Take it easy. Eagles tribute band's show with Philharmonic just days away
No way.
One of the guys in the Eagles was calling from Arizona.
From a corner in Winslow?
No such luck. He was at a hotel (and not the Hotel California) just outside Phoenix.
About 180 miles away. But, that's life in the fast lane.
It's cool with an orchestra
Dickinson is a member of the Eagles tribute band that plays the music of the rock band that continues to tour and thrill fans.
He grew up listening to the band on the radio, hit after hit, and saw them in concert a few times, But, he said, he never met anyone in the group.
The next best thing to the Eagles themselves will be in Abilene on Saturday night, performing with the Abilene Philharmonic. This show will be similar to last year's audience-pleasing "Classical Mystery Tour," a Beatles tribute with the symphony. The music this weekend won't go that far back - the Eagles formed in 1971 - and their outfits won't be as fashionable.
In fact, the guys, Dickinson said, don't try to emulate a certain Eagles member - say Don Henley. Yes, they want to sound like the Eagles, vocally and instrumentally, but dressing up as the Beatles guys did is not what they do.
They might be in a suit, in fact.
"No, no, no. We don't try to look like the band," Dickinson said. "Some people do that. With the Beatles thing you almost have to do it. We weren't trying to mimic or emulate. We just wanted to do a great show.
"The actual goal was to play really great songs. It was more important to do an honest rendition of each of the songs."
The five-man group performs more on its own than with an orchestra.
"The thing about doing it with an orchestra," Dickinson said, "that was just kind of a pet project. Something that came together just to do something a little bit different. Everybody plays songs, but not everybody will do an orchestra.
"What I enjoy is hearing this material orchestrated as opposed to hearing a song as it comes on the radio."
The week before some other Eagles play in the Super Bowl, Eagles fans will flock to the Convention Center, as did Beatles fans, to hear their favorite songs presented with a symphony. It seemed last season that the musicians in black had fun playing the Beatles and giving Beethoven, Bach, Brahms and boys a rest.
Concert-goers, Dickinson said, enjoy seeing their local musicians rock out a bit.
"That was what we were after to begin with," he said. "We wanted to feature the local orchestras. People still want to hear the hit songs they grew up listening to."
Some country to it
Dickinson said the tribute band takes advantage of the Eagles' "country side." He grew up in the "fairly rural South" on country music.
"I grew up an Eagles fans, like everyone else was," he said. "The Eagles were easy to listen, to me, because if you analyze what they're doing, there's a lot of country in their material."
It was a trademark of many California bands, such as the Flying Burrito Brothers and even the Doobies, in the 1970s
And so their shows, he said, are "countrified it a little bit" with pedal steel, mandolin and acoustic guitar in some places where electric guitar usually stands out.
"It's fun," Dickinson said of playing Eagles hits. Country meets classical.
He found that most translated well to a concert hall performance.
"It's great material that lends itself to orchestration," he said. "All the hits do. They are so well written and well crafted that they are musically rich. There is a lot of room to add orchestration."
Dickinson personally doesn't have a favorite song - "It moves around a little bit, maybe depending on what kind of mood you're in." "Hotel California," though is anticipated by audiences.
"And people like the ballads because we've got good singers and when a great singer delivers a great performance, that's always a showstopper."
Home of the Eagles
These Eagles will land in the home of the Eagles - the mascot since 1923 of Abilene High and now Texas Leadership Charter Academy. Eagle Don Henley is a Texan.
One of Abilene's urban legends is that Henley named the band after the famed AHS championship football teams for the 1950s.
But for sure, back a few years, Square's Bar-B-Que here catered a couple of Eagles-related events.
The Eagles scored five No. 1 hits and six No. 1 albums and Grammys. The album "Hotel California" is among the biggest selling of all time and considered one of the best rock albums recorded.
Like the Beatles, this should be a sing-along event. "Hotel California." "Take It Easy." "Already Gone." "Witchy Woman." "New Kid in Town." "Tequila Sunrise." "Desperado." "Life in the Fast Lane."
These songs are the soundtrack to our lives, Dickinson said. But, he added, when you hear the songs "done in a different way that you haven't heard before, it adds to the experience."
If You Go
What: Hotel California, the Eagles tribute band with the Abilene Philharmonic
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Abilene Convention Center, 1100 North Sixth Street
Tickets: Range in price from $5 (student rush seats) to $52, plus any fees. Tickets for sale at abilenephilharmonic,org or at the door
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Take it easy. Eagles tribute band's show with Phil just days away
