Sain and Nigar Alizada run a family-owned translation agency in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a small country on the shore of the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest lake. When they joined as Charter Members of the Linden Heritage Foundation, we asked them why they were supporting a Foundation nearly 7,000 miles from their hometown. Sain agreed to allow us to publish his response.
“We came of age with the Eagles. I was only 14 and just beginning to discover music, still unsure of which genre or artist I liked, when the Hell Freezes Over album was released. The moment I heard the acoustic introduction to Hotel California, I was totally blown away. I loved every song. The music was so different from everything I had heard before. It was even before the Internet, at least in our part of the world, so it took me some time to figure out who the band members were, how many albums they had in their catalogue, who played what, and who was behind those heavenly harmonies. I was discovering their albums one by one. It was an unforgettable experience because I could not easily find them in Azerbaijan in those days. I was too young to have a credit card and order anything online. Each album was a challenge to get; and the harder it was to get them, the more I could appreciate it. The more I listened, the more I liked the Eagles. The power of their music and songs was just irresistible. It was pure magic.”
“After so many years, the band has become a huge part of my life. I have a huge collection of their memorabilia and records, which is big enough to be used as a museum. I have 27 different versions of the Hotel California LP album alone – different pressings from different countries. I attended their first concert in Hamburg, Germany in 2006. Nigar and I have attended 28 Eagles concerts around the globe. In May of 2015, we attended a solo performance by Don at the Cherokee Creek Music Festival, Cherokee, Texas and three concerts in his Cass County Tour in the fall.”
“Baku may be ‘Far, Far Away’ from Linden but we hold a common desire to maintain our rich culture and heritage. When we learned of the Linden Heritage Foundation, we felt a need to join to do our part. We are proud to be able to contribute to maintaining the culture and heritage of Mr. Henley’s hometown. We hope this will also help increase awareness about our home country, Azerbaijan, in your part of Texas.”
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