Press and Discussion about Glenn's new album "After Hours"

[sodascouts]

I'm listening to it right now. Interesting stuff! They're both really playing up the Detroit aspect, which puts a bit of a different spin on it. Plus, the interviewer is asking some really creative questions about the music.

Here's how Glenn characterizes their roles when Elvis discusses the "narrative" aspect of Eagles songs:

"If Timothy's singing, chances are it's a slightly light, yet bittersweet tune. Soft... I'm kind of in the middle, in that 'new-kid-in-town-peaceful-easy-feeling' range. Don is more the blues singer: he can sing the torch ballads, he can teach a lesson if he needs to, give a sermon.... we all understand, though, that people want to be entertained, that people want to be told a story."

After talking about the importance of painting a picture in songwriting, he goes on to say, "I think people like to be tricked into enlightenment, a little bit, instead of beat over the head with it."

Hmm! Interesting!

And here's something really exciting - he also says that having done this project makes him want to write original music again! "I'm excited to write some other songs now, 'cause I think that, I feel like I've been added to, and whatever I've done the past three years can only make whatever I do tomorrow better."

WOOT!!!!

[Freypower]

Once again he mentions New Kid In Town, a song he no longer sings.

What does he say about After Hours? Just what we've already heard?

After Hours, by the way, has proven beyond doubt that he can sing 'torch ballads' just as well as Don.

[GlennLover]

I wasn't able to get home in time to listen to the interview but I was able to download it & I hope to be able to play it later tonight. Soda & FP, I didn't read your posts so that everything I hear will be a surprise for me. I'll read your posts after I listen.

[sodascouts]

Here are a few highlights:

- Now that he's a songwriter, he appreciates the kind of music he covered in After Hours. When he was kid, it was all about Motown and the Beatles. Detroit has a lot of diversity, though, because people came from all over to work in the car industry.

- Glenn is flattered to be compared to Hoagy Carmichael by the interviewer. Glenn relates that he'd see Carmichael walking around in L.A. in the 70s. He and his friends "dug" Carmichael for his Bogart movies "piano man" aspect and Glenn liked how laid back he was, "never in a hurry."

- The interviewer calls "Route 66" "country-politan." Glenn says the music comes naturally to him and tells the story about Clint Eastwood and Pebble Beach, talks about how he sings differently for these than he does for his other work.

- The interviewer compares the album to Willie Nelson's Stardust. Glenn says he'd forgotten about that, and was more inpsired by Linda Ronstadt's album with Nelson Riddle. He likes Willie's stuff, though. "He never oversings." Glenn believes it's good to stay true to the original's melody. He compliments all the songwriters he's covered on the album, and considers himself the songs' "caretaker" and felt he needed to be "committed" to each song.

- The interviewer feels Eagles songs look ahead, but After Hours songs "evoke a mood." Glenn agrees, "Musically, it's a period piece." He also talks about how he loves recording these songs with higher fidelity now so that he can hear all the instruments clearly. "It's cool."

- The interviewer thinks of Eagles songs as movies, and After Hours songs as storytelling. Glenn agrees, and talks about the Eagles being "visual writers" before videos. He talks about using his imagination while listening to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." He says that all songs don't need to be lessons, but they all need to have powerful imagery. He uses "Hotel California" as an example.

- The interviewer talks about how each song on After Hours seems to have an "overture" - "as if you're taking a breath getting ready for the song to start," whereas Eagles songs have a "tension" to them "where you're about to really take hold of something." Glenn believes that might be because of the fact that the songs on the album are pretty much all romantic ballads. Still, he adds, "You do want tension. Within the band, it's like having a team of horses but never really letting 'em go all the way... and everybody sort of starts getting tuned into you... feelin' it, and feelin' the pull... and so you let it out, and this track gets a little bigger, and instrumental... and then you pull it back... so there's a dynamic like that going on for sure."

- The interviewer keeps going back to the difference in narration between the Eagles and After Hours, saying After Hours is like hearing a guy tell you his story in a bar, but the Eagles are more like hearing a story from Hunter S. Thompson - which is where the part in the previous post comes in.

- Glenn tells the story of how the song "After Hours" was originally supposed to be the last song on The Allnighter, calling up Tempchin and being reminded about it, etc.

- Glenn gushes about Dinah Washington, saying how overlooked she is. "Her voice is something special to me. It just rings true. It gets me in a place... it's very moving.... I feel very connected with her." He said he loved the idea of singing a song that was originally sung by a female singer, and that he wanted to do four or five of her songs but cut it down to two. He says he may record more of her songs in the future. He talks about how often she appeared on the soundtrack for the Aspen restaurant he was thinking of doing back in the nineties.

- Glenn tells the story about how he and Bob Seger were listening to the radio in the car in 1967 and Glenn was going to change the station from a sucky song called "The Rain, the Park, and Other Things" by The Cowsills, but Bob stopped him and told him that since those guys were on the radio, Glenn should take the opportunity to try to figure out why instead of just closing his mind to them.

- The interviewer tells Glenn that about 15 years ago, he happened to see a group of young black guys singing "Desperado" acapella to a couple of girls in the back of a convertible. Glenn repeats the whole "People did things to the Eagles" speech, but seems pretty impressed it was young black men using the song to pick up women! He says he and Don "had always hoped Ray Charles would record 'Desperado.'"

- Glenn discusses how much country music has changed in the last 20 years, that now they are more focused on trying to write something that will appeal to an audience rather than just writing what they feel.

- He emphasizes how much fun it was to record After Hours and how it's made him a better singer, which is when he says what I put above about how their "greatness" might "rub off" on what he does in the future.

[Freypower]

In fact I can listen to it; I wasn't sure if I could. But thanks for that summary Soda.

'I wantd to close my eyes & give it my best shot'. How sweet.

I don't agree that there is no 'tension' in these songs. Listen to Here's To Life & I Wanna Be Around.

I'd love to go on that drive up to Hearst Castle with him! I went there in 1986! Seriously, I was encouraged by what he said about writing more songs, but hearing him talk about his singing always does it for me. Hopefully he will want to share these songs with more people and sing them live.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

- Glenn discusses how much country music has changed in the last 20 years, that now they are more focused on trying to write something that will appeal to an audience rather than just writing what they feel.

He hit the nail on the head with why I stopped listening to new country! Everything in pop and country and even new rock feels so 'packaged' now. I feel like I'm listening to commercials to buy music and concert tickets instead of something someone actually feels.

I've not had a chance to listen to the interview, hopefully I will be able to tomorrow evening.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

An interview from The Australian. To read it you need to subscribe. Here's the link if you wish to do so, but it's a mostly positive review with no new observations and definitely no new news. I was hoping there would be some details about a possible trip Down Under for Glenn, but there's nothing even hinted at about it.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts...-1226446665646

[zeldabjr]

I didn't listen but Soda your summary is amazing...I love the part about him and Don wanting Ray Charles to record Desperado...wouldn't that have sounded great? wow!!!

[Brooke]

Thanks for your summary of that interview, Soda. I hope to get time to listen to it. Sounds like it was a great interview!

[VAisForEagleLovers]

A nice little review...

http://themusic.com.au/reviews/album...michael-smith/