We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
By 1971-72 the genre of country-rock was in full swing. There wer any number of bands working the borderline between twangy country and a rock beat. It had all started years earlier mostly in Southern California when the Byrds released ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo” and a hippie from Florida joined up with a bluegrass picker and formed The Flying Burrito Brothers. Gram Parsons & Chris Hillman (along with Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Chris Ethridge) were at the forefront of that Southern California sound even though they never earned the acclaim or the record sales of other groups of the time.
By late 1971 the original Burritos were down to Hillman and a bunch of replacement parts that included Rick Roberts (who would later re-form the group and also front Firefall who had a bunch of 70’s hits), former Byrd drummer Michael Clarke, pedal steel ace Al Perkins and Kenny Wertz on guitar and banjo.
They went on one last tour (before Hillman and Perkins would join up with Stephen Stills to form Manassas) and a live album, “The Last of the Red Hot Burritos”, was released in spring of 1972.
It’s actually, pretty good. You get some Burrito originals including “Devil In Disguise” and “Hot Burrito #2. Some tasty covers including “Six Days On The Road” and a Wilson Pickett-Steve Cropper song called “Don’t Fight It”. Plus a bluegrass section featuring the fiddle of guest Byron Berline. They do “Dixie Breakdown”, “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” and “Orange Blossom Special”.
Roberts would re-form the band later but, really the Burritos were Parsons, Hillman and Kleinow. That this only has one of them, doesnt mean it’s not worth a listen.
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