The Flying Burrito Brothers

Rock-&-roll acts such as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Byrds had experimented with mixing country and rock & roll, but none fused them as memorably and irreversibly as the California quartet the Flying Burrito Brothers. With shimmering Louvin Brothers-style close harmony courtesy of front men (and ex-Byrds) Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, Sneaky Pete Kleinow's psychedelic pedal steel breaks, R&B songs reimagined as Bakersfield weepers, an image that paid tribute to both Nashville and the Rolling Stones, and an arsenal of original material that spoke to draft-dodging, lovelorn longhairs everywhere, their 1969 debut, THE GILDED PALACE OF SIN, revolutionized country and rock with nary a commercial dent. The album can--without hyperbole--count the Eagles' multi-million dollar country-rock, alt.country, New Traditionalism, and even modern Nashville country among its many musical offspring. After that certifiable classic's follow-up, the band parted ways with Parsons. Various line-ups helmed by the likes of Hillman, Gib Gilbeau, Kleinow, original bassist Chris Etheridge, Byron Berline, and Gene Parsons (no relation to Gram), among others, kept the candle burning for decades beyond.