In May, the Eagles' Glenn Frey released his first solo album in nearly 20 years, the standards collection, After Hours. The set, which is the followup to Frey's last album, 1992's Strange Weather, features a string of American classics -- but stretches the "American Songbook" genre to include songs through the 1960's, including "Route 66," "I Wanna Be Around," "For Sentimental Reasons," Burt Bacharach & Hal David's "The Look Of Love" Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds closer, "Caroline, No."

We asked Frey what made him want to join the legion of artists going the standards route: "I wanted to make the kind of record that I would enjoy listening to. That I would put on if I were in a room with friends having a glass of wine, of if I was on a car trip with some people and we wanted to listen to some tunes, or if I was alone at my house just puttering around and wanted to have something on. This is the kind of record I would want to be listening to."

Although Frey has kept busy with Eagles tours and recordings sessions, we asked him why the two-decade wait between solo projects: "There hasn't been any time. I'd rather not fail at the husband/parent level. I feel that's the important thing that I'm doing right now. And I've got two kids off to college and I have a 10-year-old son and, y'know, I'm still doing stuff, so, y'know, it's a big life. It's busy and there hasn't been a lot of time."