Longbranch/Pennywhistle the only album by Glenn Frey and JD Souther will see a welcome release on CD and 180-gram vinyl on September 28th. The album was released earlier this year as part of the Glenn Frey - Above The Clouds box set and sounded great (RGM Review here). So if you missed the box, or never managed to find an original copy of this rare album on vinyl, this is a must. Longbranch/Pennywhistle finds two artists at the start of their careers and really is pretty much essential for all Eagles fans. More about the release and details of upcoming JD Souther North American tour dates follows:

Longbranch/Pennywhistle, the legendary 1969 collaboration between late Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey and longstanding songwriting partner, JD Souther, will make its CD debut as well as return to vinyl for the first time in nearly 50 years on September 28 via Geffen/UMe. The album has been remastered and remixed by acclaimed producer/engineer Elliot Scheiner (Eagles, Steely Dan, Toto) and Souther. Released earlier this year as part of the Glenn Frey box set Above The Clouds: The Collection, the eponymous album is being made available as a standalone CD and on 180-gram black vinyl for the first time ever.

Longbranch/Pennywhistle represented the budding essence of a songwriting team that would tap into something quite intuitively special that eventually took flight on such well-loved and enduring Eagles tracks to come such as “Best of My Love,” “New Kid in Town,” “Heartache Tonight” and “The Sad Café.” Agrees Souther, “Longbranch/Pennywhistle gives you some sort of foundation for what’s to come.”

Produced by Tom Thacker, Longbranch/Pennywhistle boasts an impressive list of top-tier collaborators including rockabilly guitar legend James Burton, slide maestro Ry Cooder, pedal-steel legend Buddy Emmons, Wrecking Crew pianist Larry Knechtel, session drummer Jim Gordon, bass master Joe Osborn, and fiddle player nonpareil Doug Kershaw.

A second album was never cut and the band subsequently broke up. Frey went on to co-found the Eagles, occasionally with Souther’s songwriting pen and vocal harmonies in tow, while Souther mainly focused on a successful solo career (“You’re Only Lonely,”) and the occasional duet with the likes of James Taylor (“Her Town, Too”) and Linda Ronstadt (“Prisoner In Disguise”), in addition to authoring signature hits interpreted by the likes of Dixie Chicks (“I’ll Take Care Of You”) that yet again served to redefine the country genre.

Forever intertwined together in Longbranch/Pennywhistle, Souther and Frey will always represent the pioneering So Cal-transplanted songwriting duo who opened the door on a genre that ultimately knows no limits. Songs like album standouts “Kite Woman” and “Run, Boy, Run” serve as the literal seeds of the country-rock movement Frey and the Eagles perfected to a T.

“Glenn Frey was my roommate, best friend, and first songwriting partner in Los Angeles. We knew we were onto something original, as are most young musicians, including our soon-to-be friends and collaborators Jackson Browne and Don Henley; but quite honestly, we were just trying to do our best work in a very competitive environment. If in doing that we evolved a new architecture of some sort, fine, but remember we were all listening carefully to each other and to the giants before and among us. We listened to Miles, Hank Williams, Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Trane, Bach, Cole Porter, Tim Hardin, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, and Carole King to name a few. We always said that if you want to make great music you should listen to great music. This album was our freshman project.”

— JD Souther

JD SOUTHER ON TOUR

August 18 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre
August 19 – Prescott, AZ @ Elks Opera House
August 20 – Phoenix, AZ @ Music Instrument Theater
August 21 – Phoenix, AZ @ Music Instrument Theater
October 11 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Lobero Theater
October 12 – San Juan Capistrano, CA @ Coach House
October 13 – Las Vegas, NV @ Smith Center – Cabaret Room
October 14 – Malibu, CA @ Pepperdine University Center for the Arts
October 16 – Oakland, CA @ Yoshi’s
October 17 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Fremont Theater
October 18 – Saratoga, CA @ Montalvo Arts Center
October 20 – Sacramento, CA @ Sofia Center
November 1 – Annapolis, MD @ Rams Head
November 2 – Glen Allen, VA @ Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen
November 3 – Norfolk, VA @ Attucks Theatre
November 4 – Washington, DC @ City Winery
November 5 – Washington, DC @ City Winery

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