Category: Country

The Everly Brothers - Roots (1968)

Data: February 28th, 2008, Posted By: admin, Popularity: 1%

The Everly Brothers - Roots (1968)

Genre: countryrock | 320 Kbps HQ VBR MP3’s | 82 M zip-file

Players: The Everly Brothers: Don Everly, Phil Everly (vocals, guitar). Additional personnel: Ron Elliott, David Cohen, Sam McCue (guitar), Buddy Emmons (steel guitar), Bobby Bruce (fiddle), Larry Knechtel (piano), Joe Osborne, Terry Slater (bass), Hal Blaine (drums); Randy Newman, James Burton, Jim Gordon, Van Dyke Parks.

This is a long lost gem of country rock. One of the albums (together with The Byrd’s Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, Dillard & Clark’s Fantastic Expedition, Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline and Steve Young’s Rock Salt and Nails) that started it all. The brothers go back to their roots on this album with excerpts from a 1952 radio show from the Everly Family mixed with new studio songs that almost 40 years later still are fully alive and kicking. It contains fierce rockers like T For Texas, great folksongs and the most beautiful version ever made of Merle Haggard’s Sing Me Back Home. Highly recommended! Q Magazine called it in 1995: “…a modern country classic with sterling contributions…” and Rolling Stone wrote: “…a warm, sentimental album that is nostalgic and contemporary at the same time….Anybody interested in the so-called country revival now sweeping rock should pick up this album. It’s right fine…”

The Everly Brothers may be best known for their late-1950s pop hits, but their story really begins in Appalachian country. A cultural change in the late 1960s brought with it a broader, worldlier concept of popular music, and, in ‘68, the boys took another route, reviving, with great clarity of purpose, their own Kentuckian heritage. On ROOTS, the Everly Brothers use their characteristic close-knit harmonies on the folksy ballad “Living Too Close to the Ground” and the bluegrass-influenced “Less of Me.” Listeners can certainly hear the influence of the Louvin Brothers on these tracks. This music is not purebred country, though. There are divergences, especially on the tripped-out intro to “I Wonder If I Care as Much,” a song that begins with a swirling feedback guitar and Beatles-esque tom-tom fills. A smartly produced album, ROOTS successfully combines the Everlys’ country pedigree with dashes of pop, and a good dose of moody, coming-of-age lyrics.

Track list:

1. Introduction: The Everly Family (1952)

2. Mama Tried

3. Less Of Me

4. T For Texas

5. I Wonder If I Care As Much

6. Ventura Boulevard

7. Shady Grove

8. Illinois

9. Living Too Close To The Ground

10. You Done Me Wrong

11. Turn Around