Track Listing

1. Take It Easy - Travis Tritt
2. Peaceful Easy Feeling - Little Texas
3. Desperado - Clint Black
4. Heartache Tonight - John Anderson
5. Tequila Sunrise - Alan Jackson, Alan Jackson
6. Take It to the Limit - Suzy Bogguss
7. I Can't Tell You Why - Vince Gill
8. Lyin' Eyes - Diamond Rio
9. New Kid in Town - Trisha Yearwood
10. Saturday Night - Billy Dean
11. Already Gone - Tanya Tucker
12. Best of My Love - Brooks & Dunn
13. Sad Café - Lorrie Morgan

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9778 in Music
• Released on: 1993-10-12
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
In 1993, Nashville's biggest young stars--Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, and others--recorded an album of Eagles songs called Common Thread. When the disc went platinum, everyone hailed it as the rebirth of country-rock. If you listened closely, though, you heard neither the down-to-earth twang of country nor the metallic aggression of rock & roll. What you heard instead was the romantic sweetness of pop. More specifically, the Eagles represented the southern California pop tradition of harmony-drenched groups like the Beach Boys, the Mamas & the Papas, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. It's a wonderful tradition, but it's misleading to call it something else. Out there in the hinterlands you can still hear authentic country-rock, an exhilarating combination of blunt adult storytelling and blazing guitars as practiced by the likes of Joe Ely, Shaver, the Bottle Rockets, Mike Henderson, and Jason and the Scorchers. Real country-rock remains a marginal commercial force, however, and the real money is in the new Nashville version of southern California harmonies. Call it "suburban pop." --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

A long term hold for any cd portfolio
If you like country music and the Eagles, you got to have this cd. It demonstrates how far ahead the Eagles really were ahead of their time. Each country artist brings an unique quality and interpretation of the Eagle's early songs. A long term hold for any cd portfolio

Fine, straight covers of some classic tunes
Unlike some of the reviewers here, I don't consider the cover tracks on this album better than, or even quite as good as, the Eagles' originals. But most of them are, no question, good performances of some great original tunes.

For all their California rock/pop-ness, the Eagles always had strong country influences in their sound (Don Henley himself has made reference to the band's "satanic-country-rock period" during the era of the "One of These Nights" album), and so adapting their songs to the vocal stylings of country singers isn't that big a stretch. The tracks on this tribute CD are pretty straightforward covers of some of their classics: in most cases, the track-length is within seconds of the Eagles' originals. Some of the versions have been "countried-up" a little, but even then they're pretty faithful to the originals.

Personally, I think I was most impressed by Clint Black's "Desperado," Tanya Tucker's "Already Gone," and Travis Tritt's "Take it Easy." Suzy Bogguss did a fine job with "Take It to the Limit," but I missed the Eagles' tight harmonies on this one. For all Suzy's talent, I just don't think it sounds as good as a solo. And I wish they would have found someone to cover "Witchy Woman" or even "Hotel California." But you can't have everything.

Charity album succeeded beyond expectations
This was something new in country music - a tribute album to which each invited star recorded one song, with the results going to charity. A lot of country singers of the nineties were fans of the Eagles and they enthusiastically joined in. The resulting album contains plenty of covers of their famous songs - indeed, nearly all the original versions of these songs can be found on greatest hits compilations by the Eagles. I've met people who listen to this more frequently than the originals.

So the song selection is mostly obvious with only Billy Dean doing something different, Saturday night being his choice, but all the performances are inspired. It seems that the singers and songs are well matched. My favorite here is Take it to the limit (Suzy Bogguss) but not by much. Every track is a real gem.

I only know of one previous cover of an Eagles song by any of the featured singers here, that being Tanya Tucker's version of Best of my love, which she recorded in the early seventies. Here she covers Already gone, leaving Best of my love to be covered this time by Brooks and Dunn.

This album was far more successful than anybody ever imagined possible, so tribute albums by various artists became a regular feature of country music, but this was the first of its kind and is still among the best.