Chris Hillman, John Meeks, Pappy and Harriets

What a busy couple days. Thursday night I went to the Grammy Museum to see Chris Hillman. I highly suggest seeing anyone at the Grammy Museum, they have great sound and there is not a bad seat in the house. The easiest way to describe the event is it was like "In the Actors Studio" with songs. The Museum curator interviewed Chris, then he did a Q&A, followed by a few songs. He talked mostly about his early bluegrass days, mentioning a band he was in with the Gosdin Brothers called The Golden State Boys who use to play in Long Beach! Highlight for me was the music, he played a new song off his upcoming record on Rounder that sounded great. Looking forward to hearing the record.

After Chris played I booked it down to The Prospector to catch John Meeks. I really enjoyed his set, and look forward to seeing him again in the future. They had a very good Violin / Lap Steel player who I'm pretty sure also plays with The Album Leaf and The Black Heart Procession. I got a copy of his new CD which features Jimmy Lavelle from The Album Leaf, and Paul Jenkins from Three Mile Pilot / The Black Heart Procession. Parts remind me of Calexico, but it has its own vibe.

Last night I decided to go out to Pappy and Harriets in Pioneertown, and ran into friends celebrating a birthday! Ended up staying out there for the night, woke up to a beautiful desert morning, a cup of coffee, and a mix featuring Jessica Lee Mayfield, The Avett Brothers, AA Bondy and more.

Happy Anniversary to Poco's "Pickin' Up The Pieces"

Today, May 19, 41 years ago Poco released "Pickin' Up The Pieces". While I will admit that I have not heard every Poco record, but from the 10 or so records I have heard of theirs, this one is my favorite. I purchased it at a used record store in Philadelphia back in February of 2009. Just a few months later I saw them at Stagecoach, which was quite a rare show because original members, Richie Furay and Jim Messina, played in the reunited Poco. Some fun facts about this album are:

1) It was the first debut album every to get a perfect score in Rolling Stone magazine.

2)Every song was written or co-written by Richie Furay.

3)These songs were formed out of the breaking up of Buffalo Springfield, which both Richie Furay and Jim Messina were members of.

3b)Buffalo Springfield performed their last show at the Long Beach Arena as a farewell to their hometown.

4)Steel Guitar Player, Rusty Young, was born in Long Beach.

5)Bass Player, Randy Meiser, left the band before the album was released, and they replaced his image on the album cover with a dog, don't worry Randy turned out ok, he ended up forming another band that did quite well called The Eagles.

This album feels good and puts a smile on my face. I'm gonna go home and listen to it, around nine, come over if you want to join me.

Country Rock

I've been listening to more Country Rock lately, and when you think about it, it's actually quite a small genre of music. Defined mostly in the late 60's through the 70's. To me Gram Parsons will always be the icon for Country Rock. I remember hearing Gram once say in an interview that he did not like the term Country Rock, he said "I dream of Soul, Country, of Cosmic... what I call Cosmic American Music" to describe the style of music he was playing. So what started out as being curious about a musician I had never heard of, and taking the recommendation of someone I barely knew, has turned into an obsession.

It all started at Club Spaceland about six years ago, I went to see Arabella Harrison, and when buying her CD at the merch booth, I heard her talking about Gram Parsons. She talked about all the amazing music he made before dying at such a young age. That next week I went down to Fingerprints at purchased "Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angels: The Gram Parsons Anthology". Every word spoke to me, and the music, even without the words made a personal connection, I wanted twang in everything, I wanted more pedal steel!

Somehow I lost that CD and I thought about re-buying it, but I decided to just go back and start buying his actual albums. I started with "Live in 1973" and "Sleepless Nights". About a year later I got "GP" and The International Submarine band. Slowly finding more of his records as I would shop picking up "Gilded Palace of Sin", and the the Byrds "Sweetheart of the Rodeo". I went to see Chris Hillman, who co-founded the Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram. I went to Gram Parsons tribute shows at SXSW, Pappy and Harriet's, and Amoeba (Where Chris Etheridge, another original Burrito Brother, performed live). I saw James Burton, who was an original studio musician for Gram, perform with Jim Lauderdale, trying to find any connection I could.

It took a good four years of being a Gram-only fan, to finally looking for other bands. I picked up a copy of Poco's first record "Pickin' up the Pieces". I then went to a Poco reunion show, with Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Timothy B Schmit. I saw Pure Prairie League, The Eagles, John Forgety and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. In the last couple months I started buying more Country Rock records, I've picked up "American Beauty" by The Grateful Dead, Manassas, and New Riders of the Purple Sage.

The genre is still new to me. Next week I'm going to see Chris Hillman again at the Grammy Museum. He will be doing an interview with the museum curator, a q&a, and performing songs. This time he is more then that guy that was in a band with Gram, this time I want to hear about his time in the Byrds, in Manassas, in the Southern Hillman Furay Band, his many other projects that on Sugar Hill and Rounder. Come explore with me as I delve more into this fascinating scene.