BBC Documentary - Hotel California: L.A. From the Byrds to the Eagles

L.A. music blog Aquarium Drunkard recently brought to my attention to a 2007 documentary done by the BBC that highlights the development of the Los Angeles music scene in the late 1960s. Hotel California: L.A. From the Byrds to the Eagles is currently available on Youtube, although I'm not entirely sure exactly how long that will last. In short, the film covers the early idealism of the country and folk-rock scene that emerged in Laurel Canyon, but which transformed into a corporate and money-driven scene in a relatively brief period of time.

I know what you're thinking after reading the title - "I hate the f***in' Eagles." Of course I can't argue about such an opinion. In fact, the documentary is very straightforward in presenting criticisms of the Eagles from a number of different musicians for their approach to music. Despite the title's mention of the Eagles, I should emphasize that the documentary covers a great deal of musicians before the Eagles, including Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (in various groups and solo), the highly regarded Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Gram Parsons, and others. In the style of recent documentaries on Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt, the documentary makes great use of many of the musicians and industry folks who were involved in the scene at that time. The result is a film that thoroughly documents an extremely fascinating time in American music. And as I always try to mention when applicable, the video even contains a bit of a West Texas connection in featuring J.D. Souther, who was raised in Amarillo.

The film is currently available on youtube in 7 parts, starting with the one below:

John Braden - Part 2.5

I hadn't expected to publish an entire new post for this, but after considering the value of some of this interview, it is probably better as its own section rather than making the Part II even longer. If you're behind in the series, you can find Part I here and Part II here.


















Interview with Michael Vosse

To preface this entry briefly, Michael Vosse was a co-producer of John Braden's sole album for A&M Records, and while long out of the music business, he was more than willing to discuss his involvement with the album. This isn't an interview in the formal sense, at least not the type where you see the format of Question, Answer, repeat. Rather, I did a lot of listening and asked a few questions here and there when appropriate. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Vosse for taking the time on a Sunday afternoon to talk about his memories of John Braden and for throwing in a few other interesting stories on the side.

Signing to A&M

Michael Vosse told me that he started working at A&M Records in the summer of 1967, and so at some point in 1968, he was looking to get his foot in the door as a producer by bringing in a new artist. He said he believes that David Anderle at Elektra told him about John Braden, as John had tried out for them recently. However, at that time Elektra had Tim Buckley and a few other artists in that vein of music, so they recommended John to Vosse. My own read into that would be that they must have thought at least somewhat positively about John to help him out in that respect. Vosse was clear to point out that he was eager to produce his first album then and that he would produce anyone he could get A&M to approve.

At that time, Braden was already working with Richard Bell, and while Vosse doesn't remember the specific circumstances, he said it was most likely that the two of them came to A&M to demo Braden's songs. It was Braden's original material that was the convincing factor in getting him signed to A&M, as they had their own publishing division and wanted to sign artists to both the label and the publishing company, so the songs could then be marketed to other artists and increase revenue for the company all around.

However, the A&R and sales people were not completely on board with signing John. They didn't really "get" his voice, Vosse said, and felt it was a turn off. However, the publishing department liked the music. Additionally, A&M co-founder Herb Alpert liked some of the songs, but all in all, publishing was their main interest. Vosse was just really trying to sell him to the label, so he said he didn't consider at the time exactly how the dynamics would play out. He noted that Herb liked John, and thought he had potential, but didn't know exactly what to do with him either. In fact, Alpert liked some of the songs well enough that he kept dubs of them as possibilities for his own band. Thus, in the end, the opinions of Herb Alpert and the A&M Publishing Dept. were enough to get John signed to the label.






















