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Note: The Eagles will perform at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Alpharetta, Ga., on Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday.

Released in June of 1972, the Eagles’ self-titled debut album contained all the stylistic ingredients that would subsequently course through the band’s work. Injecting a cowboy spirit into the southern California sound, the group aimed to keep one foot in country music and the other in rock ‘n’ roll, while maintaining a radio-friendly vibe.

What’s most striking about the album is how assured the band sounds, right out of the chute. “Take It Easy,” the Jackson Browne-Glenn Frey co-penned opening track, still brims with an open-road optimism that even classic rock overkill can’t diminish. Likewise, the rolling-thunder intro, Native American-inspired riffage, and vaguely sinister themes in “Witchy Woman” foreshadow the dark overtones that would surface later in songs such as “Hotel California.”

And then there are the ballads. Some people might dismiss the soft-rock lyricism of “Peaceful Easy Feeling” as so much schlock, but it’s hard not to be moved by the song’s breezy melody and warm harmonies. Likewise, Glenn Frey has never sounded more earnestly tender than he does on the teardrop ballad, “Most of Us Are Sad.”

“Eagles” isn’t perfect. At its worst — as on the banjo-fueled “Earlybird” — the group smoothes the edges of its country-rock sound so thoroughly that what’s left comes off as fluffy and bland. But such moments are few, and to harp on them is to quibble. Bottom line is, even at this early stage, the Eagles were already hovering near the top of their craft.