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Guitarist and singer Christian Parker and nearly a dozen of his pals, including Earl Poole Ball, Patrick Cleary, and JayDee Maness, are on a mission. They want to expose new generations to the so-called cosmic country pioneered in the late 1960s and early 1970s by acts such as the Byrds, Gram Parsons, and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
It’s music Parker and his bandmates know well and, in at least two cases, helped to create. Ball worked with the Byrds, the Burrito Brothers, and the International Submarine Band, a country rock outfit that Parsons led before he joined the Byrds. Maness co-founded the International Submarine Band and contributed to the Byrds’ classic Sweetheart of the Rodeo.
Parker’s band’s new American Cosmic Revival, Vol. 2: Miles from Nowhere is the follow-up to last year’s American Cosmic Revival, Vol. 1: Back at Home, where the group revisited all the songs from 1968’s Safe at Home, the International Submarine Band’s only album.
This time around, Parker and his friends feature Boudleaux and Felice Bryant’s “Brand New Heartache,” which Parsons also covered; “Wheels,” which Parsons wrote with original Byrds bassist Chris Hillman; and “Train Leaves Here This Morning” by Byrds co-founder Gene Clark and the Burrito Brothers’ Bernie Leadon (who went on to bigger fame with the Eagles).
But the program also finds Parker’s band moving beyond its core influences to perform stellar country rock material from disparate sources. The 12-song set incorporates tunes such as Bob Dylan’s “I Threw It All Away,” the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December,” the Everly Brothers’ “So Sad,” and Rodney Crowell’s “No Memories Hangin’ ‘Round.”
The group doesn’t try to reinvent this material, but it freshens up each number and offers consistently satisfying musicianship and vocal work. It’s a safe bet that most fans of the genre will love these covers.
Also Noteworthy
The Kennedys, Smoketree. If you’re looking for impeccable vocal harmonies and indelible melodies, look no further than Smoketree, the latest album from folk-rock singers and multi-instrumentalists Maura and Pete Kennedy. The married couple first performed together more than 30 years ago as members of Nanci Griffith’s band and as her opening act. Since then, they have released about two dozen albums, and Smoketree is among the best of the bunch. The Kennedys’ first release since 2023’s Headwinds, the largely acoustic set consists solely of self-penned material, with four numbers by Maura, four by Pete, and four they wrote together.
A few of the songs touch on current events, such as Maura’s “Without Us,” which comments on climate change (“We failed to tend the garden, broke Mother Nature’s trust”) and Pete’s “Seeds of Peace,” where he laments that “the liars won’t stop lying” and asks, “Has the age of reason really passed?” There are also two tunes about music-making, including Maura’s “Like an Angel,” where she ponders the source of creative sparks, and Pete’s “Meant to Do,” where he recalls receiving his first guitar and, later, teaming up with Maura and knowing “right from the start…what we two were meant to do.”
An occasional platitude slips in. (“The past is gone, the future is unknown,” they sing at one point.) But even when the words fall short, the music is exhilarating. Singing and playing indeed seem like what Maura and Pete Kennedy were meant to do.
Ned Hill Band, Saw Jesus at the Park. This column doesn’t often make room for EPs, but the latest from the Ned Hill Band is good enough to merit an exception. The folk/rock set features vocals by the band’s Nashville-based namesake, who sounds redolent of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, plus a shimmering cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1971 hit, “Hey, Tonight.” Also here are five originals by Hill, whose backup crew includes his producer, Dave Coleman, who plays lead guitar, bass, melodica, and accordion. Half a dozen other players add strings, bass, keyboards, and percussion.
The music has a 1960s vibe, and so do some of the lyrics. In the midtempo title cut, Hill meets Jesus, who pulls out a joint and asks for a light, and in the hard-rocking “Drive,” he sings, “The echoes of 1964 play in my head.” Elsewhere in that same song, though, he’s planted firmly in the present. “What a world,” he sings, “Say, what’d I miss? Twenty-four seven, you can’t take a piss without some breaking news of some craziness comin’ down on you.” Adds Hill: “I just can’t breathe, it’s all too much.”
