The Flying Burrito Brothers

An outrageous character said to have partied himself to death at the age of 26, Gram Parsons nevertheless packed a lot of music into his short life which had longstanding ramifications as country music broke out of its conservative straitjacket into rock. The most far-reaching of these was the Flying Burrito Brothers, a hybrid creating what Parsons described as "cosmic American music" which he formed with Chris Hillman after they'd recorded the classic Byrds album Sweetheart Of The Rodeo together. They formed the original Burritos line-up with pianist/bassist Chris Ethridge and pedal steel guitarist Sneaky Pete Kleinow, recording their first album of mostly self-written songs The Gilded Palace Of Sin in 1969 without a regular drummer. Its fusion of folk and country, blues, gospel and rock caused major waves and made people look anew at country music. Kleinow in particular created a stir playing pedal steel guitar with a fuzzbox, which gave them a psychedelic sound. It wasn't a hit but had widespread influence for many years to come, while the Burritos went through many line-up changes in a short space of time. Parsons and Hillman fell out while making second album Burrito Deluxe (1970) and Parsons quit soon after its release. Bernie Leadon came in to play on their self-titled third album before leaving soon after to form The Eagles and by the time they released their live album Last Of The Red Hot Burritos in 1972, Hillman was the only original member. When he quit too, the band's days were numbered. Various other line-ups tried to revive the group, releasing the albums Flying Again (1975) and Airborne (1976) and they continued to command a live following into the 1990s.

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