VA - Truckers, Kickers, Cowboy Angels: The Blissed-Out Birth of Country Rock, Vol. 6: 1973 (2015)

Sales have been strong and critical response has been overwhelming to Volumes 1 through 5. Now the story concludes! The mix is as before: big hits and neglected classics that tell the story of a musical genre. Double CDs with generously full booklets with complete song-by-song notes, rare photos, and first-person accounts. Volume 6 – 1973: The leading edge of the country rock scene was shifting from Los Angeles to Austin. In March 1973, 'Crawdaddy' magazine highlighted the Austin for the first time. Pretty soon, everyone was catching on. In September, 'Billboard' devoted a full page to Austin, calling out Willie Nelson, Doug Sahm, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Billy Joe Shaver. The original standard-bearers of Country Rock, the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, had lost their way, but their guru, Gram Parsons, made two of the finest LPs of any era. Parsons' work is the cornerstone of our last two volumes. But we detour to Austin to catch Doug Sahm, Jerry Jeff Walker, the Lost Gonzo Band, and Willie Nelson. We gather the best of the era's country rock from Nashville, New York, San Francisco, and all points in-between. Here are the era's greatest recordings and the stories behind them. We close with Gram Parsons' death and Emmylou Harris picking up pieces, carrying the music forward from Nashville. Country and Rock shouldn't have coexisted in the mid-to-late 1960s when the United States was so polarized and ROCK epitomized one cultural extreme just as COUNTRY epitomized the other. But the trippy, counter-culture edge that Gram Parsons, the Byrds, the Burritos, Commander Cody, Michael Nesmith, and the others brought to country music, made the unimaginable real. That's the story we've told. We followed Country Rock on a ten-year journey from 1966 to 1975. Since then, it has branched in many directions: Soft Rock, Outlaw country, Southern Rock, Alt-Country, Americana, and much else. But if you follow the tributaries back, you usually arrive at the music anthologized in this series.

TRACKLIST

CD1
1. Sahm, Doug And Band - (Is Anybody Going To) San Antone
2. Nelson, Willie - Shotgun Willie
3. Parsons, Gram - That's All It Took
4. Delbert & Glen - California Livin'
5. Zandt, Townes Van - Pancho & Lefty
6. Walker, Jerry Jeff - Gettin' By
7. Bare, Bobby - Ride Me Down Easy
8. Shaver, Billy Joe - Old Five And Dimers Like Me
9. Cale, J.J. - If You're Ever In Oklahoma
10. Wilson, Hank - Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms
11. Clark, Gene - Don't This Road Look Rough And Rocky (aka Rough And Rocky)
12. Earl Scruggs Revue, The - Salty Dog Blues
13. New Riders Of The Purple Sage - Lonesome L.A. Cowboy
14. Band, The - Crying Heart Blues
15. Goose Creek Symphony - (Oh Lord Won't You Buy Me A) Mercedes Benz
16. Roberts, Rick - Glad To Be Goin'
17. Ozark Mountain Daredevils - Country Girl
18. Borderline - Please Help Me Forget
19. Linde, Dennis - Burning Love
20. Little Feat - Roll Um Easy
21. Hicks, Dan & His Hot Licks - Payday Blues
22. Sahm, Doug And Band - It's Gonna Be Easy
23. Walker, Jerry Jeff - Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother

CD2
1. Nelson, Willie - The Troublemaker
2. Axton, Hoyt - Sweet Misery
3. Cale, J.J. - Lies
4. Little Feat - Dixie Chicken
5. Allman Brothers Band, The - Ramblin' Man
6. Parsons, Gram - She
7. Earl Scruggs Revue, The - If I'd Only Come And Gone
8. Asleep At The Wheel - Take Me Back To Tulsa
9. Walker, Jerry Jeff - Sangria Wine
10. Commander Cody - Everybody's Doing It
11. Ford, Jim - Big Mouth USA
12. Delbert & Glen - To Be With You
13. Friedman, Kinky - Sold American
14. Goose Creek Symphony - Me And Him
15. Nesmith, Michael - Winonah
16. Clark, Gene - Here Tonight
17. Parsons, Gene - Sonic Bummer
18. Taylor, Chip - 101 In Cashbox
19. Shaver, Billy Joe - I Been To Georgia On A Fast Train
20. Zandt, Townes Van - If I Needed You
21. Parsons, Gram & Harris, Emmylou - Sleepless Nights
22. Sir Douglas Quintet, The - Texas Tornado
23. Walker, Jerry Jeff - London Homesick Blues