Back in the late ’60s and early ’70s, a number of artists started to experiment with cross-pollinating rock and country. Ultimately, the most successful in terms of sales and influence was the Eagles. A step down on the popularity scale – and kind of a feeder band for the Eagles – was Poco.
Another outfit which never made it as big as the others but was both hugely influential and featured star players was the Flying Burrito Brothers. Formed in 1968 by former Byrds Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, and soon joined by fellow ex-Byrds member Michael Clarke, the band has included a dizzying array of musicians over the years: future Poco and Eagles member Bernie Leadon, Byrds co-founder Gene Clark, bluegrass wiz Byron Berline, Firefall founder and singer Rick Roberts, and nearly 50 others.
Like the Eagles and Poco, the group – now simply known as the Burrito Brothers – is still going, albeit with a completely different cast than the original quintet of Parsons, Hillman, Chris Ethridge, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Eddie Hoh. (Fun fact: The original band was a spinoff from Parsons’ International Submarine Band but Parsons wasn’t in it; he later claimed the name for himself.) Today, the lineup is helmed by lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Chris P. James with pedal steel guitarist Tony Paoletta, drummer Peter Young and bassist/guitarist Bob Hatter.
So, how does The Notorious Burrito Brothers fit in alongside the nearly three dozen other albums by the variously named Burritos? Just fine, thank you. With a bit of twang here and there, an easy loping beat and wry lyrics (“Talkin’ to the old man down the road, swappin’ stories; He’s on a first-name basis with God, calls him Lordy” from “Do Right Man”), The Notorious Burrito Brothers carries on the tradition while still maintaining relevance and a contemporary sonic sheen.
With a history of more than half a century, it’s inevitable that the record will be compared with past versions of the Flying Burrito Brothers. That’s fine with James and his bandmates, as long as the listener realizes that the band has always been ever-evolving, with hardly any two albums featuring the same personnel.
The sound and the easygoing nature of most of the material are comparable with what’s gone before. In fact, in places The Notorious Burrito Brothers harkens back directly to the band’s storied past. The lead vocalist on the aforementioned “Do Right Man” is not James; it’s former Burritos member Ronnie Guilbeau. He played in the band in the 1980s and early ’90s, alongside his father Gib. Ronnie Guilbeau penned the tune with James and Rick Lonow as a response to the Burritos’ classic “Do Right Woman.” Lonow is also a Burrito alum, and currently a member of – wait for it – Poco.
Other tracks feature links to the Flying Burrito Brothers’ storied past: the bluegrass number “Gravity” was penned by James and Carlton Moody, who led the version of the band in the late 1990s dubbed Burrito Deluxe. “Sometimes You Just Can’t Win” is taken from an original lyric by Fred Neil found in Gram Parsons’s handwriting.
Other tracks include “Wheels of Fire,” which boasts a cornucopia of references in its lyrics: literary giants J.R.R. Tolkien and Algernon Blackwood and musicians including the Doors, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, James Taylor, Neil Young, even the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Plus the title brings to mind songs by the Band and the Byrds, not to mention Cream’s classic album. “Acrostic” spells out a plea to be heard in the first letter of every line, but it’s more than a novelty: This is a mournful plea to open your heart and keep up the fight.
Most of The Notorious Burrito Brothers is comfortable if not earth-shattering, though the nearly 10-minute “Love Is a River” comes close. It’s a suite-like, proggish take on the country-rock sound, with sitar sounds alongside pedal steel. That it works and that it fits with the rest of the album is testament enough to the prowess of the current iteration of the Burrito Brothers.
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