Monday, December 29, 2008

Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman & Burritos

It must have been 20 years ago that I heard a song on The Bluegrass Sound radio program called "Barbara Allen." It was incredible. Back then we would pop a cassette in the boom box and occasionally record a show or song. "Barbara Allen" got recorded, and played back at least a thousand times. It was only in the last couple of years that I figured out who sang & played that rendition - it was The Hillmen. As far as I can tell, The Hillmen only recorded one album. I own it and I love it.
It's always amazing to me how small the musical world is. Turns out Chris Hillman is the leader of that old group. Hillman is a legend in American music for a variety of reasons, most notably as leader of The Byrds, but also because of his work with Gram Parsons in The Flying Burrito Brothers. These guys wrote and recorded Christine's Tune (aka Devil In Disguise), Sin City & many other greats. Gram also played briefly in The Byrds. I've been listening to FBB quite a bit lately. It's great, and fun to listen to something that was pretty raw and innovative at the time it was recorded. Check it out.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Musical updates & such

Been a while since my last post. I went on a trip to Thailand in November. It was awesome! The main problem with that country is its lack of bluegrass music. (Forget the political turmoil that had me stuck there until Dec 5!) Otherwise, it's a great place, especially the people, and the food, and the history. I did run across a Thai dude singing American country music in a pub. He did a good job. Check out the clip on YouTube.

I continue to be pretty obsessed with bluegrass music. Been listening to Tony Rice a lot. I also picked up a Christmas album from Hungry Monks called All Thru the Night. It's an Irish thing. I love it.

I've had this idea in my head for a while now that I need to record some of the songs I've written over the years. This week I got together with Walter Biffle and Bob Sachs. They helped me tighten up an arrangement of a song called "Caroline." It's fun working on music with those guys - real professionals. We still have some work to do, but the first draft came out pretty good. Let me know what you think. I'm thinking of calling the recording Big Timber Project. Let me know what you think of that as well. Thanks!