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Songs and Samples
Vile And A Profane Man
Volcano
Center Of The Universe
What Do I Own
Backup Plan
Everybody Want
Sears And Roebuck Catalog
Rich Life*
Hey Now Now
God Ain’t Done With Me Yet
* Heard on 12StepRadio.com
About Bernie Leadon
A new Bernie Leadon solo album is more than just great news for aficionados of Americana music, it’s an almost ridiculously-overdue event.
Despite--or, perhaps more to the point, due to--being virtually omnipresent on the music scene since the late-’60s, Leadon has only once (before now) managed to carve out time to bake his own biscuits. With the release of MIRROR, a 26-year-long solo drought has finally been brought to an end.
Combining clean, clearwater vocals, songwriting savvy and expert chops on all-things-stringed, Leadon served as a flexible, integral member of such seminal ‘country hyphen’ acts as Dillard & Clark, The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Eagles, and has since worn the hats of engineer, producer and label exec.
Bernie’s well-rounded skills, uncanny ear and copasetic vibe have made him invaluable in the studio, and he has played and/or sung on a staggering number of timeless sessions with the likes of Randy Newman, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, Emmylou Harris, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Gram Parsons, Linda Ronstadt, David Bromberg, Michelle Shocked, Stevie Nicks, Stephen Stills, Bob Neuwirth, Pam Tillis, Travis Tritt, The Jayhawks and many, many more.
So, the phone kept ringing, the gigs kept coming, the time sped by like flipping calendar pages in a B-movie, and that long-awaited follow-up to 1977’s Natural Progressions continued to remain on hold.
Finally, in early 2002, Bernie felt compelled to begin assembling Mirror.
“The main reason was simply to DO it--it was TIME,” admitted Leadon. “I’ve been writing songs all along, and since moving to Nashville in the late-’80s, I’d begun writing something like 15-20 songs a year, instead of the typical three or four in previous years.
“Sometimes, I’d do a demo recording by myself, layering instruments on top of one another,” Leadon said, “and while that’s fun, it doesn’t have the same impact as getting some great players together in a great studio with a great engineer and producer, then waiting for the magic. That’s how the best things I have been part of recording have been done, and I wanted to give myself the gift of recording a solo record that way.”
Leadon hooked up with long-time amigo Ethan Johns, a gifted multi-instrumentalist whose stellar production credits include Ryan Adams, Counting Crows, Rufus Wainwright and The Jayhawks. Ethan’s dad, the legendary Glyn Johns, had produced the first two-and-a-half Eagles albums; in the ’90s, Ethan and Bernie recorded and toured together numerous times, making the pairing a symbiotic, pan-generation connection.
Unfettered by label constraints, Leadon and Johns booked Ocean Way Studio for August of 2002, then set about stacking the session’s deck.
Joining Leadon and Johns on Mirror is an all-world crew of A-listers featuring tub-thumper David Kemper (Dylan, Jerry Garcia Band, et al), electric and upright bassist Michael Rhodes (everyone who matters in Nashville), Memphis stringed-thing wizard Tommy Burroughs (Keith Sykes, John Prine) and keyboardist James Hooker (Amazing Rhythm Aces, Nanci Griffith).
Jimmy Davis and Jim Photoglo add harmony vocals on Volcano, veteran horn arranger Jim Horn drapes Sears & Roebuck Catalog with some boozy, old-timey sass, and little-known songbird Emmylou Harris (keep an ear out for this gal, folks--she’s going places!) warbles fetchingly on Backup Plan and God Ain’t Done With Me Yet.
As its title suggests - and befitting an artist in mid-life - Mirror presents ten strikingly heartfelt, insightful tunes dedicated to pulling off the side of the road and taking some time to look back, around and--especially--inward.
When done honestly, such reflection surely ain’t for sissies, as Leadon underscores with self-effacing humor on the rollicking opener A Vile And A Profane Man, the high-stepping, giddy-up paean to unfulfilled desire, Everybody Want, and the wobbly salute to materialism of Sears & Roebuck Catalog.
But the cup of life is way more than half-full. The easy-rolling Volcano presents a tender case for empathy and compassion, and Center Of The Universe explores the mystery of Self (i.e. how little we know about the only person we can reasonably hope to figure out). What Do I Own and Hey Now Now gratefully inventory blessings received, while Rich Life ponders choices not yet made.
Miss Emmylou joins Bernie as he addresses the road ahead: Backup Plan ruefully confesses to cluelessness, but the closing God Ain’t Done With Me Yet offers a hopeful, if weary, benediction.
When all is sung and done, the point is that Life is a gift that requires frequent inspection and maintenance in order to retain or increase its value. So keep the best, chuck the rest, then get back out there and keep swinging...and take this shiny Mirror along as a gentle reminder.
