The Flying Burrito Brothers

The Flying Burrito Brothers

The Flying Burrito Brothers are a country and country rock group from Los Angeles, formed in 1968. Their original lineup includes Chris Hillman on vocals and guitar, Gram Parsons on vocals and guitar, Chris Ethridge on piano and bass, and Sneaky Pete Kleinow on pedal steel guitar. The band is active from 1968 to 2000 and is associated with country rock, alt-country, rock and Americana.

Formation and early work

The group forms around Hillman and Parsons after their time in The Byrds, where they help create one of the first country-oriented rock albums, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. They build their early sound while working in a house in the San Fernando Valley known as “Burrito Manor”, and they wear custom country-western suits from Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors. Parsons’s suit includes marijuana leaf embroidery. The first lineup also includes Ethridge and Kleinow.

The band’s first album, The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969), does not sell strongly, but it develops a cult following that includes musicians such as Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. Parsons becomes friends with Keith Richards and leaves after Burrito Deluxe (1970), which also sees Ethridge depart and Bernie Leadon and drummer Michael Clarke join.

Line-up changes and later releases

Rick Roberts replaces Parsons and records a self-titled album with the group in 1971. Kleinow then leaves to work as a session musician and Leadon joins The Eagles. Al Perkins and Roger Bush replace them, while Kenny Wertz and Byron Berline also join for the live album The Last of the Red Hot Burritos (1972). The band then falls apart.

Interest in the group grows after Parsons’s death in 1973, leading to Honky Tonks (1974), a double album. Kleinow and Ethridge then reform the band in 1975, joined by Gib Guilbeau, Joel Scott Hill and Gene Parsons, and release Flying Again that year. Ethridge is later replaced by Skip Battin for Airborne (1976), followed by Sleepless Nights, which uses unreleased early material.

Later incarnations

During the 1980s the group continues to tour and record. It has a country hit with “White Line Fever” in 1980, a cover of a Merle Haggard song, and later becomes the Burrito Brothers. In that period John Beland and Gib Guilbeau lead the group, with Sneaky Pete Kleinow often present, and the band also includes players such as Brian Cadd at one point. The group releases albums and tours through the 1980s, although the later releases do not have chart impact after 1984. John Beland ends the group in 2001.

Associated musicians

Across its various lineups, the band includes Chris Hillman, Gram Parsons, Earl Poole Ball, John Beland, Byron Berline, Chris Ethridge, Gib Guilbeau, Greg Harris, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Bernie Leadon, Phil Lee, James Markham, Alan Munde, Al Perkins, Rick Roberts, Barry Tashian, David Vaught and Ronnie Guilbeau.