Legendary country-rock troubadour brings stories, bit of opera to Rialto

The first song singer-songwriter JD Souther learned to sing was not a folk song or a country rocker.

It was a famous aria from Puccini’s opera “Turandot.”

“The first song I ever learned when I was a little kid was ‘Nessun Dorma’,” said Souther, who grew up listening to his grandmother, a soprano, sing opera. “I love opera.”

Which explains the 72-year-old So. Cal. country-rock songwriter/troubadour’s latest project. Souther, who is performing a solo acoustic show at the Rialto Theatre on Thursday, July 19, is working with the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, singer-songwriter Josh Ritter and others on an opera.

Half of the album is already recorded and most of it is written, he said during a late June phone call from home in Nashville.

“It’s an odd group of people but it’s certainly sounding great,” he said.

So can we expect to see it staged?

One thing at a time, he cautioned.

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“That’s Bob’s intention. That’s how they presented it to me,” he added.

Souther said the group is most productive when they are all in the studio, which is rare as the artists hit the road for summer tours.

Souther’s tour includes four Arizona shows — one in Prescott, one in Tucson and two at Phoenix’s Musical Instrument Museum.

“I like that part of Arizona. Phoenix? Ugh. Golf courses and heat is all I know about Phoenix,” said Souther, who played the Tucson Jazz Festival two years ago. “But Tucson is wonderful. The desert is beautiful there. The mountains are close. The food is great. I have friends there.”

His last show here was with his jazz trio of what he described as insanely good players. At the Rialto, it’s just him and a guitar, telling stories and singing songs from his deep catalogue that includes hits he wrote — several with his buddy Glenn Frey — for the Eagles (“Best of My Love,” “Victim of Love,” “Heartache Tonight,” “New Kid in Town,” “How Long”). He also wrote for Linda Ronstadt (“Faithless Love,” “White Rhythm and Blues”), who he dated at one point and with whom he recorded a couple duets (“Hasten Down the Wind,” “Prisoner in Disguise,” “Sometimes You Can’t Win,” “Hearts Against the Wind”). He also has some notable solo hits including “You’re Only Lonely” and “Her Town Too,” which he recorded with Jackson Browne.

“I’m never sure which way its going to go. I don’t know what my setlist is, I just have bullet points,” he said. “I’ve gotten to where I really like the pace of it. I think I’ve sort of, deliberately or not, modeled it on seeing Hal Holbrook doing ‘Mark Twain Tonight,’ the great one-man show for like 20 years. I pace it like a storytelling evening. It just happens to have a lot of songs on it. I’ve got used to not having a band. I miss those great players from a purely musical selfish point of view. But the audience reaction from me being there by myself, telling stories and stuff, people seem to like it better, which kind of blows my mind a little bit.”

Stories include anecdotes of working with everyone from the Eagles, Stevie Nicks and Ronstadt to James Taylor, Don Henley and Frey.

“I don’t give anything away but I bring people into those situations. They are mostly really enjoyable situations,” Souther said. “The people I made music with when I started, I was just lucky that so many great people who became great friends and great musicians. Aside from a few incredible blowups between Frey and Henley and I, almost any story I tell from making music in the past is a pretty happy story. I’m not by nature a collaborator, so the people I collaborated with I wouldn’t have done so if they weren’t really nice.”