The Flying Burrito Brothers - Airborne (1976)

The Flying Burrito Brothers were a pioneering American country-rock band, founded in the late 60s.

A new incarnation of the Flying Burrito Brothers had emerged in 1975, and released the fantastic Flying Again album. However the record had been unfairly savaged by the critics and did not sell well, so bassist Chris Ethridge (originally a founding member of the group back in 1968) left for the second time, deciding that sticking with his session work was still a much better idea career-wise. He was replaced by Skip Battin, leading to the revised lineup of Gib Guilbeau (fiddle/guitar/vocals), Gene Parsons (drums/guitar/harmonica/vocals), Joel Scott Hill (lead guitar/vocals), Skip Battin (bass/vocals) and Sneaky Pete Kleinow (pedal steel guitar). Battin and Parsons had previously worked together as the rhythm section for the latter-day Byrds, and Battin had also recently been a member of the New Riders Of The Purple Sage. Kleinow was the only founding member of the group still involved.
Immediately after Battin joined, they started work on another album, and Airborne was released in 1976. By then country-rock was an established part of American popular music, thanks to commercially successful artists such as The Eagles and Linda Rondstadt, and hints of Eagles flavours can be heard on this album. The original songs mostly came from Guilbeau and Parsons, with a few contributions from Hill, and some covers including Ray Sharpe’s “Linda Lu” and John Prine’s “Quiet Man” (where Battin was given his first lead vocal spot with the group). Keyboards were provided by none other than Stevie Wonder, who was working in the same studio at the time of recording - he also gave the band his own composition “She’s A Sailor”. It also featured one of Guilbeau’s best-known songs, “Big Bayou”, which he had originally recorded whilst with Swampwater (it had also been recorded by both The Dillards and Ronnie Wood, and Rod Stewart released his own version at the same time as Airborne).
Like its predecessor, the album was mostly overlooked and sold badly, which is a great injustice. Nevertheless the band continued to persevere, and toured for many years through a confusion of lineup changes (live albums recorded at this time would surface many years later).

Flying Again (1975) <|> Live From Tokyo (1979)
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