The Flying Burrito Brothers: The Flying Burrito Brothers Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

"At his peak," Chris Hillman once told me about Gram Parsons, his country-rock soulmate in the Byrds and then the Burritos, "he was focused, disciplined, sober." It was a short peak - a handful of LPs and tours between 1968 and Parsons' death in 1973. This deluxe two-CD set is a vital addition to that precious few, a pair of shows that capture Parsons' dream - a new American union of R&B, psychedelic rebellion and rock's country roots - in its first spangled-suit flush, right after the release of the band's debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin. These performances also prove that the original Burritos were a great band, with natural-born harmonizers in Parsons and Hillman and a broad, bold covers repertoire that at these shows included Little Richard, Delaney and Bonnie, and early Willie Nelson. Sneaky Pete Kleinow's fuzz-rimmed pedal steel guitar skids in "Hot Burrito #2" at slicing-raga angles, and Parsons sings throughout with a natural heartbreak and drawling resilience that proves something else Hillman said of him: "He knew this music - and he could sing it."