The debate to absolutely establish the founding father of 'country rock' still rages hard, but whether you'd personally vote for Gram Parsons, the Dillards, Gene Clark or any other such luminary (whisper it: your reviewer would go for Gene, actually), one thing's for sure here: if you've only a passing interest in Americana you should check this album out.
The story behind NASHVILLE WEST is far too long and convoluted to go into here (suffice it to say the truncated version reads that they mutated into Nashville West from The Reasons after playing their popular residency at the Nashville West in El Monte outside LA), but what you do need to know is that this quartet featured soon-to-be-Byrds Clarence White and Gene Parsons, plus two of the Roots rock scene's less celebrated stalwarts, Gib Gilbeau and Wayne Moore. Oh, and that as Byrds alumnus projects go, this is the one that's most likely to be referred to as "legendary" as it's been unavailable on CD pretty much until now.
And it's certainly pioneering - if sometimes slightly ramshackle - stuff. The amazing White (Jimi Hendrix's favourite contemporary guitarist, lest we forget) and his cohorts were plying their session trade at Bakersfield International studios by day (playing a dazzling range of styles) in 1967, when this recording was made, and this chameleonic intent makes its' way into the 18 songs included in this live recording.
It's actually quite a warts'n'all testament to the protagonists' abilities, with the tracks recorded basically straight to mic on one of many such sweaty sweaty club soirees where the audience probably included numerous Byrds and one Ingram Parsons III.
Kicking off and closing with White/ Parsons signature "Nashville West" instrumental (soon to open Byrds shows aplenty), it's actually quite a bizarre set of mostly covers, with tried'n'tested suspects like "Green, Green Grass Of Home" rubbing shoulders with the likes of "Love Of The Common People", "Greensleeves" (yes, as in HenryVIII) and a cool, strutting R'n'B charge through Chuck Berry's "Memphis."
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Sure, some of the source material's traditional country like "I Wanna Live", Merle Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home" (again a future Byrds live staple) and Lefty Frizzell's "Mom & Dad's Waltz", but even these songs are dispatched with a "Nuggets"-style edge and in "Memphis," "C.C.Rider" and Mel Tillis' "Mental Revenge", the supposedly Gram Parsons-patented country-rock-soul ideal is realised before your very ears. Listening to these songs and a slightly creaky run through Jimmy Webb's "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", it's not hard to understand why things like "Dark End Of The Street" and the R'n'B take of "Bony Moronie" featured in the future Burritos sets.
All the participants are clearly enjoying themselves and while White and Parsons - who's funky as fuck throughout and the antithesis of a supposed 'country' drummer - are undoubtedly the stellar talents here, "The Legendary Nashville West Album" is a quirkily effective document which catches a group who (perhaps inadvertently?) knew they were on the cusp of something great and helped considerably to establish a genre still capable of sounding fertile and creative to this very day.
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