Close Up the Honky-Tonks

Audio Remasterer: Andrew Thompson .
Audio Remixers: Dick Bogert; Jim Dickson.
Liner Note Author: John Tobler.
A&M Records seemed to close the book on the Flying Burrito Brothers with Close Up the Honky-Tonks, a 23-track, double-LP compilation. A combination best-of and odds-and-sods career wrap-up, the album contained one LP given over to tracks from the Burritos' first two records, The Gilded Palace of Sin and Burrito Deluxe, plus the non-LP single "The Train Song." The second disc presented 11 previously unreleased tracks, most of them cover songs, ranging from the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" to the Everly Brothers' "Wake Up, Little Susie." Co-founder Gram Parsons was featured on the five songs on side three, while side four came from the Rick Roberts era of the band. The Burritos would lack a one-disc best-of until A&M came up with the CD/cassette release Farther Along in 1988. So, for more than a decade, Close Up the Honky-Tonks was the definitive Burritos compilation and contains some excellent performances available nowhere else. ~ William Ruhlmann