Flying Again
	Produced by Norbert Putnam and Glen Spreen
	Released on October 1975
	US CHART POSITION #138
	Find it at GEMM
PC 33817 cover [high resolution scan]

L egend has it the ghost of Gram (and the lure of lucre) got the big burrito off the ground again. Copilot Chris Ethridge had left the band after the first album, Sneaky Pete Kleinow before the last. Looking at the reconstituted burrito, you wonder: Where is the Beef? The answer came with the new meat: Joel Scott Hill (Canned Heat), Gib Guilbeau (Swampwater), Gene Parsons (Byrds). They do a lot of the heavy lifting and handle all of the vocals. The result is more country than rock, not the butterflies in the electric cowboy suits but moths hovering around an old flame. That it became their highest-charting album is just another anomaly in a career of crossed stars. Without Chris Hillman, without Gram Parsons, the Flying Burrito Bros. were merely a working band, like New Riders (whom Norbert Putnam had also produced) or Kingfish after the Dead departed. Those who tuned in to the reheated Burritos were treated to Gene Parsons’ “Desert Childhood,” the honky-tonkin’ “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke” and the Cajun “Bon Soir Blues.” It doesn’t have a darned thing to do with psychedelia let alone prog, but I’m a sucker for chasing butterflies. Much as New Riders inhabit the margins of the Dead, the Burritos belong in the margins of the Byrds, and Flying Again in the margins of the Burritos. At a little over thirty minutes and almost half consisting of covers (including George Jones’ “Why Baby Why”), this isn’t a major new work by any measure. You want to root for them, but Flying Again doesn’t give you much to get excited about.

TRACK LISTING

1. EASY TO GET ON    (Bob Brown)    3:16
2. WIND AND RAIN    (Gene Parsons/Gib Guilbeau)    4:26
3. WHY BABY WHY    (George Jones)    2:22
4. DIM LIGHTS, THICK SMOKE (AND L0UD, LOUD MUSIC)    (Joe Maphis/Max Fidler/Rose Lee)    2:15
5. YOU LEFT THE WATER RUNNING    (Dan Penn/Oscar Franks/Rick Hall)    2:22
6. BUILDING FIRES    (Dan Penn/Johnny Christopher/Jim Dickinson)    4:16
7. SWEET DESERT CHILDHOOD    (Gene Parsons)    3:41
8. BON SOIR BLUES    (Gib Guilbeau/Thad Maxwell)    4:10
9. RIVER ROAD    (Gib Guilbeau)    2:56
10. HOT BURRITO #3    (Chris Ethridge/Gib Guilbeau/Joel Scott Hill/Peter Kleinow/Gene Parsons)    2:04

CREDITS

CHRIS ETHRIDGE -- bass
FLOYD "GIB" GUILBEAU -- guitar, fiddle, vocals
JOEL SCOTT HILL -- guitar, vocals
"SNEAKY" PETE KLEINOW -- pedal steel guitarm, string arrangement
GENE PARSONS -- drums, tambourine, guitar, harmonica, vocals (7)
Spooner Oldham -- piano and organ
Glen Kolotkin -- engineer
Lou Beach -- illustration
Herb Green -- photography
Ron Coro -- art direction

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