When John Braden showed up at the label, A&M Records was at an in-between period between pop, Herb Alpert's style of music, and the rock and roll that was just coming in. Vosse said they still wanted milder music, which likely led to them being a bit late getting into rock and roll, although he added that they were still open to a lot. Ironically, Vosse said they put out one of their first rock records in the form of a single for Captain Beefheart. While the single did well, he said that when Captain Beefheart actually visited the label's offices, they were so frightened by him that they didn't extend his contract. However, they didn't give up on rock & roll, picking up Joe Cocker and Procol Harum not too long after, which was around the time Vosse was starting at the label.

Once A&M agreed to sign John, they told Vosse he needed to have a co-producer for the album to make sure everything stayed on track, since it would be his first time in that role. The person selected was Henry Lewy, who had produced Joni Mitchell, and all around was well known as a good engineer. Not unlike what I was told when I spoke with Chris Ethridge, Vosse said that Henry Lewy was a "wonderfully calm person." In fact, he was known for being very good at managing various meltdowns in the studio with bands or individuals, and helping people get back on track. That said, Braden's session didn't have any of those problems, so that specific skill wasn't necessarily needed. Prior to recording, Vosse recalled having numerous get-togethers with Braden and Richard Bell. He noted that Bell was very musically focused and had a big part in the arrangements that were used on the album. Braden and Bell had been working together for some time by that point and they worked well together.

Recording the Album

The sessions went very smoothly, in large part because, Vosse says, "John had his shit together always" and largely knew what he wanted. Vosse's sentiments about John echo many of the other folks I've heard from, saying that he was immensely likable, very talented, and always prepared. Most arrangements on the album were fairly formal, as they had been worked out by Bell and Braden. However, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" was put together more on the spot with live tracks because Ry Cooder was there and was the session leader, a position he typically mandated for his studio work. Vosse noted, "we had a combination of people there that made it perfect to do something without an arrangement."

Vosse said that the John Braden album was done very efficiently, requiring limited sessions and most songs done in very few takes. Since the songs were simple and the people that played on the album didn't need a lot of takes, the album was finished with a very reasonable budget. As far as technical details go, some songs were overdubbed, although a number were played live. Vosse says that he and Lewy mixed the album, although it was mostly Lewy, and he recalls their general aim to be to make the songs sound clean. One of the main reasons that the album has such a great lineup of musicians on it was that Vosse hoped the names would bring people in for this new artist. Thus, in most cases, he knew the musicians personally and was responsible for calling them up and inviting them to play on the record, although many did only one session, as is evidenced by the diverse cast of musicians on the recording. Obviously at the time few people knew of John Braden, but they definitely knew about the Flying Burrito Brothers and Ry Cooder.





















While discussing Sneaky Pete, who played on Braden's album, Vosse mentioned a side story about when he went to San Francisco with the Flying Burrito Brothers so they could open a show for the Grateful Dead. On the second of two nights, someone dosed Sneaky Pete's Coca-Cola with something and they had to take him to the hospital because he thought he had gone crazy. He said Pete he was a very straight laced guy, and so this was an extremely unpleasant experience. That terrible experience aside, he went on to detail that Pete was an amazing musician, and unlike any steel player he had ever heard. Interestingly, Vosse said as far as he knew, Pete maintained his job as an animator for Hanna Barbera during much of the time he was playing music in those years. He saw music as a passing fancy and didn't want to give up his day job, so Burrito Brothers' rehearsals were often adjusted to work around his job.

Vosse also briefly talked about Chris Ethridge, who played bass on three tracks for Braden's album, noting him to be the "ultimate southern gentleman." Despite the chaos with the Burrito Brothers at the time, Ethridge was serene and never got mad about anything. In general, he said Ethridge just had a good time in what he was doing. However, this didn't affect his professionalism, as he could come in to the studio and hear a song once and know what to do. Regarding his musicianship, Vosse said that Ethridge was "right on the money."

Vosse compared Braden's session to when the Flying Burrito Brothers would come in to the studio and take forever to record a record. As has been well documented about the band's history, drugs and arguments were problems in their sessions on frequent occasions. Lewy engineered a good number of these sessions, and as Vosse noted, "Henry was very good at walking into that chaos and making people get reasonable again." Hence the reputation that Chris Ethridge summed up well, describing Lewy as a "zen kind of guy."

