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When J.D. Souther played Bristol
There was no great fanfare when one of the most successful songwriters of all time turned up to play a low-key gig in a small Bristol hall on October 4, 2007.
J.D. Souther, who has died aged 78, had a songwriting credit on the biggest selling album of the 20th century (Eagles Greatest Hits) and wrote or co-wrote many of the Eagles’ best-known songs including Best of My Love, Heartache Tonight and New Kid in Town, having been one half of Eagles precursor act Longbranch Pennywhistle with Glen Frey in the late sixties.
He was also renowned as something of a ladies’ man, squiring both Linda Ronstadt and Stevie Nicks.
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At St Bonaventure’s Church Hall in Bishopston, he played to a small but enthusiastic audience of those in the know – just a genial middle-aged gent with a guitar and a bunch of rambling anecdotes concerning the likes of Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger and the Dixie Chicks.
But even the guitar wasn’t all it seemed, being a custom model specially made by Gibson for that tour.
His reedy voice occasionally struggled to reach the high notes in a career-spanning set that took in his solitary solo hit (the lovely You’re Only Lonely), the short-lived Souther-Hillman-Furay band, and, of course, the Eagles, who were at the time reconvening for their seventh album, Long Road Out of Eden, whose lead single was the Souther-penned How Long.
He apologised for the absence of vocal harmonies and guitar solos, adding wryly: “But, hey, you didn’t have to pay $300 and park two miles away!”
At the end of the set, he avoided autograph-seeking fans by scuttling straight out of the venue clutching his precious guitar.
Main image: Cover of Border Town: The Very Best of J.D. Souther
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