Ex-Eagle Tries For TakeOff
Calgary Sun, 1987

Timothy B. Schmit is one former Eagle who’s having trouble getting his solo career airborne.

His first solo album, Playin it Cool, disappeared from the chars soon after its release in 1984. Consequently, Schmit was dropped from his record label, Elektra.

But now he’s back with a new label, MCA, and his second solo outing, Timothy B. However, initial response to the new album has been poor--and this has Schmit worrying about his future.

“It’s really tense right now for me,” admits Schmit in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, California.

“The album is sliding incredibly down the charts so the only thing that can pull the album up is the success of the next single.

Timothy B. isn’t what one would expect from this former member of The Eagles and Poco, two commercial country-rock ‘70s bands.

The majority of the new recording is synthetically produced with Bruce Gaitsch (co-writer of the Madonna hit, La Isla Bonita) playing most of the instruments.

Schmit believes his short stay wit the Eagles (he preformed on the band’s last two albums, The Long Run and Eagles Live) did not prepare him for a solo career.

“Being in the Eagles was easy for me,” he says. “In a way, it made me kind of lazy...It was a gig handed to me on a silver platter.

“I think being a solo artist is better for my psyche. It forces me to work because everything rests on my shoulders. An I like that. I like challenge. I like danger.”

But he doesn’t like the charts right now. He hopes the next single will improve Timothy B’s fortune.

The new single  is fittingly titled Don’t Give Up.

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