Album Release

Once Braden's album was completed, Vosse says the A&M Records Sales department listened to the album and couldn't find a single that made any sense to promote. As a result, expectations were very low as soon as the album was done and this proved a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts because hardly anyone bought it. While he didn't stay at A&M for more than a year after the album's release, he said it was one of the lowest selling albums that A&M had had up to that point.

In addition to the album receiving little to no radio promotion, Vosse recalls that A&M never set up a showcase or any kind of a tour for John. He said it was very unfortunate that John was never given the chance of going on a promotional tour, because he was so professional and would have done very well at such a thing, not to mention that it would have been very low cost to send John on tour. However, Vosse said that the label didn't really see much in him at the time and took the attitude that some new people just wouldn't work out. Rather they seem to have cut their losses and decided not to promote him. Publishing tried initially to promote his songs, but his lack of notoriety and small song catalog didn't give them much to work off of. Vosse said he expects the A&M Sales department may have had trouble pushing John's voice, and thus didn't do much to promote him simply because they didn't know how to sell him.






















Not directly related to the promotion of this album, but relevant to the story, Vosse left A&M not too long after Braden's record came out, around the time of Woodstock. Therefore, he didn't see first-hand the path that led to John and A&M parting ways. He saw John several times in the next year, but said he didn't keep up with him in the long-term.

In hindsight, Vosse said that if Braden had come to A&M 3 or 4 years later, it might have been better for his career, as they didn't exactly know how to nurture artists when he was signed. As an example, he said that when The Police were brought in [roughly 10 years later], they didn't even do an album for their first year because they didn't have enough material. A&M paid them and kept them on the label during this developmental period, which became how they dealt with new artists, and so Vosse said that John would have benefited from that system if given the chance.

Thus, the demos of Braden's that I ran across may have been his last official work with A&M, and given the sales of his previous record, I doubt that he had much of a chance of getting them released. Vosse didn't personally know of these demos, but noted that it was very likely that John would have written and brought more songs to A&M at some point for the publishing department to try to push to other artists. While John never wrote "the hit" that would have made his career, it is nice to know that at least a few people at A&M still appreciated John's work and more importantly, that he eventually did find his place in the arts writing musicals.

Summary

In conclusion, I am quite grateful to Michael Vosse for taking the time to speak with me about his time with John Braden. He cleared up a number of major gaps in the story that I had accumulated thus far, but similarly, his few years with A&M and with Braden leave a number of questions unanswered. I realized after this interview that if I had begun this search a few years earlier, I might have had the opportunity to speak with Richard Bell, who passed away in 2007, and who no doubt would have had many things to add to the story of John Braden's time in the music business. Thus, without exploring the A&M Records archives at UCLA, I have exhausted most every resource available to learn more about the music career of John Braden, and for what it's worth, I've compiled a whole lot more than existed before I started this roughly a year ago. An eventual Part III will follow, although given various work obligations, it may be some time before I am able to give that portion its due billing.

Etc.

A few small additions have come up in the past few months as well, mostly involving new links I've run across relating to Braden. As I've mentioned before, the periodical archiving process that Google has undertaken will likely continue to add resources to this search over time. For example, this Google News Archive link (see the "From the Rack" section) to a periodical called The Age TV-Radio Guide contains a very small mention of Braden's album in a September 1969 edition. Further, I have found one (only my second now) mention of an actual show listing for one of John's shows. It's a pay link for the New York Times, but in short, the listing says that John played a show with Lee Guilliatt, with the two described simply as "folk singers," at Judson Church in Greenwich Village. The show took place on Friday, November 20, 1970. In addition, I found a second reference to the only other show, or set of shows, that I have confirmed he played, with the MC-5 at Ungano's. The listing is linked in this New York Magazine archive.

