Oh, those harmonies.
When four guys from Vancouver Island sing the songs of The Eagles, the vocal blend is like an ice-cold Tequila Sunrise enjoyed on a beach in California.
Perfect, pretty much.
These musicians have spent a lot of time working on those familiar harmonies, notes Jack Gunderson, the bass player, vocalist and guy they call “Bub” among members of Eagle Eyes, a tribute band.
“I mean, it’s the time that does it, right,” Gunderson explained. “Doing harmony rehearsal is something we’re always trying to find time for…. The harmonies are the main thing for us, because they have to be in this band.”
Yes, this band plays the music of THAT band — the one that had Don Henley, Glenn Frey and others singing about taking it easy, taking it to the limit and feeling already gone.
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Eagle Eyes was officially launched on the last day of 2015 at a gig in Lake Cowichan, where Gunderson lives.
“It was a New Year’s Eve gig, just before Glenn Frey passed,” he recalled. “I remember it because we’d just finished our first show and then a couple weeks later we heard the news (about Frey’s death, on Jan. 18, 2016).
“I sing his parts, right, and it was just a great shock. So many of the greats are leaving us, and I really identified with him, of course. I was a huge fan – I am a huge fan.”
Gunderson is joined in Eagle Eyes by longtime music-playing pals Jason Dunajski on acoustic guitar, Greg Murray on drums and Ray Harvey — best known for his work in ’80s metal band Kick Axe — on lead guitar.
This Saturday night (Feb. 3), they play Donegal’s pub in Surrey before returning to White Rock’s Blue Frog Studios for a two-nighter on March 23-24.
The history of Eagle Eyes can be traced back to the year the real-deal band released its “comeback” album, Hell Freezes Over.
“When I met Jay (Dunajski) in 1994, we started writing and recording with two of our other friends, and then we decided to do an Eagles tribute way back then,” Gunderson explained. “We started out by doing that, to get gigs, but then it morphed into just a cover band, just on the road. It wasn’t until around 2015 when Jay said we need to revisit that, because the tribute thing was taking off, the retro thing, too, and we just decided to pursue that.”
Getting Harvey to join the band was key, Gunderson said.
“I’d been playing with Jay and Greg as a three-piece for seven or eight years,” he explained. “I’d been playing with Ray, too, in another three-piece, and we thought if we could get Ray on board with this (Eagle Eyes), wouldn’t that be awesome. We didn’t think he’d have time, with his schedule with Kick Axe, all that, and everybody wants to play with Ray because everybody loves Ray, and he’s just so good. But he said yes to us, and that was awesome, here we go. We needed that fourth key player to get it off the ground. The fact that he’s a huge Joe Walsh fan and has studied his music when he was a kid, it was perfect.”
Eagle Eyes has begun playing larger and more diverse venues, including some in the U.S., as one of 18 tribute bands on the Mur-Man Productions roster, which includes Barracuda (the music of Heart), The Hip Show (Tragically Hip), OC/DC (AC/DC) and Supernatural (Santana).
Last July, Eagle Eyes played White Rock’s Concerts on the Pier series and made the most of a warm evening on the waterfront.
“That was one of the bigger crowds we played to so far, and we were just grinning like Cheshire cats that night because it was just so good,” Gunderson said. “And it makes it easier to resonate, too, when you get such a nice, warm feedback. We’re fortunate, because with Eagles fans, those people are warm, you know what I mean? As soon as they hear the song and lock in, you know it, and we’re just taking advantage of being able to play those great songs.”
Eagle Eyes is online at eagleeyestribute.rocks.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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