[SYN-023 874757002323]
It wasn't just Gram Parsons. Yes, hanging around and toking up with a soon-to be country legend in the late '60s and early '70s clearly affected the Rolling Stones' musical approach, lending them a distinctive new twang that you can hear on songs like "Wild Horses" and, especially, "Dead Flowers." But the sounds of rural America, both black and white, were haunting the minds of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards well before that. Listen, for example, to the relatively obscure "Sittin' on a Fence," a 1966 condemnation of traditional lifestyles cloaked in jaunty back-porch acoustic garb. Or check out "2000 Man," from 1967's long-underrated Their Satanic Majesties Request--strip away all the psychedelic electronics and you've got a bluegrass song. Which is the whole point of this disc, brought to you by the cream of Nashville's traditional country scene. — Mac Randall