I wish that John's music was more readily available, either for pay or free, and Michael Vosse actually noted the same sentiment. However, given that A&M Records is basically just a back catalog now, I expect it would be difficult to get the permissions to post it. On that point, I don't plan to post it here, given Google's history of shutting down blogs with illegal downloads, so hopefully you can find a vinyl copy on ebay or elsewhere if you are really interested.

I really appreciate hearing from the few folks now and then who knew John in one capacity or another, and I encourage you to continue sending small anecdotes you wish to share, as they help give a more full picture of who John was. I continue to be impressed with his work and feel that there is still a good deal out there to learn about him.

I look away and let it pass,
Like figures scratched upon fine glass,
We will crack, we will fade,
And everything we know today will go away.

They are waiting for me,
In their house by the sea,
To come home, from my pain,
To come home, from L.A., once again.

--John Braden - "They Are Waiting"

(Top picture courtesy of Braden's family)

Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel - documentary review

At times I go to great lengths to try and report on bands or albums or other items that are either “news” or at least relatively obscure, of course trying to be a tiny little cog in the 24-hour news machine. Other times I review albums or books from a year ago or five years ago, or talk about artists from 35 years ago. In all honesty, sometimes both endeavors seem quite useless, but all the same, I guess you don’t have to read any of it if you don’t want.

What does all of that have to do with what I am discussing now? Virtually nothing, other than the fact that this one can be filed away in the “5 years old” category. Upon a recommendation from an internet faux-friend (or IFFs, as I like to call them), I was compelled to find a copy of the Gram Parsons documentary Fallen Angel, having taken a recent increased interest in Parsons’ various musical endeavors as a parallel to some of my searching for people who were involved with A&M Records and John Braden at that time.

Sometimes I find it preferable not to subject friends and family to the documentaries and such that I enjoy, so I chose to watch the DVD early one Saturday morning. By about halfway through, it was so good that I had largely decided it would be worth starting over so that H. could watch it with me.

What Gandulf Hennig and Sid Griffin put together with this DVD is a work that captured a short, but quite notable, piece of music history at just the right point in time. That is, over 30 years after Parsons’ death, each year that passes inevitably leaves us with a few less people who personally knew him. Likely at great effort and expense, they tracked down numerous people from various periods of Gram Parsons’ life, and from those individual accounts they construct a detailed and cohesive story that is compelling and quite well-rounded.

The film follows a progression of countless personal narratives from Gram’s friends, family, and fellow musicians in a quite tasteful manner, and the mixture of many personal anecdotes keeps the story intriguing throughout. At the very end, the film falls victim to a bit of sensationalism regarding the events surrounding Parsons’ death, and why this event breaks rank from the format of the earlier parts, I don’t know.

However, the value of the accounts throughout the film is priceless from a music historian’s perspective, as no amount of archival footage or periodicals can substitute for the personal memories of those involved. I note the timeliness of this documentary most particularly because some of those interviewed for the film, who are quite vital to its completeness, have passed on in the 5 years since it was filmed. Thus, no matter whether or not you buy into Gram Parsons’ recent resurgence in popularity, this film provides a well organized and detailed account of not only his life, but also gives us a portrait of the lives of those in the music business some 40 years ago. The style of this documentary is similar to Be Here to Love Me, which covered the life of Townes Van Zandt a number of years ago. Although still not a widely known documentary, Fallen Angel is an essential for anyone with an interest in Gram Parsons or the Flying Burrito Brothers. So if you’ve got your recruits and your green mohair suits, show your ID at the local video store and check out this documentary. Ironically, my previous sentence is about as cliché and unnecessary as the ending to the documentary, so consider yourself warned in that regard.

(Image source Speakeasy PR)

John Braden - Part II

For the back story on my account of John Braden, see my original post, as well as Part I of the story.

