Firefall new album

 

One can say that Firefall has a rather strong connection to The Byrds.

Not only was Michael Clarke their original drummer (recording their first three LPs with them), but other original members Jock Bartley and Mark Andes were members of The Chris Hillman Band in the 70s, and Jock Bartley was a member of Gram Parsons’ Fallen Angels.

More, the original founder and leader of Firefall was Rick Roberts, who replaced Gram Parsons in The Flying Burrito Brothers and became the leader of that band when Chris Hillman left.

Rick Roberts was also a member of the Gene Clark Byrds Tribute bands in the mid-80s.

Firefall underwent many lineup changes over the years, always with Jock Bartley at the helm.

Since late 2014, three original members, Jock Bartley, David Muse and Mark Andes, reunited and toured along with long time member Sandy Ficca (since 1984) and, since 2015, Gary Jones.

Firefall will release a new album of studio recordings on December 11, titled COMET.

It is announced as "Firefall's first album of new music in 25 years".

01 Way Back When
02 A Real Fine Day
03 Hardest Chain
04 Nature’s Way
05 Younger
06 There She Is
07 Ghost Town
08 Never Be The Same
09 Before I Met You
10 A New Mexico

See and hear a Mark Andes interview and a preview of "Way Back Then" here:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7v-UMFOns8

Rick Roberts  and Larry Burnett aren't part of the reunion but they play together again.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO3hynhwoPo

John Guerin

Byrds fans often argue about John Guerin having or not having to be considered an official member of The Byrds. He appears as a band member on the 2 live tracks on the Banjoman soundtrack LP, so this leaves the question open.

For those interested in his carreer outside The Byrds, here's a link to a fantastic blog (the title says it all).

It lists 374 albums he plays on!

http://johnguerindiscography.blogspot.com/

Michael Clarke Interview

In 1990, Michael Clarke had secured the rights to the 'Byrds' trademark and toured Europe with his bunch of Byrds (with Skip Battin, Terry Jones Rogers and Jerry Sorn).

When in U.K., he did an interview at the Preston Guild Hall, Lancashire, England.

The complete interview, as broadcast by some local radio station, is available on YouTube, with Byrds songs thrown in between spoken parts.

You can download the spoken parts only (10 min) here:

https://www54.zippyshare.com/v/mJBkMF9l/file.html

Mirror Blog

 Reminder: this blog is mirrored here:

https://byrdsflyght.ucoz.com/blog/

Why did they need 5 men in the first place?

Watch this YouTube video of a Tambourine Man playing all five original Byrds parts!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58icw1S8-Dg

More of The Flying Burrito Brothers concert in France 1985

 

One week ago (November 15), we posted an article about a promotional video clip done by French TV for a concert by The Flying Burrito Brothers in Blois, France, on October 19, 1985.

A couple of weeks ago, the ever-present Jean-Pierre Morisset sent the complete video of the concert to Thomas Aubrunner in Austria, telling him it was a very amateurish audience VHS taping ... but Thomas decided to make something of it and put the 'highlights' on YouTube. Great work!

Watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT4dJ9Q5F7w&feature=youtu.be

Thomas’ Burrito Brother website:

http://www.burritobrother.com/ 

Many thanks to Jean-Pierre and Thomas

 

The Byrds on the cover of SHINDIG!

 

The Byrds are on the cover of the latest issue of Shiding! (#109) (November 2020)

 There's a long article about them, with many pictures.

The article also includes a version of Toulouse Engelhard's review of his early 1973 concert as an opening act for The Byrds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzKNXGCdl0o

https://www.silverbackpublishing.rocks/latest-issue/

Chris Ethridge and Gib Guilbeau - More interviews by Jean-Pierre Morisset

Pictures courtesy of Jean-Pierre, taken when the interviews took place:

Chris Ethrige and his wife with Jean-Pierre and Jean Marcou (a well-known French rock journalist and rock writer – he co-wrote the first French language book on the Rolling Stones)

Gib Guilbeau and his wife.

More from the vaults of Jean-Pierre Morisset. Here comes the second part of hitherto unreleased interviews done by him when the revamped Flying Burrito Brothers toured Europe in 1975. This time, hear Chris Ethridge and Gib Guilbeau talk.

In this zip file:

Part one is the Chris Ethridge interview.

Part two is the Gib Guilbeau interview.

Once more, don’t expect high quality audio.

And don’t forget that the questions were asked by someone who isn’t Englishspeaker by birth.

These interviews are fascinating with many details unveiled about Chris Ethridge's and Gib Guilbeau’s carreers before this incarnation of the FBBs.

