Don Henley – Cass County Deluxe 2LP NEW Discount

Don Henley – Cass County Deluxe 2LP

NEW. SEALED.

Double LP deluxe version.

Capitol Records

Don Henley doesn t move fast because he can afford not to hurry. He can spend the better part of a decade waiting out a record contract, labor on a 90-minute Eagles reunion for maybe half a decade, then take another eight years before returning with Cass County, his first solo album in 15 years and only fifth overall. That s the mark of a man who takes his time, but all that chronology pales compared to the true journey Cass County represents: a return to Henley s country roots, whether they lie in the blissed-out, mellow sunshine of Southern California or the Texas home that provides this record with its name. According to prerelease scuttlebutt, the album began as a covers project — on the deluxe edition, there are remnants of this record, including a poignant She Sang Hymns Out of Tune and a duet with Dolly Parton on the Louvin Brothers When I Stop Dreaming — and the album does begin with a version of Tift Merritt s Bramble Rose that finds space for both Mick Jagger and Miranda Lambert, a sign of the star firepower on Cass County. Plenty of other guests pop up here, including Merle Haggard and Martina McBride, although there s no doubting Henley is the center of Cass County, but the nice thing about the record is that he s not calling attention to himself, not in the way he did when he loaded up albums with somber six-minute anthems. For the first time in decades — four, to be precise; One of These Nights was the last time he explicitly dabbled in country-rock — Henley prefers to paint on a small canvas, abandoning sociological epics for tales of longing and heartbreak. He ll still adopt a cynical sneer — No, Thank You is quintessential spiteful contrarianism, salvaged by a boogie borrowed from Achy Breaky Heart — and the elegiac Praying for Rain disguises its environmental activist heart in the form of sun-bleached hippie country, but the shift to expertly constructed miniatures benefits Henley considerably, pushing the focus onto his skill as a craftsman while also suggesting how, in the age of bro-country, this kind of cosmic American music functions as a traditional throwback. This is also where Henley s stubbornness winds up as an asset: he doesn t feel like he s succumbing to either nostalgia or the present; he stoically carries on according to the way things ought to be, and, against all odds, he winds up with a record that s not only easier to enjoy than most of his solo records, but also stronger song for song than many of the early Eagles albums.