Career as a folk recording artist

In spite of all the information I have obtained from various sources, John’s career in the recording industry has been quite difficult to find detailed information on. No doubt, this is largely a result of the fact that this part of his time in this part of the music industry was relatively short, and as far as notability, his career never really took off.

A number of months after my initial post on Braden, I was contacted by a gentleman named Walter Michael Harris who played drums for John on a demo back in 1967, well before he was signed to A&M Records. He said he met Braden through composer/performer John Herbert McDowell and recalls playing a "clip-clop" beat on "Carriage House Song" and brushes on "Mr. Bojangles on a group of recordings that likely helped Braden sign his record deal. While that session was largely the full extent of his time with Braden overall, he remembered him being very likeable, and further, found the release that would follow on A&M to mask some of John's "simple, sweet" sound. He went on to say that John had a "unique voice and musical sensibility," and that he felt their demo may have done better than Braden's subsequent LP in capturing certain elements of Braden's true artistry. Quite interesting finding out where some of the folks from these days end up, as Harris went on to become the youngest cast member in the original Broadway cast of HAIR in 1968 and now runs a non-profit in Seattle called Power of Hope. As a short side note, Harris's brother Hibiscus was a notable entertainer as well, and was founder of the Cockettes, whom you can read more about here.

Billboard notes the signing of Braden in the Nov. 16th, 1968 issue. While over 40 years since the release of the album, I have been fortunate enough to speak with a couple of folks who played on the record, although understandably the sessions aren't exactly crisp in everyone's memory at this point. John was signed to A&M by Michael Vosse, who also co-produced the record, and similarly served as a manager for a period for the Flying Burrito Brothers, which is well detailed in the Gram Parsons documentary Fallen Angel. (My interview/discussion with Michael Vosse can be found here.)

Conflicting reports exist regarding the album's release year, some stating it as 1968 and others as 1969. Given that Braden signed with Billboard in late 1968, it is plausible to assume that his album was released either at the very end of the year in '68 or at some point in early 1969. I expect that exact release dates are not available because they weren't quite as big of a deal in those days, as compared to today's releases, where an album is released on Tuesday and is old news by the weekend. What I do know, is that Braden’s only studio album as a recording artist utilized musicians who are this day remembered for their amazing talents and productive musical careers. The self-titled album (SP-4172) was released solely on vinyl, although such was not terribly uncommon in these days. I noted some of this in my initial blog, but just to recap, the album included famed musician and producer Ry Cooder, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Chris Ethridge of Flying Burrito Brothers fame, Bruce Langhorne, Burrito Brothers producer Henry Lewy, Paul Horn, Richard Bell, and others. Even art direction and photography for the album were by individuals, Tom Wilkes and Guy Webster, who are now quite renowned in rock and roll history. Quite unfortunately, Lewy, Bell, Kleinow, and Wilkes have all passed on in recent years. It is this byproduct of the advancing age of all the folks involved with this album that has led to me to work to contact as many of them as possible for any information they might have. I regret that I was not able to contact Wilkes before his recent passing, although a blog acquaintance at Corduroy Mountain just so happened to have had a short correspondence with him not long before he died. The response he received from Wilkes is not uncharacteristic of what a number of folks have told me in my search, and I think is worth noting on account of it's humor and quite frankly, for the definite truth behind the statement:

I'm sorry I can't remember the man or his music.
It looks like all can do is quote the old axiom,
"If you remember the 60's, you weren't there."