Many thanks to Jean-Pierre.

Download the interviews here:

https://www98.zippyshare.com/v/ousbDUsg/file.html

Chris Hillman biography published today

 

Time Between:My Life as a Byrd, Burrito Brother, and Beyond

The Chris Hillman autobiography is being published today, November 17, 2020 (which coincidentally, is Gene Clark's birth date in 1944).

Flying Burrito Brothers - Unreleased Promo Clip - French Concert 1985

The revamped Flying Burrito Brothers (Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Skip Battin, Greg Harris and Jim Goodall) toured Europe again in 1985. When in France, they had a concert booked in Blois, capital of the Loir-Et-Cher department, on October 19.

The ever-present Jean-Pierre Morisset persuaded the local branch of the official French TV channel France 3 to record an exclusive performance of the instrumental “Oklahoma Stomp” by the band, to be broadcast the previous day as a promo for the concert.

Jean-Pierre just found the VHS tape of the promo clip, as the lockdown leaves him plenty of time to search his archives. He sent a DVD rip to Thomas Aubrunner in Austria, and the latter put it on his YouTube channel two days ago.

Watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr022y1GWJg

You can download the whole October 19 concert here:

https://www63.zippyshare.com/v/QFczcKWL/file.html

Visit Thomas’s website here:

http://www.burritobrother.com/ 

With many thanks to Jean-Pierre and Thomas

The Flying Burrito Brothers with Jean-Pierre at Jean-Pierre's home

Flying Burrito Brothers (Gene Parsons and Sneaky Pete Kleinow) Unreleased Interviews In France in 1975 by Jean-Pierre Morisset

 

From the vaults of Jean-Pierre Morisset, France’s biggest Byrds-family freak, here comes hitherto unreleased interviews done by him with Gene Parsons and Sneaky Pete Kleinow, when the revamped Flying Burrito Brothers toured Europe in 1975.

The lineup of these FBBs also included Gib Guilbeau, Joel Scott-Hill and Chris Ethridge.

Interviews with Gib Guilbeau and Chris Ethridge done at the same place at the same time will follow.

You can watch a 7 minute video of their soundcheck here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_7L8o_ViA0

In this zip file:

Part one is the Gene Parsons interview done at the Alhambra in Bordeaux, France, on May 26, 1975, before the concert.

Part two is the Sneaky Pete Kleinow interview, also done at the same place before the concert.

Part three is the Gene Parsons interview recorded after the concert, in the car that brought Gene back to his hotel.

The places where the recordings took place explain why you shouldn’t expect high quality audio.

And don’t forget that the questions were asked by someone who isn’t Englishspeaker by birth.

We at Byrds Flyght found these interviews fascinating, with many details unveiled about Gene’s and Pete’s careers before, with and after the Byrds and the first version of the FBBs.

Total length = 41:25

Many thanks to Jean-Pierre (pictured here with Gene Parsons)

https://www50.zippyshare.com/v/0KTWiEHt/file.html

The Crown Prince of the Rickenbacker 12 String strikes again! - Starbyrd's new CD

 

The Crown Prince of the Rickenbacker 12 String strikes again!

Horst-Peter Schmidt, the unstoppable leader of Starbyrd, has just released a CD of new songs.

WHIRLWIND OF TIME

Liner notes by Eric Sorensen.

The first 6 songs are about pandemic-related issues. Horst-Peter lives in the present, illustrated by sounds of the past. 

As usual, we don’t have enough kind words to say how much we appreciate Horst-Peter’s work.

We still have his early recordings, that he sent us on cassettes decades ago, and we are always positively surprised by the quality of his on-going releases.

Strongly recommended by Byrds Flyght

Go here to get it:

https://starbyrd.bandcamp.com/releases

Is this...

The earliest (1962) known picture of David Crosby playing the guitar?

Connie Cohen - 2 albums with Skip Battin playing, recording and producing we didn't know about - available at BandCamp

We were informed (by Brian QTN) that 2 albums by Connie Cohen that we were unaware of, have been available at BandCamp for a long time.

Thanks Brian for the info and the links.

Trouble In Dreamland (recorded 1989)

https://conniecohen.bandcamp.com/album/trouble-in-dreamland-2

Standing In These Bones (recorded 1993)

https://conniecohen.bandcamp.com/album/standing-in-these-bones

Brian "QTN" Cutean album "Parakeetishhead" available at BandCamp

Brian's album (featuring Skip Battin) is available at BandCamp:

brianqtn.bandcamp.com/album/parakeetfishhead