Don Henley's new album 'Cass County' out today

Don Henley's new album 'Cass County' is excellent! My review of the album is posted in the latest issue of Desert Star Weekly, and will be posted on this site tomorrow. Here is the official media release (unedited) that arrived in my inbox this morning...

Don Henley's new album 'Cass County' is out today

 

"**** Henley has made an album of quietly defiant pure-country modernism...Everything in the music serves the sting and solace in the tales." - Rolling Stone

 

Don Henley's first solo album in 15 years - Cass County - was released today by Capitol Records and is available now at all music retailers, including iTunes and Amazon, and in the artist's official online store. The Target deluxe edition includes two exclusive tracks - Henley's duet with Stevie Nicks, "It Don't Matter To The Sun," and "Here Come Those Tears Again," which features harmony vocals by Vince Gill and Alison Krauss.

 

In support of the album release, the North American Cass County Tour 2015 kicks off October 3 in Phoenix, Arizona, and each ticket ordered online through the primary ticket outlet will also receive a Cass County deluxe CD. Singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin will open on all the dates. See itinerary below or visit http://www.donhenley.com/events.

 

"After a life in the fast lane, Don Henley is finding his way home," observed Anthony Mason, who profiled Henley for "CBS Sunday Morning" in this feature, which was shot in Linden - the Cass County, TX town where the GRAMMY®-winning singer-songwriter grew up. Henley performed "Too Much Pride," one of Cass County's 11 original songs, on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" earlier this week. View his performance HERE.

 

Don Henley recently received the Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Award at the 14^th Annual Americana Awards, which will be broadcast on PBS on November 21 as part of this season's "Austin City Limits." His SiriusXM Town Hall appearance, which aired on Outlaw Country, was moderated by longtime friend Bob Seger and "Don Henley In Conversation with Billy Joel," which took place at New York City's 92^nd Street Y, was livestreamed on the Live Nation Channel on Yahoo Screen.

 

Recorded primarily in Nashville, TN, and Dallas, TX, Cass County was produced by Henley and Stan Lynch, who also co-wrote 11 of the songs on the album. It includes guest appearances by Merle Haggard, Miranda Lambert, Mick Jagger, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Jamey Johnson, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill and Dolly Parton. View the official video for "When I Stop Dreaming" featuring Dolly Parton HERE and the video for "Take A Picture of This" HERE.

"Henley has made an album of quietly defiant pure-country modernism...Everything in the music serves the sting and solace in the tales," said David Fricke in a four-star review for Rolling Stone. American Songwriter also awarded Cass Countyfour stars, calling it "arguably Henley's finest solo work" while US Weekly hailed it as "All your ears will want to listen to for the rest of 2015" in a four-star review. NPR, which premiered the album as a "First Listen" in the week leading up to its release, praised it as "true to his roots" and USA Today noted, "the emotional but unsentimental album draws on the music and the land of Henley's youth, but it doesn't dwell there."

 

"From a songwriting standpoint, solo Henley isn't far removed from Eagles Henley, exploring the nuances of lives that play out in a small town ('Waiting Tables'), dreams thwarted by forces beyond one's control ('Praying for Rain') and offering a pointed twist on the good-ol'-days nostalgia that's so popular in country of late ('Take a Picture of This')," said the Los Angeles Times.

 

Cass County is available as a 12-song standard CD and digital album, as well as a 16-track deluxe version, available on CD, digitally and a double disc, 180 gram Vinyl LP.  A super deluxe version, seen HERE, includes a 50-page booklet with exclusive photos, collector postcards, deluxe CD album and deluxe Vinyl (2-Disc 180 Gram) and can be purchased in Henley's official online store. A limited number of bundles are also offered, including a T-shirt and 12X12 lithograph.

 

CASS COUNTY TRACKLISTING

Deluxe - CD, Digital & Vinyl:

1.        "Bramble Rose" (featuring Mick Jagger & Miranda Lambert)

2.        "The Cost of Living" (featuring Merle Haggard)

3.        "No, Thank You"

4.        "Waiting Tables"

5.        "Take A Picture of This"

6.        "Too Far Gone"

7.        "That Old Flame" (featuring Martina McBride)

8.        "The Brand New Tennessee Waltz"

9.        "Words Can Break Your Heart"

10.      "When I Stop Dreaming" (featuring Dolly Parton)

11.      "Praying for Rain"

12.      "Too Much Pride"

13.      "She Sang Hymns Out of Tune"

14.      "Train In The Distance"

15.      "A Younger Man"

16.      "Where I Am Now"

 

Target deluxe edition also contains:

17.       It Don't Matter To The Sun (Lead Vocals: Don Henley & Stevie Nicks)
           18. Here Come Those Tears Again (Lead Vocal: Don Henley / Harmony Vocals: Vince Gill and Alison Krauss) 

 

Standard - CD & Digital:

1.        "Bramble Rose" (featuring Mick Jagger & Miranda Lambert)

2.        "The Cost of Living" (featuring Merle Haggard)

3.        "Take A Picture of This"

4.        "Waiting Tables"

5.        "No, Thank You"

6.        "Praying for Rain"

7.        "Words Can Break Your Heart"

8.        "That Old Flame" (featuring Martina McBride)

9.        "When I Stop Dreaming" (featuring Dolly Parton)

10.      "A Younger Man"

11.      "Train In The Distance"

12.      "Where I Am Now"

DON HENLEY - CASS COUNTY TOUR 2015

10/3                 Phoenix, AZ                Comerica Theatre
10/5                 San Francisco, CA      The Masonic
10/7                 Santa Barbara, CA      Santa Barbara Bowl
10/9                 Los Angeles, CA         The Forum
10/13               Denver, CO                 Bellco Theatre
10/15               Dallas, TX                  Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie
10/17               Atlanta, GA               Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
10/18               Nashville, TN             Ryman Auditorium
11/2                 New York, NY            Beacon Theatre
11/3                Port Chester, NY        Capitol Theatre
11/5                 Washington, DC         DAR Constitution Hall
11/7                 Detroit, MI                Fox Theatre Detroit
11/8                 Chicago, IL                  Chicago Theatre
11/10              Toronto, ON               Sony Centre for the Performing Arts
11/12               Philadelphia, PA         Academy of Music

Visit donhenley.com for more information.   

Don Henley, both as solo artist and as a member of the Eagles, has received many accolades, including eight GRAMMY® Awards, numerous gold and platinum records and performed sold-out concert tours worldwide. A respected, popular and critically celebrated musical artist, Henley is a founding member, vocalist and songwriter of the Eagles that has become one of the most influential bands in America. Henley's solo career is acclaimed with such hits as Dirty Laundry, Heart Of The Matter, Boys Of Summer, The End Of The Innocence, and All She Wants To Do Is Dance. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and will receive the 2015 Kennedy Center honors later this year, as a member of the Eagles.

Henley's career as a musician and activist continues to evolve.  In 1990, he founded the Walden Woods Project (www.walden.org), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting the historic woods in Massachusetts where author/philosopher Henry David Thoreau first championed the concept of land conservation.  The Project, celebrating its 25th anniversary has protected vast tracts of Walden Woods from the threat of commercial development, has created a highly acclaimed environmental educational initiative for students (www.worldwidewaldens.org) and maintains the most important library of Thoreau-related research material in the world.  In addition, Henley founded the Caddo Lake Institute in his native East Texas, a privately operating foundation to act as an "ecosystem-specific" sponsoring entity, underwriting local wetland science and conservation education including cultural and ecological research and monitoring. Henley also co-founded the Recording Artists' Coalition, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group formed to represent the interests of recording artists.