News and Reviews
Hiring Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Jayhawks) to produce makes for a flawless shimmering sound, and Leadon take great care in using vintage instruments and recording equipment. . . . In Bernie Leadon's mirror I see a refection of confidence and someone who's still making quality honorable music.
-FreightTrainBoogie.com
Listening to Bernie Leadon, one wonders how he ever fit in with the glitz and glamour and Hollywood posing of the Eagles. Mirror, Leadon's first album in 26 years, is damned smart, straight-ahead material that bears more resemblance to another notable "looking back at 50" album, Rodney Crowell's Fate's Right Hand, than to any of the "Hotel California" smarty-pants arena rock of the Eagles.
-Houston Press, May 2004
May 30, 2004
Singer-guitarist Bernie Leadon's country-rock influence helped launch the Eagles in the early '70s. But after four grueling years of the rock lifestyle, Leadon bailed. Now, with a résumé that includes studio work with artists from Randy Newman to Stevie Nicks to the Jayhawks and a stint in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Leadon is touring behind his second solo album, "Mirror."
1. FRESH CHOPS - There's a reason that Leadon's guitar work and vocals appear on albums by the aforementioned artists, as well as Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Stills, Michelle Shocked and others: This guy knows his way around anything with strings on it. Expect Leadon to play acoustic and electric guitars, banjo and perhaps mandolin onstage.
2. FREE RANGE - Leadon's funkiest new tune is called Sears and Roebuck Catalog, which describes his catchall style. He deftly moves from gritty Americana (Vile and a Profane Man) to reflective ballads (Center of the Universe) to bluesy country (God Ain't Done With Me Yet, with Emmylou Harris).
3. PEACEFUL FEELING - Leadon reportedly called his Eagles exit an "act of survival," but he's on good terms with his ex-bandmates. The author of the group's second hit, Witchy Woman, as well as My Man, Leadon has been known to dip into that '70s catalog in concert.
The Record
Ex-Eagle Comes Of Age
By Wayne Robins, Special To The Record
Bernie Leadon has played in quite a few bands during the past 35 years.
Some, like Dillard & Clark and the Flying Burrito Brothers, are curios, remembered by historians and devotees of the earliest synergy of country, bluegrass, and rock in the 1960s. Others, like the Eagles, with which Leadon played guitar during the heyday of its spotlight-seeking, record-setting existence, are known by pretty much anyone who bought a pop record in the 1970s and 1980s.
Leadon, 56, prefers to be remembered not for what he has done, but to be recognized for what he does now. His first solo album in 27 years, "Mirror," was just released by his own Nashville-based company, Really Small Entertainment. And he'll be performing with his band tonight at Maxwell's in Hoboken.
"I regard myself as a current artist, commenting on life as I see it today," Leadon said from his home office in Nashville, where he has lived since 1989.
"Mirror," as its title suggests, is a collection of reflections about growing up and growing older, an assessment of values and how they've changed.
The singer and guitar player balances his often sober thoughts about the meaning of life with the most subtle humor. Leadon describes the catchy "Vile and Profane Man" as "a sort of commentary poking fun at oneself." But a line in the bridge, "My god's better than your god," seems to underline the current war between civilizations - on both sides. And when a general from the Pentagon said essentially the same thing while speaking at a church a few months ago, Leadon said, "I felt prophetic."
These songs were intended to be personal, not political. "Backup Plan" is about having lived for too long without one; "What Do I Own?" questions materialism. "Sears and Roebuck Catalog," with its old-timey arrangement, has some of the satirical touch of Randy Newman in another aside at American acquisitiveness.
"Turning 50 was a catalyst," Leadon said of the reflections in "Mirror."
"One of the benefits of growing older is not being willing to put up with bull, and one gets honest with oneself. You realize some lessons, and put them into play. If you're going to be a more loving person, it's kind of time to get on with it. I've had quite a comfortable life, but there are things I still want to do. I'm lucky that I'm healthy, and have an opportunity to do them."
Leadon applied his intelligence to computers early on, even designing the Web site for a major Nashville record label. And he uses his own site, bernieleadon.com, as an outlet for information, ideas, and, of course, commerce. One lesson he learned from Web site construction that he applied to an aspect of "Mirror" is the detail in which he lists the various instruments, many rare or just old and comfortable, on the inside of the CD jacket.
"One of my marketing guys pointed out in developing the Web site that if I want to create interest in content, be specific about what I do," he said.
So while many people won't care much about on which tunes Leadon played his 1956 Gibson Country Western model, or a wooden National Triolian resonator guitar from the 1920s, or the 1953 Telecaster he played often with the Eagles, guitar geeks will find the information riveting.
"Fender's Telecasters from the early 1950s had the most utility and the coolest tone, and I'm into it for the tone and playability," Leadon said. "I think of my guitars as tools in a toolbox. I'm a journeyman musician, and I have good tools."