It’s been a while since I posted a Music Fridays item, so let’s correct that shall we? The Flying Burrito Brothers featured ex Byrds members Chris Hillman & Gram Parsons, one of the first groups of long hairs (hippies/rock musicians) to embark on playing Country Music. The Flying Burrito Brothers continued with the country rock direction as taken on The Byrds ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’ LP. Signing with Herb Alpert’s A&M label, The Flying Burrito Brothers issued the overlooked ‘The Gilded Palace of Sin‘ (1969) which flopped upon release. After releasing a 2nd LP ‘Burrito Deluxe’ (1970) with minimal involvment from Parsons, who soon departed the Burrito Brothers undertaking a short solo career. During this period Parsons discoveredEmmylou Harris (who served as his backing singer) and later died of a drug overdose at the age of 26 in a hotel room in Joshua Tree, California in 1973. The Flying Burrito Brothers continued on in several incarnations, recording sporadically until the late 90′s. Despite the lack of record sales, this era is credited with influencing the Alt-Country movement, and (as much as it pains me to write this) millions of record sales for The Eagles (Burrito member Bernie Leadonwas also an early member of The Eagles). This track ‘Sin City’, is taken from the ‘The Gilded Palace of Sin’ debut, which has a distinct Louvin Brothers like harmony from Hillman & Parsons.
Craig Edwards
