Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons - Archives Vol. 1: Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969
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Free Music Notes for Archives Vol. 1: Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969
Free Music Review: The music is great, but the packaging's another story
Hit: 4 Stars
If you're a fan of Gram Parsons and/or The Flying Burrito Brothers, this 2-CD set is a must. However, as some previous reviewers have already stated, the packaging leaves a lot to be desired. Getting the CD's out of this package is like pulling teeth. Whoever designed this package needed a check-up from the neck up. And the liner notes by Dave Prinz are a little on the excessive and fanatical side. He sounds like he was really overcome with emotion while he was writing the liner notes. Basically, he sounds ridiculous. But the music is absolutely wonderful.Free Music Review: art...or artifact?
Hit: 4 Stars
First, this is not a "concert recording," per se. It's the monitor mix -- what the onstage performers heard -- rather than the "house mix" that those lucky enough to be in the audience heard. A monitor mix is mainly for the benefit of the vocalists. So mostly what you hear here are the vocals. Which are AWESOME, no doubt about it. (As is Sneaky Pete, parentheses notwithstanding.) Well worth exploring, especially by musicians. But if you want to hear the Burritos for real (and you do), get the studio stuff.Free Music Review: Gotta love it
Hit: 4 Stars
You already know how significant Gram and the Burritos are, so we'll cut to the chase: these are rare, vintage Burritos concerts that you're going to need to have. The fact that they exist and are being released is itself a small miracle. The sound is ok, the harmonies wander a bit, Gram's voice it here in all it quavering glory, but it's still essential. A welcome and exciting recording.Free Music Review: Why is it Entitled "Gram Parsons with the Flying Burrito Brothers"?
Hit: 3 Stars
I don't recall Eagles albums being called: "Don Henley with the Eagles" even though angst in my pants Henley did until recently about 75-80% of lead vocals on Eagles recordings.
So why is this album called either the Gram Parsons archive or "Gram Parsons with the Flying Burrito Brothers"? The Burritos were a band, period. Parsons had a partner who was just as creative if not in the forefront then as he later would be in the Desert Rose Band. I'm talking about Chris Hillman. Indeed both Hillman and the late Michael Clarke were probably better known at the time of the recording than Parsons was, having both been founding members of the Byrds (and the original band's rhythm section).
There was also steel guitarist Sneaky Pete Kleinow, who sadly passed away recently from Alzheimer's - and bassist Chris Ethridge completing the lineup - shortly after this recording Ethridge left, Hillman switched to bass, and Bernie Leadon came on board on guitar and vocals.
In short this was band that had two charismatic singer-songwriters, although Parsons did the lion's share of the lead vocals, a crack steel guitar ace, a very competent drummer, and an experienced session bassist. It wasn't just Gram Parsons backed by a street band. Indeed, it was Hillman who actually wrote most of "Sin City" (Parsons was asleep at the time the gist of it was written).
Because Parsons passed on from a drug overdose and is now regarded as an icon - especially in Alt-Country circles, people tend to dismiss the contributions of Hillman and the rest of the Burritos. But it was a band -not a solo singer's thing.
Most of the material here are covers of well-known Country songs and a few soul hits, the result of Parson's passion in bringing Country, Rock, and Soul musics together. They include "She Once Lived Here", a relatively unknown George Jones song that was never recorded by Parsons but should have been - as all of his heartbreaking soul comes together in that song (for perspective listen to the version that Old Medicine Crow's Willie Watson did on Sneaky's Burrito Deluxe debut some years back - and then listen to this one). Also here are "You're Still On My Mind", recording by Parsons on the Byrds' "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" album - but an equally potent version was later sung by Hillman during his stint with Manassas; "Close Down the Honky Tonks" - a straightforward Country Rocker quite unlike the Tex-Mex flavor of Dwight Yoakam's more recent recording of the same song, "Long Black Limousine" - "Sin City" of course, and a mixture of other covers and Burrito classics.
I only wish that people - authors, record labels, "hanger-on" types would stop this Gram Parson idol worshipping routine. Fact of the matter is, the guy throw his life away, a life filled with so many reasons to live and so much creativity, to die a sordid needle induced death in the California desert. Fact of the matter is that too, his musical "brother" enjoyed the great success that Parsons was never disciplined enough to seek on his own - with Hillman's very own Desert Rose Band - which, as some suggested was the Flying Burrito Brothers 20 years later, but more structured, more creative, and much more musically wonderful.
Great music - but remember, if this guy had cleaned himself up and if Hillman was the singer he later was - he already was developing into quite a songwriter - these guys could have given the Eagles a run for their money. It doesn't have to, nor does it need to be called the "Gram Parsons Archive" or "Gram Parsons with the Flying Burrito Brothers" - It WAS the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Worth hearing from the perspective of the developing, if not the maturity, of California Country Rock.
Free Music Review: Only for the collector
Hit: 3 Stars
Poor quality sound makes for a so so listening experience. I would only suggest it for the hard core Gram fan. People just getting to know him would do much better with just about all of the other recordings. I felt like it was a bit of a waste myself.