Jack Tempchin and Glenn Frey were friends for a long time before either became world-famous, Jack as a hit songwriter and Glenn as an Eagle. It’s a friendship first sparked back in 1972 when Frey, then a member of the duo Longbranch Pennywhistle with J.D. Souther, spent a San Diego night at Jack’s big house and candle factory, a beloved hippie crash pad. Two years later at his friend Jackson Browne’s L.A. home, Jack played Glenn a new song he’d written about a waitress in El Centro called “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” So enthralled was Frey by the tune that he recorded it on cassette tape, telling Jack that he’d formed a new band eight days earlier, and wanted to play it for them. Jack’s reaction: “Whoa, yeah!”

That band was the Eagles. The next day Glenn returned with a recording of the Eagles singing this song. Hearing that track with those now-iconic Eagles harmonies blew his mind. “It was,” he said, “the best thing I had ever heard.” He already knew Frey was a fine solo singer, but had no clue about his greatness as an arranger and harmony singer. The song became one of The Eagles’ most beloved hits, a triumph Jack attributed more to the band than the songwriter. “It is not a normal love song,” he said. “But The Eagles, with their arrangement, breathed life into it.” Its success led him on a lifelong songwriting path from which he’s never veered since.

As a solo artist, Jack Tempchin has recorded twelve of his own albums. His album, ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling – The Songs of Jack Tempchin’ is a poignant tribute to his fabled friendship with his “musical brother,“ Frey, it features Jack’s own renditions of twelve of their songs, performed solo and with guest vocalists Rita Coolidge, Janiva Magness, Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen.

“This album,” wrote Jack in the liner notes, “is dedicated to my great friend of 46 years, Glenn Frey. Glenn and I always had a fabulous time writing songs together. We would talk about our lives and laugh. He was the funniest person I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. It was my great good fortune that my buddy happened to be one of the best songwriters of all time. Goodbye my friend and musical brother. Thanks for all the wonderful times.”