Kindling And Other Unexpected Delights

On the solo career of Gene Parsons, the other GP in the Byrds/Burritos orbit

Here’s a partial list of the musicians who walked through the door of Warner Bros. Recording Studio in North Hollywood in 1973 to contribute to Kindling, the solo debut of drummer Gene Parsons, who’d just left the Byrds:

There’s Ralph Stanley, the voice of bluegrass woe, on hand to sing and harmonize through “Drunkard’s Dream,” a Stanley Brothers staple written by his older brother, Carter Stanley.

Also on hand: the astonishing fiddle player Vassar Clemons, whose spiraling blues-tinged improvisations light up the corners of “Drunkard’s Dream.”

There’s a longtime Parsons collaborator, the fiddle player Gib Guilbeau, who spices songs like “Sonic Bummer” and “Take a City Bride” with poignant Creole and Cajun-influenced ad-libs. After this project, the two would wind up playing together again in the Flying Burrito Brothers

Just about every track features guitar (and sometimes mandolin) from the underestimated Clarence White, a sensitive soloist who bonded with Parsons during their tenure in the Byrds. On many of these tracks including the one below, White uses a clever device he and Parsons invented, the StringBender, which alters the pitch and vibration of the B string on a guitar to emulate the sound of pedal steel guitar.

Providing mournful low-end support, on tuba, for “Long Way Back” is Red Callander. Better known as a jazz bassist, Callander’s resume included work with Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum and Nat King Cole.

One track, “Back Again,” features synthesizer played by Little Feat keyboardist Billy Payne. The credits reveal another connection to Little Feat: Parsons sings a plaintive version of Lowell George’s enduring “Willin.’”

A multi-instrumentalist, Parsons plays drums, autoharp, banjo, bass and guitar on Kindling. On some tracks, though, the drummer is studio ace Andy Newmark, who’d worked with Sly Stone on Fresh! and Carly Simon on Anticipation. Shortly after this, Newmark began working with George Harrison (Dark Horse, 1974) and David Bowie (Young Americans, 1975).

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Parsons joined the Byrds a year after Gram Parsons (no relation) departed, and left the band over disputes about money and creative differences in 1972. Within months, he was signed to Warner Bros. and beginning work on his debut with producer Russ Titelman (Randy Newman, Little Feat, many others).

The label probably hoped for a record that ambled along the lucrative pathways of California soft rock (the Eagles’ 1972 single “Peaceful Easy Feeling” was still ubiquitous). An adept songwriter, Parsons certainly knew the commercial play; his 1979 followup Melodies contains pensive songs that aspire to the confessional writing of Jackson Browne, Neil Young and others.

But in 1973 Parsons was evidently not fully sold on the mellow aesthetic. What he heard was more rustic, evoking the two-steps of social dance in Louisiana and the carefully threaded banjo laments of bluegrass. To conjure these atmospheres, he and Titelman sought musicians who could operate almost like character actors, bringing a specific heat, or whimsy, or heartbreak, to support specific moments in a song. This worked: All of the musicians mentioned above turn in lighthearted, assured, fully “alive” performances.

A newly remastered version of Kindling has just been released by the UK label Cherry Red, as part of a 5-disc anthology devoted to Parsons’ solo career from 1973 to 1986. The set includes Parsons’ subsequent studio effort (Melodies, from 1979) and live performances both solo and with band; the music is nicely contextualized by Peter Doggett, author of Are You Ready For The Country?, whose essay argues that Parsons was one of those multi-talented musicians whose original work should have been documented more frequently.

Another takeaway is hiding in plain sight – within the personnel list of Kindling. Sometimes records are captivating because everyone involved shares musical reference points, and history, within a certain genre. And sometimes, as happened regularly in the early ‘70s (see also: Maria Muldaur’s sparkling debut), records become significant for the opposite reason: The wild stylistically diverse personalities of the participants.