Good luck,
Tom Wilkes

I had the great pleasure of speaking for a short while with Chris Ethridge, original bassist for the Flying Burrito Brothers, who also played bass on a number of songs on Braden's album. He recalled recording the album at A&M studios in Los Angeles, which he said was just off of La Brea and Sunset at the old Charlie Chaplin studios. While he wasn't good friends with John, Ethridge remembered him being a nice guy that everyone got along with, and he said he was quite honored that John asked him to play on his record. Ethridge has lived an amazing life, having begun playing with Gram Parsons as a teenager and going on to be a part of many albums that are now considered classics. In regard to his bass playing, I was quite taken by his philosophy, which was "anybody can play, but it takes a real musician to hold back and just play what's called for." This type of honesty really comes through in everything he says, including his great respect for the co-producer of Braden's album, Henry Lewy, whom he noted was a "zen kind of guy" and "almost like a saint." Regarding the other musicians from the album, I was able to find contact info for only a few of them, and in most cases, they either didn't remember the session or the contact info itself was outdated. Thus, I am quite grateful to Mr. Ethridge for taking the time to speak with me, even when the sessions are but a distant memory in his long musical career.

Official records from the site On A&M Records report that two singles, or "45s," were released off of the album, apparently both in 1969: one in the U.S. and a second in Australia. The U.S. release (A&M 1066) contained Braden's recording of the traditional "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" and his own composition "Hand Me Down Man." The Australian release contained "Carriage House Song" and "Wild Birds" (AMK-3036) and to add to the time line of that release, you'll notice that the very next 45 released by A&M was that of the Flying Burrito Brothers for "Wheels" and "Juanita." It is a bit peculiar to me that "What a Friend" was the U.S. single, given the strength of songs such as "Carriage House Song," "Baptist Funeral," and "Song to Raymondo," although maybe I don't fully understand the radio politics of the day, or what A&M might have considered the most marketable song from the album.

Beyond links to his album from various sites, about the only other reference I find (part of the link is Not Safe for Work) is to some shows he did with the MC5 at Ungano's in New York City around June 19th of 1969. I’m still looking for any concert information and/or information on his supporting musicians, if anyone finds a link, or an old poster, etc. Using a Google News archive search, I was able to find one article in the Chicago Tribune (June 29, 1969) from a column called "The Sound," by Robb Baker, that mentions a John Braden show at Ungano's, which may or may not be the shows with the MC5 given that both occurred in June 1969. The article is a music news column with a number of blurbs about various music industry happenings, and it just so happens to devote the last two segments to two "young, very good folksingers who tried to bring their music into clubs generally devoted to hard rock." I was quite blown away to find that he was talking about shows by John Braden and Townes Van Zandt. The article goes on to describe how neither songwriter was able to get the deserved attention from the audience.

While both Van Zandt and Braden found their niches in the music industry over the years, on a certain level neither found true appreciation for their songs in their respective lifetimes, although Van Zandt has been exalted to iconic status some 12 years after his death. Knowing their who they were competing against for radio play at the time may help clarify the situation though, as this issue of Billboard shows that Braden's album and Van Zandt's Our Mother the Mountain came out around the same time as Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan. While Van Zandt's album is reviewed in the same issue, I have not been able to find any record that Billboard reviewed Braden's album, but it's not for lack of looking (in both online archives and microfilm). As a side note, I was quite amazed to find that a majority of Billboard Magazine issues are fully viewable on Google Books going back all the way to 1942. Some issues are still missing though, and thus searching is still not entirely comprehensive of all past issues.

While I digress a bit, a couple of other notes about my aforementioned archive searches. First of all, it would seem that A&M was along the lines of a mid-level label and didn't have a large advertising presence. That is, through many issues of Billboard throughout 1968 and 1969, the only A&M albums I saw advertised were for Herb Alpert, and surprisingly, I never saw an ad for the Flying Burrito Brothers Gilded Palace of Sin, an album that was charting in the Billboard 200 in mid-year 1969. Secondly, I would say that anyone interested in Braden or other relatively obscure artists from pre-internet times will likely benefit greatly from the increasing number of search-able archived magazines and newspapers. Google Books and other archive services are in the early stages of making many older periodicals available, and I think some amazing resources will emerge in coming years. Thus, while my search has felt exhaustive, I expect new details about Braden may emerge with increased archiving of old newspapers and magazines.

