Tag: Eagles

Jess Cornelius covers the Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why.”

Photo by Nina Raj

Today, Los Angeles-based musician Jess Cornelius presents a cover of the Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why.” Rather than remaining faithful to the original, Cornelius transforms the song with a grittier sound featuring a drum machine and live drums, and fuzzy guitars which unwind under her muscular croon. It was recorded by Aaron Stern in Los Angeles earlier this year.

Cornelius elaborates: “I can’t remember when this song first came under my radar — I imagine that, like for many people, it was sort of playing in the background on one of those classic hits stations. One day a friend put the song on (because we were talking about late 70s yacht rock, I guess) and it got a bit stuck in my head so I learnt the chords. It wasn’t ever going to be something that I covered faithfully, and I didn’t see the point anyway.

So I was messing around with the arrangement, making it less bouncy and darker. I have always loved the melody, and the tension of the chorus, but to me it was a sad song and I wanted to bring out the frustration of the lyrics. Also, years ago I heard Lou Reed cover Peter Gabriel’s ‘Solsbury Hill,’ which is one of my favorite covers of all time, and that became a bit of a template for this version. It’s almost an homage to that cover, really.

I wanted to learn the guitar solo, because I never do, so it was fun to practice all that cheesy string bending. Of course, my version is a little trashier. And I started with drum machine drums but added some live drums at the end. I kinda wanted it to sound like it was disintegrating — luckily Jarvis Taveniere was mixing so he made the drums sound cohesive and not as chaotic.”

This is Cornelius’ first new material since the release of her debut album, Distance, last year via Loantaka Records. Distance will see its UK release on May 14, 2021. 
Listen to Jess Cornelius Cover the Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why”

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Live: The Eagles – June 20, 2018 – New Orleans, LA

Seeing the Eagles for the first time was a night of many firsts.  It was my first time not only seeing the classic rock band, but also my first time seeing a live music show in New Orleans (a city known for live music), my first time seeing Vince Gill (who is playing with the Eagles on this tour as a supporting guitarist and vocalist), and my first time seeing a show in a stadium suite.

This was a long-awaited dream come true for my wife, who is a big fan of the Eagles.  Unfortunately, she never got to see them with Glenn Frey, but his son, Deacon Frey, is playing his father’s guitar parts and singing his father’s lyrics quite well.

The suite had the nice view of the stage as seen above, but we quickly learned that ordering from the “suite menu” isn’t sweet for your wallet, as shown in the example below.

That bowl of chips and dip costs $32.00 at the Smoothie King Center suites.

Luckily, there were a large number of us in the suite and people with better paying jobs than I who could afford such things (not to mention booze), and the Eagles soon made us forget about overpriced snacks.

Opening with “Seven Bridges Road” (which made my wife nearly leap out of her chair in joy), they played a night of greatest hits that tore through (among many others) “Take It Easy” (with Deacon Frey on lead vocal), “One of These Nights,” “Take It to the Limit,” “Tequila Sunrise,” and “Witchy Woman” before Joe Walsh took front and center with “In the City.”

I was happy to hear bassist Timothy Schmit sing “I Can’t Tell You Why” (one of the Eagles’ most underrated hits, if you ask me) and Vince Gill did a great lead vocal on “New Kid in Town.”  I didn’t know until the crowd went nuts for him and Don Henley reminded all of us non-locals that Gill is a New Orleans native.  As a result, his vocals on their cover of Fats Domino‘s “Walkin’ to New Orleans” were a big hit.  Another surprise cover was of Tom Waits‘ “Ol’ ’55.”

My favorite Eagles songs are the rockers with blues influences, and “Those Shoes” is at the top of the list.  I was happy to hear an almost sludgy version of it with Don Henley having fun with the vocals.

They did two encores.  The first, of course, was “Hotel California,” which had a neat trumpet intro.  The second included Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way” and “Desperado.”  In case you didn’t know, Walsh still shreds.  He hadn’t lost a thing since we’d seen him open for Tom Petty in St. Louis.

It was a fun night.  They didn’t disappoint.  My wife said it was the best concert she’d ever attended.  That alone made it worth the trip.

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