Donna Marie Miller

I felt no small honor in photographing the co-founder of the Eagles,  guitarist, singer and songwriter Glenn Frey, last May 19 in concert at the Frank Erwin Center. On assignment with Elmore magazine, I photographed the band including Frey with Don Henley, Timothy B. Schmit, Joe Walsh and Bernie Leadon at their final “History of the Eagles” world tour. Immediately I felt transported into the past.

For decades I have admired the band’s music, ever since first hearing Frey sing “Peaceful Easy Feeling” on the radio in 1972. Then, as a gawky teenager I felt my first crush and memorized the songs from their debut album.

I still feel a kinship with the Eagles and those lyrics, written by Jack Tempchin.

The tumultuous political headlines of that time 44 years ago included:  Gov. George C. Wallace who had been shot by Arthur H. Bremer in Laurel, MD, and five men that had been caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate building in Washington, D.C.  Those events and others prompted me to study journalism in college and to pursue a life-long writing career.

Today in the news physicist Stephen Hawking predicted that all humankind will likely vanish on the Earth within the next 100 years. The Eagles‘ hit song allows me if only for a few moments, to transport myself to an ethereal place beyond Earth’s realm. I have hope that if nothing else does, Frey’s music will survive.

I imagine radio sound waves as light, electromagnetic radiation, traveling through empty space across our galaxy and perhaps into other still-as-yet unknown galaxies for all eternity. That thought gives me a peaceful easy feeling. God’s speed Glenn Frey. Your music will exist forever.

Here’s a link to Glenn Frey’s obituary that ran today in Elmore magazine along with a photo that I took of him at the Eagles’ concert in Austin May 19, 2015 at the Frank Erwin Center:

http://www.elmoremagazine.com/2016/01/music-news/goodbye-glenn-frey-1948-2016

Here’s a link to the review of the Eagles’ performance that I wrote and photos that I took for Elmore magazine following last year’s May concert at the Frank Erwin Center: 

http://www.elmoremagazine.com/2015/06/reviews/shows/the-eagles

Tags: "History of the Eagles" world tour, 2015, Arthur H. Bremer, Bernie Leadon, D.C., death of Glenn Frey, Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate building in Washington, Don Henley, Eagles concert in Austin, Eagles' Austin 2015 performance, Glenn Frey, Glenn Frey concert in Austin 2015, Glenn Frey obituary, Gov. George C. Wallace, Peaceful Easy Feeling, photo of Glenn Frey, photo of Glenn Frey performing in Austin, photo of The Eagles, the Eagles, the Eagles' concert in Austin May 19, the Frank Erwin Center, Timothy B. Schmit, TX 2015