Country rock pioneer JD Souther stops along the way, playing at Johnny D’s this coming Saturday. - Photo by Jeremy Cowart

JD Souther on the road again and passing through the ‘Ville

By Jim Clark

His name may not be so familiar to some, but to many others his music constitutes a substantial portion of the “soundtrack” of their lives. Since the late 60’s the country rock legend JD Souther has penned and collaborated on some of the most popular songs of our time.
His affiliation with the likes of The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, and countless other pioneers of the early Southern California country rock scene has earned him the status of legend in the minds of those whose hearts have been touched by his enduring legacy.
The playlist could read off the menu of any respectable honky-tonk jukebox, with such classic titles as The Eagles’ New Kid in Town, Victim of Love, Best of My Love, and Heartache Tonight. Linda Ronstadt’s hit albums also benefited from Souther’s touch with the unforgettable Faithless Love, White Rhythm and Blues, and many others. A collaboration with James Taylor yielded the hit Her Town Too, and his own You’re Only Lonely reached #7 on the Billboard charts in 1979.
The list goes on with no end in sight, like a long dusty road that must be completely traveled to be fully understood. Souther is back on that road again, and his latest release Natural History revisits some of the most memorable stops along the way. The album consists of many of the songs that were made famous by all of those other artists. But Souther lays them out pure and simple, in his own inimitable style.
“It really was in a way like singing an album of standards-which I’ve been trying to do for years, anyway; not mine, but other people’s.” says Souther. “I think I didn’t expect it to feel like that, but in the end, it did. I found out in the process that everybody-including myself-was so familiar with those songs that it was kind of liberating, in a way. It gave me enough distance to be able to just approach it like a singer.”
Souther’s journey has not been without a few detours, notably a 24 year hiatus from touring and performing.  But in 2008 his If the World Was You album brought him out again and in 2009 the ASCAP Awards Ceremony honored him with the prestigious Golden Note Award.
Souther seems to be thoroughly enjoying the ride now. “You know,” he says, “you work [hard] at home so that when you get up there, you actually can participate in the magic. That’s what you want it to be. You want it to be an uplifting thing, in that you want people outside the theater lined up in anticipation, and when they’re streaming out at the end, you want them to have that same buzz that you’ve gotten: ‘Wow, that was cool! That was uplifting. It was in the ascendant-it wasn’t a downer or a bummer or some kind of a rant. It took us some place higher.’ That’s what I hope for when I go see music.”
That same expectation will be in evidence at Johnny D’s this weekend as the venue hosts the real deal at its best. I wouln’t miss it for the world and neither should you.