Bernie Leadon in 1976, and Timothy B. Schmidt replaced Randy Meisner in 1977.

MaryAnn and I agreed to go home that night and each search the Internet for tickets to the Tuesday night concert. I sent MaryAnn a couple of texts about tickets I had found. It wasn't long before I received a text from her that Craig wanted to go with us. He apparently thought Vince Gill was a good fit and, I later learned, he felt protective of us and didn't want us to go by ourselves. Thank you, Craig for deciding to accompany us. Once our tickets were purchased, MaryAnn and I began planning for the event. I canceled my workout on Tuesday and she left early. We both needed extra time to prepare.

Our evening began when Craig and MaryAnn picked me up and took me to dinner at Thaicoon, a Thai/Japanese fusion restaurant on Marietta Square. We had a variety of different selections from the extensive menu (grilled chicken, vegetable roll, sushi, pad thai) and the food was delicious. We didn't want to be late for the concert and, since Atlanta traffic is never predictable, especially when it's raining, we didn't linger at the restaurant. We left Marietta, making our way on I 75 south toward downtown.

Because we would not be going into the arena together, we each needed a ticket. Craig and MaryAnn needed to transfer the electronic tickets from Craig's I Phone to MaryAnn's I Phone. Craig would drop us off close to the entrance, park the car and then come in. Transferring the tickets from one phone to the other required more than "copy and paste." I had nothing to offer in the way of helping them, so I sat quietly in the back seat while they talked softly to one another about how to do this. When one way didn't work, they tried another way until the tickets were transferred successfully to MaryAnn's I Phone. At the same time Craig was maneuvering in traffic and listing to directions to the arena from the WAZE traffic app.

We arrived in plenty of time, about thirty minutes before the concert began. Several entrances were open to accommodate the concert-goers, and the security checks went quickly. Inside were kiosks offering water, beer and Eagles tee shirts. The longest lines were for the Eagles memorabilia. We found our seats, and it was not long before Craig arrived. They were good seats, in the center and about halfway between the front and the back of the auditorium. The audience at this soldout concert was mature, as were four members of the band: Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmidt were all born in 1947 and Steuart Smith was born in 1952. Smith has been lead guitarist with them since 2001. Their maturity didn't slow them but instead freed them to sing and play as if "the seventies" referred to the decade and not their ages. The other longtime but younger member is percussionist Scott Crago, born in 1963, a member since 1994. He played the drums when Henley moved up front to sing.

In addition to Vince Gill, joining the Eagles on the Hotel California tour was Deacon Frey, son of Glenn Frey, founding member, who died in 2016. Don Henley invited Deacon to tour with the Eagles after hearing him sing his dad's songs at his private memorial. Gill was invited after performing Peaceful Easy Feeling as a tribute to the Eagles at the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2016. He is a longtime friend of Henley.

"Welcome to the Hotel California, such a lovely place."

The concert began with the guitar introduction to Hotel California played by Steuart Smith and Joe Walsh. The first half of the concert was devoted to playing the album in its entirety in the order the songs were recorded: Hotel California, New Kid in Town, Life in the Fast Lane, Wasted Time, Wasted Time (Reprise), Victim of Love, Pretty Maids All in a Row, Try and Love Again, The Last Resort. Between songs Don Henley introduced members of the band. A love affair quickly developed between Vince Gill and the audience. Gill was given a rousing welcome each time he sang, especially on Try and Love Again, and he grinned throughout the concert, seeming to love being a part of the Eagles and performing for this audience. He and Deacon Frey traded off singing "Glenn Frey's songs." My favorites were Take It Easy, Peaceful Easy Feeling and Take It to the Limit. Gill sang Take It to the Limit. I was applauding and basking in the moment, thinking what a great job he did on that song, when MaryAnn whispered, "He can't hit those high notes like Randy Meisner." That was his signature song. Later, I listened to his recording on You Tube and found that yes, he could hit high notes.

Vince Gill did his own version without copying either Glenn Frey or Randy Meisner. Don Henley's introduction of Deacon Frey was heartfelt and protective. He didn't have to worry about the audience accepting him. The audience exploded with applause, demonstrating their approval and love for Deacon and also honoring his dad Glenn Frey. Deacon performed like a natural on stage. He looked like a young Glenn Frey from the seventies, with a mustache and long hair, styled like his dad's. He even wore a CU tee shirt underneath his unbuttoned outer shirt. Craig showed us a picture on the Internet of Glenn Frey in the seventies, and it was hard to tell the difference between the two.

I kept looking for the orchestra that was advertised to accompany the Eagles. They made a dramatic entrance on a platform that rose from behind the stage to join Henley singing Wasted Time. They were amazing and added dimension to the concert. Henley introduced them as the "Rambling Wrecks of Georgia Tech." After a twenty-minute break, the forty-six member orchestra, twenty-two member chorus and a five-piece horn section made several appearances during the second set.

For the following two and a half hours the Eagles performed "every song they knew," hit after hit, twenty-three songs in all. The band was generous in sharing the spotlight among band members, having them perform their biggest hits: Joe Walsh In the City and Walk Away, one of his hits from the James Gang; Timothy B. Schmidt Love Will Keep Us Alive; Don Henley Witchy Woman, accompanied by the five-piece horn section who rocked it out of the arena (one of my favorite performances), and Deacon performing his dad's hits, Take It Easy and Peaceful Easy Feeling. It was getting late by the time they played Heartache Tonight.

Sensing that this fantastic concert was coming to an end, the audience rose up out of their seats and joined in with singing, clapping and dancing in place. It didn't end yet. There were three encores and then a fourth when Don Henley stood in the spotlight alone and sang Desperado. His voice is as strong and pure and melodic as ever. What a pleasure to hear him sing so beautifully, a perfect ending. Anymore adjectives describing this concert would be redundant. Craig, MaryAnn and I walked back to the car declaring the evening a success.

Discovering in Decatur

See below our recent introduction to The Shambhala Meditation Center of Atlanta, while taking a long look back at our ongoing appreciation of the work of LEONARD COHEN in The Grapevine.

SHAMBHALA CELEBRATES POETRY

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