Distinguished Los Angeles musician Don Heffington died from leukemia in 2021. The talented songwriter and session player is the subject of a star-studded tribute album due out October 18. Tonight I’ll Go Down Swingin’: A Tribute to Don Heffington features contributions from Jackson Browne, Fiona Apple, Buddy Miller, John C. Reilly, Dave Alvin, and Watkins Family Hour. Heffington was a drummer for Lone Justice in the mid-80s, and was a well respected musician in the Largo and roots-rock scenes of L.A. over the past thirty years. This tribute album was in the works when Heffington died, with the impressive list of contributors assembled by producers Sheldon Gomberg and Sebastian Steinberg.
Browne’s “Everywhere I Look” is the first track shared from the benefit album. “I knew Don from Largo, playing with the Watkins Family Hour,” Browne said. “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. There’s no accounting for why somebody becomes a songwriter. It’s such a mystery. But I think of him as inhabiting the same Los Angeles as Warren Zevon, Lowell George and Tom Waits.” (Variety)
