Bloggerhythms

Country, rock and pop artists who perform cover versions or use outside songwriters for their primary source material are never respected as much as the stars who compose their own music, but classical and jazz musicians don't seem to be held to the same high standard. Their updated interpretations of the great composers or definitive jazz tracks are often praised. To me, that just isn't fair, especially when there are superb musicians who know how to properly deliver great songs from the past. Christian Parker, Patrick Cleary, Earl Poole Ball and Jay Dee Maness specialize in celebrating the great recording artists and composers that made names for themselves in country-rock. Last year the foursome revived an entire 1968 LP, Back at Home , originally recorded and released by the late, great Gram Parsons ' International Submarine Band of which both Ball and Maness were members. Now the quartet is back with American Cosmic Revival, ...

The International Submarine Band (ISB) were named after a 1934 Our Gang comedy. Even though their name sounds like they should have been one of the many psychedelic bands of the era, in reality, they were one of the pioneers of country-rock. The quartet was led by the notorious Gram Parsons before his two brief stints with The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Four country-rock devotees - Christian Parker, Patrick Cleary, Earl Poole Ball and Jay Dee Maness - joined forces to entirely rerecord ISB's only full-length album, Back at Home , from 1968 and released it in the original track order. It's best to begin with some background on the participants. Parker and Cleary are musicians deeply influenced by Parsons' music. They both played six and twelve string acoustic guitars on these sessions and do all of the singing. Parker has already recorded tributes to The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo  - an album on which Parsons was a major ...