Product Review

Forty years ago, former Byrds Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons released The Gilded Palace Of Sin, the debut album by their new band, The Flying Burrito Brothers. Desperados in sequined Nudie suits fired by a dream to pull rock music back from the psychedelic abyss and return it to its pure and simple country roots, The Flying Burrito Brothers were avatars of a whole new genre that still thrives. Although a connoisseurs choice from the off, that debut and the band's subsequent releases didn't sell too well, but The Flying Burrito Brothers have since transcended cult status to earn universal respect and admiration. Widely regarded as the original country-rock band, you can hear their influence in mainstream mid-70s country-rock (The Eagles, Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt) the current crop of Nashville country-pop (Alan Jackson and Brad Paisley), and the whole alt.country/Americana underground. Previously guarded about the group's history, Hillman offers an intimate portrait of his doomed bandmate Gram Parsons, and a colourfully detailed, deeply insightful, hard-hitting and personal account of one of contemporary music's most respected and innovative bands.