Don Felder Enjoys The Kinship Of The Brother Hood Of Rock Tour

While nearly every person who has heard of Eagles, when asked if they can name a member, it’s almost a slam dunk they will say Don Henley, Joe Walsh , or Glenn Frey first. Don’t be fooled. There was more than meets the eye with Don Felder and may I just say, he was and still is one of the most talented musicians to blaze an immutable trail in music history.

Music brings people together. It’s not just a popular saying. Many times, it is the commonality of music knowledge and appreciation that is better at creating and sometimes mending relationships. I’ve met many people over the years and quite often a common question from any of us is “What kind of music do you like.” I can remember finally getting access to my personal choice of music via an AM/FM radio in our small home. It was a small black and white, single speaker, manual dial kind of thing. Absolutely nothing most people would consider special, but to me it was magical. The first thing I did was go straight to my room and switch it on. It became a doorway to my future love. As i held fast to the AM dial ( FM wasn’t even available at the time) I slowly turned it trying to find a station with popular music. If you’ve ever done this, you can relate to the anticipation and frustration of getting it tuned in just right. There it was, the local rock station. Oh! the excitement. I could hear the scratchy voice of the DJ as he was introducing a brand new song by the Eagles. “Hotel California”. That was it. I was hooked. As so, here I was, innumerable years later, front and center, and photographing Don Felder. This man co-wrote Hotel California and many other Eagles songs.

As I always say, when an artist performs solo songs that were once part of a full band, it can go well, or it can go horribly. This went far beyond well. It was close to perfection. His backing band made up of members who don’t look like they were born when these amazing hits were written, are a perfect assembly of music professionals. Some songs on the list, such as “Seven Bridges Road”, require incredible a cappella vocal harmony. They nailed it.

Sometimes I photograph artists whose songs I have heard a few times. I listen to every note of every song that appears of each set list I go to photograph. Musically pre gaming, so to speak. These songs, these monster hits, I have heard hundreds of times. I would notice if notes were missed or songs keyed down to match the voice of an aging musician. Let’s face facts, it happens. However, there were no short cuts on the guitar solos or the vocals. It’s clears this was a showcase, and Don rarely stopped smiling. Clearly enjoying himself. On occasion, he even made commentary to himself, off mic that I could hear because of my noise filtering ear plugs. He was a lot of fun.

If you manage to catch him, he won’t disappoint you. Catch him through August on the Brotherhood of Rock Tour with Styx, and Kevin Cronin. http://www.donfelder.com