Eagles Tribute - What Should I Wear?

[An Alter Eagle]

I've read through a bunch of threads here (the Glenn Frey pictures thread was very helpful on this subject), and now I'm quite sure you folks can be very helpful with the decision I am facing.

I play guitar and sing the Glenn Frey songs in an outstanding Eagles Tribute band. We've recently decided that we're going to outfit ourselves in the 70's version of the Eagles, since that is the era in which a huge number of their greatest works were created.

So if you were choosing my wardrobe, what would it be? I'm pretty settled on flared, faded jeans, but beyond that I'm not sure.

I'm really looking forward to your comments and suggestions!

Thanks,

Greg
Alter Eagles

[An Alter Eagle]

By the way, I REALLY have no idea what he wore on his feet back then. I've seen the Eagles a couple of times since Hell Froze Over, but now it could be sneakers or dress shoes depending on the attire.

Did he ever do the boots thing back in the day? I saw them on the Hotel California tour in the 70's, but I was either too wasted or not paying attention to remember.

Cheers,

Greg
Alter Eagles

[Prettymaid]

Hi AE and welcome to The Border. First let me say that I think it's great that you like the Eagles and admire their music so much that you are in a tribute band. I'm also happy to hear that your band is going to go after the 'look' of the Eagles as well as the sound. I've seen an Eagles tribute band and to me that is what was lacking.

As far as what to wear, it sounds like you've done your homework in the Frey Fever thread. You also might want to take a look at http://www.glennfreyonline.com/ and look at the photos from the 70's. Glenn wore a lot of t shirts with sayings on them, which would seem easy enough to duplicate. I think it's even more important to copy his movements, subtle as they are, and you will be the best Glenn Frey tribute out there!

[WalshFan88]

Good luck!!!

I also play in what has now become a tribute band playing guitar (playing Joe Walsh's parts). We started out doing classic rock covers a couple years ago and now we do just Eagles music and it's really fun. I think you will enjoy it a lot. I certainly do. We play events, parties, etc playing wherever we are booked at and we have a ball! We are the "Stone Eagles".

I can't help you much on the wardrobe situation though! But I did want to stop in and wish you all the best with your band!

[An Alter Eagle]

I've played in lots of cover bands over the years, and I must say I enjoy this more than any of them. I grew up on the Eagles music in the 70's, so being able to play all of those great songs (usually for crowds of people who also love and appreciate them) is SO much better.

I noticed your post on the gear you have in another section here. We always laugh about our show, because we literally have over a dozen guitars on the stage! It's like a small music store up there, which makes for some interesting times when the stage is on the smaller side.

Where do the Stone Eagles play? I can tell you that for me, recreating the true Eagles sound is one of the most challenging things, and it took us a long time to find the right lineup of musicians who can also sing, and sing well! We live in Florida, but we're starting to tour around the Eastern US.

[WalshFan88]

I've played in lots of cover bands over the years, and I must say I enjoy this more than any of them. I grew up on the Eagles music in the 70's, so being able to play all of those great songs (usually for crowds of people who also love and appreciate them) is SO much better.

I noticed your post on the gear you have in another section here. We always laugh about our show, because we literally have over a dozen guitars on the stage! It's like a small music store up there, which makes for some interesting times when the stage is on the smaller side.

Where do the Stone Eagles play? I can tell you that for me, recreating the true Eagles sound is one of the most challenging things, and it took us a long time to find the right lineup of musicians who can also sing, and sing well! We live in Florida, but we're starting to tour around the Eastern US.

We play in the Central Illinois area, but we are all from West Central Illinois. We don't tour as wide of an area as you guys, we mainly play events and booking in the Central IL area. I'd love to actually tour more and play more places, but everyone's schedules are hard to arrange for a tour type. We mainly just play where we are booked.

I have about 30 guitars total in my collection, and take about 4-5 of my own to a show. Usually it goes like this. Humbucker guitar (Gibson Les Paul, PRS, Carvin), Single Coil Guitar (Fender Strat or Tele), a 12-string acoustic, a 6-string acoustic for a backup, and sometimes another "cross" guitar that has a coil split so I can do both Humbucker and Single Coil sounds. I'm a Gibson Les Paul guy though for the most part. That's the "desert island" guitar for me.

As far as getting the tone, I haven't been as happy as I am now after buying a Fender Twin Reverb. It gets the Joe Walsh sound perfectly. I love mine, and am looking to get another Fender amp soon. I use overdrive pedals too with my Twin and it gets the sound I'm looking for, but it did take me a long while to get it down.

[An Alter Eagle]

I've gone back and forth on the right rig, even trying the digital modeling a la Line 6, and right now I'm going through reworking the entire thing. I notice they play through combo amps now with a slew of Boss pedals, so I think that's where I'm headed with my rig.

The Fender Amp might be a good choice for the Felder stuff, too. I play the doubleneck on Hotel Cali and most of the Felder leads.

[Brooke]

Very cool, AAE! It sounds like you would be a fun band to see!

As far as dressing like Glenn, faded, patched jeans, a t-shirt with something on the front (Glenn did wear Eagles shirts a lot) and he wore cowboy boots or the harness strap brown boots some. If you have the long hair, aviator sunglasses were sometimes worn and as a headband (holding his hair back), too.

So, are you coming Missouri way?

[WalshFan88]

I've gone back and forth on the right rig, even trying the digital modeling a la Line 6, and right now I'm going through reworking the entire thing. I notice they play through combo amps now with a slew of Boss pedals, so I think that's where I'm headed with my rig.

The Fender Amp might be a good choice for the Felder stuff, too. I play the doubleneck on Hotel Cali and most of the Felder leads.

Yeah Glenn plays through a Fender Blackface Deluxe (an original nonreverb blackface from the 60s) for his electric, Joe has several Fender amps that he uses/used like Twin Reverbs, Deluxe Reverbs, Super Reverbs, Vibrolux Reverbs (he's a Fender amp guy) Dr. Zs, Hiwatts, etc. Don Felder mainly used Fender amps like the Tweed and Blackface Fender Deluxes but he did use a JTM45 Marshall combo on the Hell Freezes Over tour. He has said that his electric guitar 6-string parts of Hotel California (the recording) was a '59 Les Paul and a cranked Fender Tweed Deluxe from the 50s. No overdrive.

I use quite a few pedals, mainly overdrives, delays, and stuff like that. My favorite overdrive is probably an Ibanez Tubescreamer, but I've really got on lately to the Digitech Bad Monkey. Usually the word Digitech is enough to make me run the opposite direction but they made a great analog "tube overdrive" that is an amazing overdrive pedal. A lot of guys are using them (Billy Gibbons, Tommy Shaw, and others I can't remember) I use to have a BOSS Blues Driver but didn't bond with it. Joe's overdrive of choice is a BOSS OS-2, which is like a BOSS Super Overdrive and BOSS Distortion in one pedal.

[An Alter Eagle]

Hi Brooke!

Actually, I am growing out the 70's 'stache, and my hair is going to have to stay semi-long.....stupid day job, you know! I'll try the boot thing over my flared jeans. We have a show in New Orleans in a couple of weeks. How far is that for you?

Right now we are averaging about 3 shows a month, but we are being selective and trying to only take quality shows where there are people who really appreciate the music. Things are definitely heating up now, though, since we've actually got some decent footage of our performances and people are hearing the result of the hard work we've put in to re-create that Eagles sound we all love. Our agent is working on a short tour next year, but that looks like it will be up the East coast and back in the spring.