If you think about it....and you might not want to....you can divide the Eagles' output into two periods. The first, beginning with the release of "Take it Easy" --fifty years ago this past week--constituted their slick country-rock, adult contemporary easy listening period. That which was encapsulated in that first Greatest Hits album.  This period coincides with Bernie Leadon's tenure with the band. He had previously been in the Flying Burrito Brothers (for their second and third albums) and, before that, had played with Gene Clark in Dillard and Clark. His B-bender telecaster and banjo were, as much as anything, responsible for much of the Eagles' country sound. At the end of the One of These Nights tour, Bernie poured a beer over Glenn Frey's head and - in what would become an end of tour ritual - quit the band*. Enter Joe Walsh and so begins the second, laid back stadium rocker, period. The riffs and guitars got heavier. Joe playing featured more heavy s...

During my commute home I caught the end of "Joanne" on radio. I don't recall which channel I had on, but it was a deep cut, slightly out of place. It gave me pause...upon returning home, I got the news. He was my favorite Monkee. The "Smart" (or smarter or - maybe - smart-ass) Monkee, he was one of two playing musicians and the only real songwriter in the band. Even early on, before the "band" was given some creative control, their albums featured some of his songs. In late '67 Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys scored a top 20 hit with his "Different Drum". This playlist includes most - if not all - of the songs he wrote, co-wrote, or sang lead on for the band. "Different Drum", while not a Monkees tune, features the Poneys backed by crack El-Lay sessioneers... kind of like when Mickey sang "Mary Mary" . Several of the songs, especially the more straightforward, country ones, remained unreleased until the 1990's ...

Happy 75th birthday to Linda Ronstadt.  She doesn't have the same alt-country cred as Emmylou, but she deserved it. She didn't have that direct link to Gram, but she probably did the best job of pulling off his mix of rock, country and soul. Maybe our ilk holds the Eagles against her. Maybe it's because there was nothing "alt" about her. Growing up, her music was everywhere, whether it was Dad's country station - WMAQ, or my aunt's pop station - WOKY.  Her last two "rock" albums - Mad Love and Get Closer - ventured away from the country. Perhaps too established to be new wave or power pop, she put some punchy covers by the Cretones and Billy Thermal and Elvis Costello. While her earlier cover of "Allison" featured the anodyne west coast production values of the time, two of the three covers on Mad Love  hold their own. Even her oldies covers are primarily British Invasion era pop of the type favored by the skinny tie set. Over the pas...

Gram Parsons died on this day in 1973. His manager, Phil "the Road Mangler" Kaufman - Charles Manson's old cellmate - hijacked his body and burned it at the Joshua Tree National Park in accordance with Gram's wishes. Oh, Gram. We hardly knew ye. Soon thereafter, Emmylou Harris began her solo career throughout which she preserved Gram's legacy. She hired several of the players from his solo albums and - through the years - recorded several of his songs in tribute. These playlists include those tributes, beginning with Emmylou's "Boulder to Birmingham" from Pieces of the Sky . The first half consists of songs Gram wrote (or co-wrote), followed by tracks he recorded with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds, Burritos,  and as a solo artist. Songs from The Return of the Grievous Angel tribute album are not included. Four of the songs here are repeated - "Love Hurts", "Boulder to Birmingham", and "Wheels" - were all ...

On this day in 1968, the Byrds released Sweetheart of the Rodeo. It wasn't their first foray into country or even countrified rock. Nor was it the first country-rock album. The International Submarine band had put out Safe at Home in the spring, Jerry Lee Lewis had gone country two months earlier with Another Place, Another Time , and Merle Haggard had been putting out similar albums for two years. For most, it did serve as an introduction to Gram Parsons, the only Byrd to contribute any new material to the album. Gram had been the leading creative force in the International Submarine Band, and upon joining the Byrds he joined forces with Chris Hillman to transform the current project from an album that covered SOME country into one in which country was the sole focus. Gram sang lead on not only his two songs - "One Hundred Years From Now" and "Hickory Wind" - but on the Louvin Brothers' "Christian Life" and the Stax number "You Don'...

In June 1967 Moby Grape issued their debut album. It is one of the best albums you've never heard. They were a San Francisco band, usually discussed in conjunction with the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane. If you like "Golden Road" or "Cream Puff War" from the Dead's first album, you'll probably like this one. Why haven't you heard it? It's complicated. The band began when Jefferson Airplane dismissed their manager and drummer, Skip Spence. The pair found Bob Mosley from a San Diego outfit called the Misfits to play bass, Jerry Miller and Don Stevenson from Seatle band, the Frantics, on lead guitar and drums, Peter Lewis, a Hollywood kid and guitarist for the Cornells  was recruited and Spence moved over to guitar. All five members sang and wrote. The band was a hit in San Fransisco and got a good record deal, but then things went wrong. For starters, 10 of the album's 13 songs were simultaneously issued as the A and B-sides of ...