Don Henley
Cass County
Capitol Records – 2015
Whether you decide to classify Don Henley’s Cass County album as country music or just Americana, you can be assured that the for the most part, the classic/country rock stylings of The Eagles and the biting commentary of his more pointed solo hits take a back seat to the artist’s more laid back (for the most part) stylistic choices on this disc.
Henley’s collaboration with former Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch – who co-wrote a number of tracks as well as co-produced and made musical appearances – and Steuart Smith – who co-wrote 3 songs, did the arrangement on another and played guitar throughout the CD – is a supremely deft collection of material that shows off Henley’s still potent writing and voice while also allowing for the artist to give new life to some classic songs he loved from other artists.
The album opens with a cover of the 2002 Tift Merritt song “Bramble Rose”. The overall tempo of the song is slow so it doesn’t give that immediate kick in the pants, but the song itself is both engaging and intriguing. The track also features the first of an amazing collection of guest artists with both Mick Jagger and Miranda Lambert providing a lead vocals along with Henley’s own singing.Jagger and an appearance from ex-David Lee Roth drummer Gregg Bissonette, the remaining guest appearances on Cass County are a veritable Who’s Who of country music. You’ve got lead and harmony vocals from Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Alison Krauss, Martina McBride, Dolly Parton, Martie Maguire & Emily Robison of The Dixie Chicks and more.
Also of note, is the co-lead vocal by Merle Haggard on “The Cost of Living”, a track that comes off as an accurate if slightly depressing tune about living life.
Henley, who co-wrote 11 of the 16 songs on the deluxe version of the album, has some outstanding lyrical turns throughout. This shows me that regardless of age or length of a career, there’s always something worth exploring in any artist worth their salt.
Whether it is the tale of a single mom looking for a way out of her dead end waitressing job in “Waiting Tables” or life and hope amidst an extended drought in “Praying For Rain”, you invariably find yourself drawn into the story based on the strength of the lyrics and the conviction of Henley’s vocals.
The choice of songs covered here are really well handled. Henley’s duet with Dolly Parton on the 1955 track“When I Stop Dreaming” is excellent. Meanwhile, songs like Jesse Lee Kincaid’s “She Sang Hymns Out of Tune” and Jesse Winchester’s “The Brand New Tennessee Waltz” are given a new lease on life. The latter track is particularly noteworthy for its uncanny knack to get the listener to sing along with the chorus. I don’t know if that is the intention, but it sure happened with me.
Now, I wasn’t too crazy about the cover of “Too Far Gone” from Billy Sherill or Henley’s own “Too Much Pride”, but while I feel those are a couple of hiccups in the track listing, there is so much worth exploring on Cass County, you might nearly forget about any perceived weaknesses.
Henley gets a little nostalgic with “Train In The Distance” which is a travelogue of boyhood days. He also manages to mix and match moods with his lyrics for “A Younger Man”. I thought the lyrics were finely honed, but at the same time, a sad and slightly depressing take on things as they are or are may become.
Of course, if you are holding out for either some examples of uptempo material that falls within the ballpark of rocking out or some pointed commentary, you have three of the best tracks you could hope for to look forward to as well.
The album’s closing track features a harmony vocal from Trisha Yearwood as Henley validates his satisfaction of where he is in his life singing “When people say, “Would you go back? / I say, “No way, nohow” and later adds, “I’m making one last victory lap and then I’ll take a bow /Because I like where I am now”.
The song “That Old Flame” is a duet with Martina McBride (hear the audio below) that smokes with finely wrought execution as the two artists unfurl the tale of being contacted by a past love, wondering what the other could want and if it is worth it to make the connection again.
But for me, the best track on the album had to be “No, Thank You”. It has a brilliantly conceived set of lyrics and features Vince Gill on harmony vocals as well as electric guitar. Pointed conversation about life in modern day is the overall theme of the song as Henley adds “and though nostalgia is fine, I respectfully decline / to spend my future living in the past”.
When I first heard that line, it really stuck out to me and upon each successive playing of the song, it just kept getting better and better.
Cass County finds Don Henley in fine artistic form and fans of his music will find the album to be one of the best works of his career. There’s a little bit of something for everyone and it is nearly all outstanding. This is an album that any music fan could enjoy, period.
