six degrees: burrito bros

Six Degrees of The Flying Burrito Bros. The Gilded Palace of Sin & Burritos
By Michaelangelo Matos

The first two albums Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman made together as leaders of the Flying Burrito Brothers — the band continued after Parsons’ departure following 1970′s Burrito Deluxe — basically set the template for a couple of major strains of what became known as Americana. That’s a term Parsons might have liked, since it folds in the same outlying edges — folk, country, rock, soul — that he was hoping to contain within his own term, “cosmic American music.” When Hillman took greater charge on Deluxe, the music shifted decisively away from country and toward folk — cf. the group-harmony, acoustic-driven “Farther Along.” It’s a good album; whereas the Burritos’ 1969 debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin, remains unsettling.

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