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| Gram Parsons Archive, Vol. 1: Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 | 
 enlarge | Artists: Gram Parsons, Flying Burrito Brothers
Label: Amoeba Records
Category: Music
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $12.03
You Save: $7.95 (40%)
New (41) Used (8) from $11.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 5773
Format: Live
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 2
UPC: 890121002027
EAN: 0890121002027
ASIN: B000W1V8DU
Release Date: November 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW Factory Sealed - Ready to be shipped within 24 hrs from California - Average 5 workdays delivery time - Excellent customer service - Buy with confidence!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Gotta love it November 26, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
You already know how significant Gram and the Burritos are, so we'll cut to the chase: these are rare, vintage Burritos concerts that you're going to need to have. The fact that they exist and are being released is itself a small miracle. The sound is ok, the harmonies wander a bit, Gram's voice it here in all it quavering glory, but it's still essential. A welcome and exciting recording.
 Essential Live Burritos, Awesome Gram March 4, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've been a huge Gram Parsons fan for years, and got this for Christmas. I have given it some time to let it sink in.
But this is an awesome addition to my collection of Parsons's material, and I am enjoying it immensely. Any Gram fan will want to have it and, unlike the confusing offerings of different collections of his studio material, you will know that only on this two disc collection will you be able to find the material included.
I've had the live album Gram did with Emmylou and the Fallen Angels tour for what is now a long time now, and that one is well recorded with a reasonable level of performance shown by the band. This is an earlier work by the Burritos, who by comparison were known for being more sloppy, even very sloppy, and several early studio efforts by Parsons were known for mediocre production, even the great Gilded Palace of Sin. As a result I was quite pleasantly surprised here by the production quality, which one perhaps shouldn't be given the Dead's people were involved in the recording. Equally if not more surprising is that the band's performance is reasonably tight, with some obvious mistakes still found here and there. I would have to guess the monitors were not the very best for the vocalists by contemporary standards, as some of the harmony work could have been tighter.
Despite that, Chris Hillman does a very good job here with the harmony work, as does Parsons who, after all, is the artist that really makes this collection so worth getting and listening to. While in Gram's short career he went on to do such great work with Emmylou, with the Burritos he had already found his voice and performed some of his better self written compositions, such as Sin City, the two Hot Burrito numbers, and others along with covers both included in the studio albums and some only found here.
I recently finished reading Twenty Thousand Roads, the biography on Parsons, and one thing that work makes clear is that Gram worked at actually playing gigs more than he did in preparing beforehand for them. He would frequently show up under the influence, maybe always being at least somewhat so. But he was comfortable in his skin up on stage, and he played live frequently in a great variety of venues. His performance is one here, as I think on the good nights it usually was, where you can hear a soulfullness rarely found in singers having much more well known and widespread reputations. I get the impression many who criticize his singing talent are comparing how he comes close or falls short compared to people like George Jones, who certainly set a standard. But Parsons sets his own, and his instantly recognizable voice is here evident in all it's effective and appealing glory.
Having said all that, it has always been true of Parsons that he is more appreciated by musicians and musically knowledgeable people than the more general music listening public, and I don't think there's anything in particular about this album that will change that reception. Even so this collection has some added historical significance in seeing how this LA based country rock band, which was a very new thing indeed at the time, opened a set for the Dead at the Avalon, in the heart of the San Francisco scene at the time. This was before the Dead made their own turn into a more country approach found on American Beauty, but you can hear that at least some of their fans seemed to get it and enjoy it from the crowd reaction. Maybe the casual listener will today, too.
Another Gram 'gem'! November 20, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
When I first heard this CD was going to be released/available by November, I couldn't wait for time to pass.
Once I finally owned it, of course, I had to give it a few listenings to give an honest opinion, being a huge Gram/FBB fan since the late 60's.
And to further my honesty, these LIVE recordings not only meet my expectations, they exceed them!
Being from the East Coast [Baltimore], I was only able to see Gram perform LIVE since his Emmylou years. So, I missed seeing Gram Parsons and his Flying Burrito Bros. LIVE in their early years.
Every tune on this nicely packaged set is certainly timeless. The Mel Tillis tune 'Mental Revenge' is the best version I've heard, even better than Linda Ronstadt's off her 'Silk Purse' LP from 1970, a year later.
While it's impossible to outdo Roy Orbison, Gram still does a fine version of 'Dream Baby'. And he may not outdo Little Richard w/ his version of 'Lucille' either, but does add an interesting and lovable touch. Also I noticed Bonnie Bramlett adding a 'yeah' to his cover of the Delaney & Bonnie tune, 'We've Got To Get Ourselves Together'. Nice touch. Highly recommended to any Cosmic American Music fan! A 'Must Have', no doubt.
gram cd is a shot in the arm November 25, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Burrito Bros. live Cd is long overdue.
Sounds like Gram plays the Dead's organ on a sogn or two.
Maybe Not God's Own Singer, But Certainly Mine December 2, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Much of what I was going to say is in Rockman's review, so I won't repeat it in detail except to agree wholeheartedly that this was a band, not a solo project. This has sonic and performance flaws-- I wonder if the original tapes were "locked" and couldn't be mixed further. And the quality of the performances is uneven--as my partner the Born Band Chick has, with her usual astute musical perception, pointed out, Gram was particularly hard to harmonize with, his voice was all over the lot, and no one really matched him perfectly until Emmylou. The performances are authentic, but far from perfect.
There is focus today on Gram's vision and influence, and this is to be expected nearly forty years later. But this CD, like the Fallen Angels tour CD that has been released a couple of times, reminds us that Gram was among the best singers our generation has produced, and, for my money, among the very best singers of sad songs.
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