Eagles Fly with Eden

08/22/2007 10:04 AM, E! Online
Josh Grossberg

The Eagles ready to unload their first new album of peaceful, easy tunes in nearly three decades.

Dubbed Long Road Out of Eden, the disc will be released by Universal Music Group internationally on Oct. 29 and hit stores in North America a day later. It marks the Eagles first studio effort 1979's multiplatinum-selling The Long Run and comes 13 years after the notoriously fractious band reunited for the Hell Freezes Over tour and album.

The quintet has signed an exclusive deal with Wal-Mart to sell Eden at the big box's superstores and Sam's Club outlets nationwide. Fans can also pre-order a digital version for $10.88 or a CD format for $11.88 via walmart.com, samsclub.com and eaglesband.com.

The first single, "How Long," a cover of a 1972 tune by  singer-songwriter and longtime Eagles cohort J.D. Souther, was shipped to radio stations last week and a video has already debuted online.

And while fans are used to paying hundreds of dollars for prime seats at an Eagles concert, the new release is a relative bargain.

Eden is essentially a double album comprised of 20 tracks, a handful of which were written by the band's guitar wizard Joe Walsh which he says are outright rockers.

Although Eden is the first studio release in ages, it's not the first new material the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band has laid down in the studio since getting back together.

The1994 Hell Freezes Over collection featured four new tunes, two of which became Top 40 hits; 2003's greatest-hits compilation, The Very Best of the Eagles, included the Sept. 11-themed "Hole in the World"; and last year's special-edition The Eagles Farewell Tour I: Live in Melbourne DVD was accompanied by a  CD with three new songs.

The Eagles are planning to take to the road in support of Eden in the coming months. But they'll first unveil the cuts with a six night stand at Los Angeles' new Nokia Theater L.A. Live, two dates of which will be with the Dixie Chicks, kicking off Oct. 18.