The Everly Brothers: Down In The Bottom - The Country Rock Sessions 1966-1968, 3CD

In 2014 The Everly Brothers’ legacy was saluted at the Americana Music Assn. show , held at The Troubador, Los Angeles. The artists in the show including Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, Rodney Crowell, T Bone Burnett, Joe Henry, Asher, Rhiannon Giddens, Jim Lauderdale, Dawes, the Milk Carton Kids, used The Everly Brothers music as its musical anchor. With the current widespread rise in popularity of Americana music as a genre, now seems a good time to reappraise and re-establish one of the first true Country Rock albums - the 1968 Everly Brothers album ROOTS. This box set presents the build-up story to this landmark album.

• With an Americana music pedigree born of their Appalachia roots The Everly Brothers ably crossed over from the pop charts to the country music charts during their hit-making heyday. During the mid sixties however they suffered a lean spell for commercial success all the while trying to update their sound. RPM focusses on the following period from November 1966 – November 1968 when the Everlys recorded mostly in Los Angeles rather than Nashville with the duo searching for a musical direction. Eventually achieving a musical cohesiveness with the release of ROOTS.

• Disc 1 presents the ‘The Hit Sound’ album, recorded from December 1966 onwards, with contemporary rock’n’roll and pop covered in Everlys harmony style updated with the cream of the LA session crew including Glen Campbell, Larry Knechtel, Ray Pohlman, Hal Blaine. The bonus tracks are Even If I Hold It In My Hand recorded right at the end of the album sessions, Nothing But The Best and Little Bit Of Crazy just before the album sessions, and the happy whistling stripped back demo of Bowling Green. All lay unreleased until the late 1990s.

• Disc 2 presents the ‘SING’ album, the Everlys and their label Warner’s response to the prevailing ‘youthquake’ band sound straddling the transatlantic. Same month in1967 Warner released albums by The Beau Brummels, Electric Prunes, Jimi Hendrix in the US. On the album are songs by The Buckinghams, Patrick Campbell Lyons, Procul Harum. The bonus tracks include a fresh new mix of the 1967 session track My Elusive Dreams taken from a new 4 track tape transfer, You’re Just What I Was Looking For Today unissued until 1980 again backed by The Wrecking Crew. It concludes with a portent of what was to come with the first sessions from 1968 and the introduction of producer Lenny Waronker, fresh from Reprise. With him comes songs by Ron Elliott from The Beau Brummels, whose album had been produced by Waronker.

• Disc 3 presents the ‘ROOTS’ album, pieced together from the LA sessions at studios like Goldstar, conducted by Lenny Waronker during April-September 1968, again with the Wrecking Crew aided by Van Dyke Parks and James Burton. The Everlys took the chance to pay homage to their country roots with songs by contemporary country writers Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, George Jones as well as more from their own pen. In addition amongst the bonus tracks here, from the November 1968 sessions held after ROOTS, are Neil Young’s Mr Soul and Dolly Parton’s In The Good Old Days. Unreleased for 40 years.

• Two more songs from Ron Elliott and one from Randy Newman are on ROOTS. Waronker had produced Newman in pre-Harpers Bizarre band The Tikis, and with Van Dyke Parkes the subsequent solo album by Newman.

• It all made for a tight knit group of friends and acquaintances all more than well aware of the burgeoning American country-rock scene in California.

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE
THE HIT SOUND OF

1. BLUEBERRY HILL
2. MOVIN' ON
3. DEVIL'S CHILD
4. TRAINS AND BOATS AND PLANES
5. SEA OF HEARTBREAK
6. OH, BOY!
7. (I'D BE A) LEGEND IN MY TIME
8. LET'S GO GET STONED
9. STICKS AND STONES
10. THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN
11. SHE NEVER SMILES ANYMORE
12. GOOD GOLLY, MISS MOLLY
BONUS TRACKS
13. EVEN IF I HOLD IT IN MY HAND (HARD LUCK STORY) (TAKE 2)
14. WHEN EDDIE COMES HOME
15. NOTHING BUT THE BEST
16. A LITTLE BIT OF CRAZY
17. BOWLING GREEN (DEMO)

DISC TWO
SING

1. BOWLING GREEN
2. A VOICE WITHIN
3. I DON'T WANT TO LOVE YOU
4. IT'S ALL OVER
5. DELIVER ME
6. TALKING TO THE FLOWERS
7. MARY JANE
8. I'M FINDING IT ROUGH
9. DO YOU
10. SOMEBODY HELP ME
11. A WHITER SHADE OF PALE
12. MERCY, MERCY, MERCY
BONUS TRACKS
13. LOVE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE
14. YOU’RE JUST WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR TODAY
15. MY ELUSIVE DREAMS
16. LORD OF THE MANOR
17. LOVE WITH YOUR HEART
18. LOVE WITH YOUR HEART
(VSN 2)
19. IT’S MY TIME
20. EMPTY BOXES
21. MILK TRAIN

DISC THREE
ROOTS

1. 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
12. SING ME BACK HOME
13. MONTAGE: THE EVERLY FAMILY (1952)/SHADY GROVE/KENTUCKY
BONUS TRACKS
14. LADY ANNE (VSN 2)
15. SHOP GIRL
16. HUMAN RACE (MIX 1)
17. OMAHA
18. MR SOUL (MIX 1)
19. DOWN IN THE BOTTOM
(AKA MEET ME IN THE BOTTOM)
(MIX 1)
20. IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS (MIX 1)