California Jukebox

A Treasure Chest. My Favorite Jewel is Waylon doing I ain't living long like this in a rocking style that must have had Buddy Holly & Gram Parsons lighting up HEAVEN with their smiles. I can picture when Jerry Lee Lewis joins them to play this. Love The FBB, WAYLON & ALL THE GREATS WHO JOINED THEM ON THIS. ONE FANTASTIC LP. ALAN JACKSON SANG -DON'T ROCK THE JUKEBOX. WELL THE CALIFORNIA JUKEBOX IS PLAYING AND LIKE LEE ROY PARNELL SANG IF THE HOUSE IS ROCKING, THE JOINT IS JUMPIN. ALAN WOULD PUT ANOTHER QUATER IN THE JUKEBOX AND JOE DIFFIE WOULD WANNA BE PROPED UP BESIDE THE JUKEBOX FOR THIS ONE. 🎙🎤🎸🎻🎹🎶🎵🎶📻

A great CD!

They're Back! Well, sort of. The only original member left is pedal steel genius "Sneeky Pete" Kleinow. But the new core band of Kleinow, fiddler Gib Guilbeau,multi-instrumentalist John Beland,singer Larry Patton, and drummer Gary Kubal sparkle on this superb recording. And they're joined by such far flung luminaries as Buck Owens, Charlie Louvin, and Waylon Jennings. Jo-el Sonnier , the cajun star, jumps into the cockpit to play squeezebox for Guilbeau's beautiful waltz "Sweet Susanna". Also from the swampland comes Sonny Landreth with his trademark distorted slide guitar work on "Back To Bayou Teche" and he wails! The title song is a potential country standard featuring Beland's husky voice in a nostalgic paen to the country music of thirty years ago. Next up is "Buckaroo", as you might expect the number Owens guests on. He does the pickin' (and grinnin') as Kleinow dazzles all with deft pedal-jumpin'. Fellow steel man Al Perkins features on a couple of cuts with his down home lap steel. And surviving Louvin brother Charlie lights up the stage with his still formidable voice. Perennial outlaw Jennings growls through "I Ain't Livin' Long Like This", a roadhouse rocker. I think he's got a few years left in him yet. Lowell George's megaclassic "Willin'" is handled admirably with nice organ work from Tony Harrell. Neil Young's "Dance, Dance, Dance" recieves the cajun treatment with more inspiring fiddling from Guilbeau. Other high points include "San Fernando Road", "Two Hearts", and the on-your-feet "Take A Walk On The Edge". Although they seem even more "country" than they originally did, "California Jukebox" rocks. It's a no frills amalgam of American music that has wide crossover potential played by grizzled veterans and splendidly produced. Somewhere Gram Parsons is smiling.

Very solid album; you won't be disappointed. I bought it because it had covers of Son Volt's "Windfall" and The Jayhawks "Two Hearts," but ended up liking every song. Great grooves and no corny lyrics. I go back to it over and over again. I play it when I host parties, and always get asked, "Who is this?" Very catchy tunes and great performances.

The previous reviewer did a very good job at describing the content of this classic '97 Burritos release. All I want to add is that "California Jukebox" is one of the greatest albums the Burrito Bros. (Flying or not) ever released. Pick this one up TODAY.

I didn't expect much from this release - but I have to say it's probably one of the best (if not THE best) post Gram Parsons FBB albums of the lot. Love it !

Die Flying Burrito Brothers sind eine amerikanische Countryrock-Institution. Seit 1969 - damals noch mit dem legendären Gram Parsons - sind in unregelmäßigen Abständen immer wieder Scheiben der Band erschienen. Die Besetzung der Gruppe unterlag dabei einem beständigen Wandel. Auf dem 2004 erschienenen "California jukebox" findet sich mit dem Pedal Steel-Gitarristen "Sneeky" Pete Kleinow immerhin ein Gründungsmitglied der Burritos. So ganz wollten sich die fünf Jungs um Kleinow, Gib Gilbeau und John Beland auf den Bekanntheitsgrad ihres Band-Namens jedoch nicht verlassen. Also mußten ein paar Zugpferde bzw. bekannte Namen nicht nur aus dem Country-Genre für ihr Werk gewonnen werden. Unter den Gaststars finden sich der famose Slide-Gitarrist Sonny Landreth, Country-Stars wie Waylon Jennings und der gute, alte Buck Owens sowie der Akkordeon-Spieler Jo-El Sonnier. Was Wunder, daß drei der vier Höhepunkte der CD Titel mit diesen Größen sind. Da wäre einmal der atmosphärische Cajun-Song "Sweet Susannah" mit einem toll auftrumpfenden Jo-El Sonnier. Sodann der von Rodney Crowell komponierte Countryrock-Feger "Ain't living long like this", bei dem Waylon Jennings sich am Lead-Gesang beteiligt. Auch das von Sonny Landreth beigesteuerte "Back to Bayou Teche" macht Laune. Schließlich liefert die Band noch eine ansprechende Version des unverwüstlichen Little Feat-Songs "Willin' ab. Das wars dann aber auch schon. Die restlichen zehn Songs sind routiniert heruntergespielte Countryrock-Songs, die alle einfach eine Spur zu glatt, zu kalkuliert wirken. Teilweise sind sie auch schlicht langweilig. Bei allem handwerklichen Können klingt ein Titel wie "World without you" einfach nichtssagend. Ein anderes Beispiel ist das weinerliche "My baby's gone", das auch durch die Mitwirkung von Charlie Louvin nicht besser wird. Oder das farblose "Buckaroo", das mich melodisch immer wieder an "Paperback writer" von den Beatles erinnert. Was bleibt? Der Versuch altgedienter Countryrock-Musiker, noch etwas für ihre Altersversorgung zu tun. Es sei ihnen gegönnt.