Flying Burrito Brothers: Hot Burritos! (Anthology 1969-72) --- Ink Blot Magazine

Flying Burrito Brothers: Hot Burritos! Anthology

at a glance...

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Formed: 1969

Members:
Gram Parsons -vocals, guitar, keyboards
Chris Hillman -vocals, guitar, bass, mandolin
Chris Ethridge -bass, piano
"Sneeky" Pete Kleinow -pedal steel guitar
Rick Roberts -vocals, guitar
Bernie Leadon -guitar, dobro, banjo
Michael Clarke, Jon Corneal, Eddie Holt, Popeye Phillips, Sam Goldstein -drums
Clarence Williams, Bob Gibson, Mike Deasy -guitar
Leon Russell, Earl Ball -piano
Byron Berline -fiddle
Leopoldo C. Carbajal -accordion
Frank Blanco -percussion
Tommy Johnson -tuba
Buddy Childers -cornet, flugelhorn
Roger Bush -acoustic bass
Kenny Wertz -guitar, banjo
Al Perkins -pedal steel
Jad and David Fair -vocals, drums and guitar

Bands in the family :
The Byrds, The Desert Rose Band, The International Submarine Band, Chris Hillman, Gram Parsons

Notes:
Gram Parsons is an enigmatic figure whose impact on American music doesn't quite square with his personal life. He was a discipline-challenged trust-fund junkie with an unerring nose for the purest essence of feeling within country and western, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll, and the genius to put them all together at a time when quite a bit more than color and hair length separated each genre's audience. Parsons and Chris Hillman, who had met during Parsons' brief stint with the Byrds, founded the band in 1969, but by the time the band folded in 1972 Parsons was long gone.

Flying Burrito Brothers
Hot Burritos! (Anthology 1969-72)
A & M , Released 2000

The Flying Burrito Brothers could be likened to the Velvet Underground; they didn't find much of an audience while they were around, but since they broke up they've attained iconic status.

A casual listen to their music makes plain the reasons for both circumstances. The Burrito's mixture of country and western themes and sounds, mischievous rock 'n' roll spirit, and deep soul sentiments sounded like a divine inspiration, and they navigated this virgin territory like they had the map memorized. But the integration envisioned in songs like "Hippie Boy" and "Dark End of the Street" was hardly a forgone conclusion as the '60s ticked over into the '70s.

This two CD collection rounds up all of the band's first three albums plus the best of their rest. The Gilded Palace of Sin, their first bow, is a brilliant mix of smooth singing and writing by founders Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman with "Sneeky" Pete Kleinow's loud, distorted pedal steel guitar. Parsons stuck around for one more album, Burrito Deluxe, which includes the definitive performance of his party pals' "Wild Horses."

Commercial pressures left their mark on the album -- gone are Kleinow's fuzz tones and the Aretha Franklin-worthy organ fills -- but the writing still scans everything that was great about American song-craft in the middle of the twentieth century through a pair of cowboy shades. The anthology's second disc proves that even after Parsons left the Brothers still had plenty of life left, especially on a gorgeous remake of the Byrds' "Tried So Hard."

If you like The Flying Burrito Brothers, check out:
The Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Gram Parsons GP
Gram Parsons Grievous Angel
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci Spanish Dance Troupe
Bob Dylan Desire
Neil Young Comes A Time
The Beatles The Beatles
Teenage Fanclub Songs From Northern Britain
Van Morrison Tupelo Honey
The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed
Uncle Tupleo Anodyne
Wilco A.M.
The Jayhawks Smile
Elvis Costello King Of America

-- Bill Meyer

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