Jason Manning said he and other members of 7 Bridges, an Eagles Tribute Band, met in Nashville, and like the multiple genre-feel of Eagles’ music.

“Really the glue is Nashville,” Manning said. “There is definitely no shortage of great musicians, players, singers and people that want to become a solo artist. The old joke in Nashville is, ‘How do you get a musician off your porch in Nashville? You pay for the pizza,’ and that’s making light of it, but it is true. There are thousands and thousands of people there trying to make it. It’s this great melting pot of music.”

Manning said that they chose the Eagles to cover because of their multi-genre feel.

“It is truly just American music,” Manning said. “It appeals to so many different age groups because it has a little bit of country, rock and roll and a little bit of that disco feel. Also, there are multiple lead singers, so with five guys that sing lead, and it really keeps the audience interested because it spreads things out and keeps things different. I mean, when you go and see a group that only has one lead singer, it is the same voice for about 90 minutes. With the Eagles show it is different the entire time.”

He said that the usual age group for the show is 8 to 80.

“Even though some of the people that show up don’t know the Eagles when they come up to the merchandise table after the show they are surprised,” Manning said. “Everyone says that they recognize 90 percent of the songs played and they didn’t even know that it was the Eagles who sang the song. They just knew that they liked the song and that they heard it on the radio and that is what is so amazing about the Eagles. They became big right whenever the radio became big, so what would happen is that they could be recording and not even be recording anymore and their songs would be on the radio.”

Manning said he likes playing smaller communities because he believes it’s important to support smaller venues.

“I grew up in a town of 20,000,” Manning said. “So growing up, we had to travel to like Dallas or Fort Worth to get some decent entertainment. So I think it is great to perform in smaller towns so we can support local performing arts centers.”

Manning began honing his musical talent when he was 4 years old.

“I think my mom more than anyone realized that I was actually playing songs on the piano,” Manning said. “So, she put me in piano lessons and I took them for 10 years and trained classically. I eventually gravitated towards playing by ear. I wanted to play Billy Joel, Elton John and the Eagles, not Beethoven or Mozart.”

When Manning enrolled in college, he picked up a guitar and began to play professionally, touring around the Texas college circuit.

“A piano is pretty hard to get into your dorm room,” Manning said. “So I got my hands on a guitar and that is when I started playing professionally in my sophomore and junior year of college. By the time I was done at college I had six majors and they just told me to get out of there.”

More than anything, Manning said he hopes that the local audience is entertained when the band is her next week.

“We want them to leave thinking, ‘Man, these guys really wanted to be here and enjoy what they are doing,’ “ Manning said. “Even though some days we have to drive about 700 miles a day to get to a show, we enjoy what we do and we hope that comes across. We want people to be able to close their eyes and although they know that they are not listening to the Eagles, they think they are if they close their eyes.”

The Covington Arts Council’s 2019 season ends on Friday, May 17, with 7 Bridges, the ultimate Eagles tribute band, this year’s “audience choice.”

“We thought it was a little too soon to have them again, but they were first and second place in our audience choice ballots,” CAC Executive Director Paula Harr said. “There was no question about it.”

All CAC performances are at 7 p.m. in the Dixon Center for the Performing Arts on the Andalusia campus of LBW Community College.

Individual performance tickets are available at Harold’s and at The Star-News, and are $18 in advance. Individual tickets are  $20 at the door.