Jack Tempchin

Our guest next week on Art of the Song is California singer/songwriter Jack Tempchin. Perhaps best known for his collaborative work with the late Glenn Frey of the Eagles, Jack wrote their classic Peaceful Easy Feeling, and co-wrote most of the songs on Glenn’s solo album. He also wrote Slow Dancing (Swayin’ to the Music) which was a top ten hit for Johnny Rivers. In the second half of the show we’ll hear a clip from our 2012 interview with the late Glenn Frey where he talks about the process of co-writing with his friend Jack Tempchin, and others.

As a harmonica playing teenager growing up in Southern California, Tempchin wrote his first songs at the beach. He and a guitarist friend would create lyrics as they jammed. Under the spell of folk music and blues, Tempchin took up guitar and began writing songs in earnest. Soon he graduated from the audience at coffeehouses to the stage and became part of the scene at West Hollywood’s famed songwriters’ Mecca the Troubadour.

Tempchin was soon one of the regulars at the Troubadour alongside Glenn Frey, Tom Waits, Randy Newman, J.D. Souther, Hoyt Axton and other emerging star songwriters of the early ‘70S. He also became friends with many of the already established young musicians who were living in Los Angeles’s counterculture haven Laurel Canyon and frequented the Troubadour, including the Byrds, Joni Mitchell and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Together these writers and performers would define a roots music inspired style that became known as the Laurel Canyon Sound or California Rock.

New bands were formed and record deals signed almost weekly in that creative melting pot, and when the Eagles released their debut album in 1972, it included Tempchin’s “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” The song reached number 22 on Billboard’s Top 40 Singles chart and earned its writer a place in rock history. “Peaceful Easy Feeling” has since become one of the most popular tunes in the band’s historic repertoire – along with Tempchin’s 1974 follow-up “Already Gone” – and even gained cult movie fame when it was used in the notorious taxi scene in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski.

As a member of the Funky Kings, Tempchin was signed to Arista Records by fellow music business legend Clive Davis. The group’s 1976 debut album featured “Slow Dancin’ (Swayin’ To the Music),” which became a top 10 pop hit for Johnny Rivers and a top 10 country hit for Johnny Duncan a year later. The song’s genre jumping appeal spoke volumes about Tempchin’s writing. To this day his work has a broad appeal and distinctly human touch that allows him to reach all types of listeners.

Jack Tempchin has recently released a ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling Cabernet Sauvignon’ and a ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling Chardonnay’ in association with three-time California State Winery of the Year Award winner South Coast Winery. He’ll continue to perform live and autograph bottles of his ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ wines at Whole Foods, Sprouts and Costcos in Southern California.

Tempchin’s also interested in sharing his passion with other songwriters and is simultaneously unveiling his new songwriter video series called Go Write One at Patreon.com. “In these videos I talk about the spiritual and magical aspects of songwriting – not the techniques – because I’m trying to get people excited to ‘go write one,’ he explains.


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