New Don Heffington Tribute Album Features Fiona Apple, Jackson Browne, Victoria Williams, & More.
The late drummer and singer-songwriter Don Heffington was a founding member of the LA country-rock band Lone Justice. He also played in the bluegrass group Watkins Family Hour, and he toured and recorded with artists like Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Lowell George, Lucinda Williams, and Fiona Apple. In 2021, Heffington died of leukemia at the age of 70. The reunited Lone Justice recently announced plans to release Viva Lone Justice, their first album in 38 years, and it includes contributions that Heffington recorded before he died. Now, many of Heffington’s peers and admirers are taking part in a new compilation that pays tribute to the man.
This fall, we’re getting the tribute album Tonight I’ll Go Down Swingin’: A Tribute To Don Heffington. Heffington was known as a drummer, but the album collects covers of the songs that he wrote. Heffington’s collaborators Sheldon Gomberg and Sebastian Steinberg co-produced the album together, and it includes versions of songs that Heffington co-wrote with Tom Waits and Allen Ginsburg. It’s also got a couple of tracks that Heffington recorded: A cover of Porter Wagoner’s “Tonight’s I’ll Go Down Swingin’” and a duet of Van Morrison’s “Irish Heartbeat” that Heffington recorded with his daughter Laura.
Tonight I’ll Go Down Swingin’ includes Heffington covers from people like Fiona Apple, Victoria Williams, Dave Alvin, John C. Reilly, the Watkins Family Hour, Inara George, and Buddy Miller, among many others. It serves as a benefit for the Sweet Relief Musicians’ Fund. We know that Fiona Apple only does stuff like this when she feels like it, while Victoria Williams, the subject of the first Sweet Relief benefit comp, is mostly inactive these days. The LP’s first single is Jackson Browne’s take on “Everywhere I Look,” based on a demo that Heffington gave to Browne. Here’s what Browne says about it:
I knew Don from the Largo, playing with the Watkins Family Hour. His drumming was so amazingly solid and assured, and he had the combined strength and sensitivity to make that quiet stage and all those acoustic instruments work. Sometimes I would see him at the guitar-pulls at Benmont Tench’s house, sitting there with a snare drum between his knees, adding his rhythm and feel to the songwriters who were playing various guitars, Benmont on piano. I didn’t realize that he wrote songs until I heard his album Gloryland, and I was so taken by his originality. Eventually, I got to hear him do his own show, and again, was just knocked out by the songs, and that
Bakersfield Beatnik persona. There’s no accounting for why somebody becomes a songwriter. But I think of him as inhabiting the same Los Angeles as Warren Zevon, Lowell George, and Tom Waits. The breadth and depth of his songwriting are on display here in this loving tribute by his friends. He asked me to sing “Everywhere I Look.” The arrangement is based closely on the demo he gave me, with Sebastian Steinberg playing bass. For the guitar, I called on Greg Leisz, who played with Don and Sebastian in the Watkins Family Hour. Lots of people knew Don longer and better than I did. I’m so grateful for the times I got to play with him. I really miss him. He is, and always will be, an inspiration.
