Christian Parker and company’s Back At Home is a natural extension of these same musicians’ previous–and equally unaffected–tributes to the Byrds. 2023’s Sweethearts – A Tribute to the Byrds’ ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo, offers their homage to that group’s original landmark fusion of rock and country, while the very next year’s Change Is Now is a more general acclamation of the iconic American band’s eclectic approach.
In what may well be the first entry in a series–at least based on its main title American Cosmic Revival Volume I— Parker and his sympathetic bandmates now delve further into the earliest work of Gram Parsons. The late singer and songwriter’s International Submarine Band was integral to the formulation of the hybrid that has crystallized into contemporary country music over the last fifty years.
The very first track of A Tribute to the International Submarine Band, “Blue Eyes,” suggests how uncannily similar is Parker’s voice to Parsons’. Yet the vulnerability in both voices is what’s so affecting and here that virtue’s set out in great relief by the precision of arrangements highlighted by the prominence of steel guitarist Jay Dee Maness.
The latter played on the aforementioned milestone LP of 1968, as did pianist Earl Poole Ball, and their presence here lends further credibility to the project (as it also did for those two aforementioned prior works). For example, Ball’s playing on “I Must Be Somebody Else You’ve Know” adds an earthy quality that prevents the sound from becoming too sweet for its own good.
Besides singing mellifluous vocal harmonies here on cuts like “Satisfied Mind,” Christian and his right-hand man, Patrick Cleary, also handle six and twelve-string acoustic guitars. And Michael Rinne’s bass playing, on both electric and upright instruments, also adds a welcome punch to the rich mix captured by the bandleader’s co-production with drummer Ron Keck (their recordings then mixed by Sean McDonald and mastered by Larry Lachmann).
Ten tracks comprise A Tribute to the International Submarine Band and feature more than just tunes closely associated with the man born Ingram Cecil Connor III. “Miller’s Cave,” for instance, appears in an appropriately chirpy rendition that makes for an effective contrast to the doleful “I Still Miss Someone;” Christian Parker and his likeminded comrades handle this ISB cull with just the right amount of sensitivity, evincing a healthy reverence for the material in direct proportion to their affection for it.
Upon the Florida-born trust fund kid’s (more than a little abrupt) departure from the Byrds, he went on to form the Flying Burrito Brothers. Then he embarked on a solo career, collaborating with Emmylou Harris. While none of those latter projects garnered him much commercial success, his distaff co-artist regularly recognized the man’s elevated stature: she not only covered the tune “Luxury Liner” that appears here, but named her fourth solo album after it.
With records like American Cosmic Revival Volume I, Christian Parker and his cohorts also offer direct obeisance to the formative source(s) of their inspiration. Yet, they are sufficiently worldly as musicians to place their main influences in the context of the music’s dual foundations of C&W and R&B. Hence, the middle point of this thirty minutes is a medley of chestnuts made famous by the likes of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.
This interpretation of “Folsom Prison Blues”/”That’s All Right Mama” transcends its potential over-familiarity and, as such, offers one more upbeat and empathetic demonstration of exactly how such numbers became part of a groundbreaking paradigm shift of musical style during the Fifties and Sixties. Such unaffected performances as these demonstrate the enduring resonance of what was originally dubbed ‘Cosmic American Music.’ The rootsy amalgam has rarely sounded so true to its name as on Back At Home, so its long-deceased chief proponent would no doubt be proud of Christian Parker and his friends.
