Don Henley Played a Mix of New Old, Borrowed and Blue at the Bowl

“I have a new album,” said Don Henley right after a punchy but lyrical version of “The End of the Innocence” three songs into the show. “And miracle of miracles, it debuted at number one on the charts. You see there is life after 65.” The former Eagle sang to a packed house last Wednesday night at the Bowl, and better yet, most of the fans there knew the new stuff from Cass County well enough to sing along.

The show began early, after a near-perfect opening set from Shawn Colvin, with an ensemble-sing of an oldie: “Seven Bridges Road,” one of the few Eagles songs (though written by Steve Young) Henley played. If you know the lore, it was also the song his old band used to warm up with before shows in the Bowl’s Green Room. Here at the Bowl, Henley’s new posse, including three backup singers, stood in a semi-circle and harmoniously belted it out. The choir piece set a mood that lasted through the show: country harmonies and high theatrical performances.

Most of the evening’s main course got served from Cass County, an album of original new songs and covers prettied up with famous duet partners from Dolly Parton, Mick Jagger, Allison Krauss and Merle Haggard.

None of those august personages showed up; they were well replaced with Henley’s back-up trio and Stuart Smith, who served as the Eagles’ stand-in guitarist, sang and blazed guitar leads too. The new music highlights included “Words Can Break Your Heart,” and “Take a Picture of This,” though “Pray for Rain” resonated well with the drought-based crowd. He played most of the new songs in the 21 tunes salute.

Bands rarely go wrong ladling out their oldies, but Henley was sparing, picky you might say. It only worked in his favor. “Dirty Laundry” brought the joint to its feet and the nice companion-piece “All She Wants to Do Is Dance,” worked as a fine show-closer. Speaking of rockers, the crazy award goes to Henley for covering Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” So crazy that it worked.

But poignancy ruled the soft-rocking night, and the most memorable moment was clearly “The Boys of Summer.” Note-for-note rendered — the Bowl sound system worked just fine. What purpose it served was a reminder of what Henley and his old “dudes” (as he put it) always had on tap. Smart songs, maybe sometimes a little bit throwback in their long embrace of easy country licks, but with great writing. Henley’s gift to the audience was a new brace of intelligent country songs laced with Randy Newman, Tift Merritt and Garth Brooks tunes as filler, a thinker’s waltz-ballad-rocker helping for people who like something more than a dance.