Regarding finding Braden's album today, a few copies are available on ebay and Amazon from time to time for between $10 and $40. For a time, a blog had the entire album up for digital download, but the whole site has been taken down recently, likely for a violation of terms of service in posting a lot of other copyrighted albums.

Since the album is not otherwise available for pay download (on Itunes or otherwise), I don’t believe Braden’s family would have any problem with you downloading this work if you can find it somewhere. In fact, I expect they would be thrilled to see his music finding new listeners today. If I can find a way to provide his music to you without getting this blog shut down in the process, I'll do what I can. Write me if you really really want to hear it and I'll try to figure something out. You can hear what I consider one of Braden's better songs, "Baptist Funeral," at the blog Corduroy Mountain, but I'm not otherwise aware of a site where you can hear more. As I noted in my original post about Braden, the only band I’m aware of that has covered John’s work is the Australian band Autumn, that covered “Song to Raymondo.” Copies of that album are available on ebay Australia from time to time, although it is relatively rare as well. (Update: Don't know how long it will stay posted, but hear two more of John's songs at this site.)

Following his self-titled record, the only thing I know about further solo work from Braden is that a demo exists that I suspect was to be his follow-up album. I don’t know if it was recorded and rejected by the record label, or if it was possibly recorded with hopes of getting a new label. Nonetheless, I was able to obtain a copy of the demos from a gentleman who had an old box of reel-to-reel recordings that a friend of his at A&M gave him years ago. I have no info on it other than what was written on the outside of the box, so you can see for yourself that there isn't much clue as to when or where it was recorded (I don’t have the actual reels – just mp3s and picture of the reel to reel box).

As far as the personal interest story in all of this goes, the story behind the demo may actually be my favorite part of having taken up trying to tell John Braden's story. Before I knew anything about him, I saw the reel-to-reel demo posted on ebay, and inquired to the seller about how I would even go about getting the music off of the reels if I purchased them. Without hesitation, he offered to send me a CD of the songs for no charge. The songs are definitely in demo form, in that they are much less produced than the album, but nonetheless they are an interesting picture of Braden a few years after the first album. Months passed and I largely forgot about having the demos, including the time when I initially began corresponding with Georgia. Close to a month later, I mentioned the demo recordings in an email to her, and came to find that neither she or she and John's mother had ever heard the recordings. Thus, I sent the recordings on to her for she and her mother to hear over 20 years after John's death, and probably at least 35 years after they were recorded. The songs wouldn't likely mean much to you or me, but I can hardly comprehend what they must have been for John's family. It's along the lines of digging up a long lost letter in a way, I suppose, and as I've noted many times before, it was made possible because of the kindness of strangers and people who simply "want to keep the music alive."

Thus, unless/until I find any other substantial information on Braden's career in the music business, this is about as exhaustive a report as I can give. One entirely untapped resource at this point is the A&M Records Special Collection at the UCLA library. My expectations are that the files contain at least some interesting information on Braden, although without flying out to L.A., I have no way of knowing. The online archive only lists the basic contents of the archive, so one would have to go in person and look through the boxes of various business records files if they wanted to find anything. Quite honestly, that trip is not likely to happen any time in the near future, out of cost and sheer practicality.

The eventual next part of the blog will cover the portion of Braden's career where he found the most commercial success, that is, his work composing plays and children's albums. However, my research is admittedly lagging in this area, and it may be a number of months before I have the time to compile the information and feel like it is complete.

In conclusion (and speculation), I have to wonder what would have become of Braden's career had he been marketed differently or caught the right break at the right time. Nonetheless, his story is not unlike many others in the music industry. Like Townes Van Zandt, his talents fell on deaf ears for many years, although Braden eventually carved a new path in music following his career as a solo artist. While it is an extremely small amount of notoriety, I hope that I can introduce a few new people to Braden's music. I admit that the music didn't catch my ear immediately, but having listened to the album many times now, I've come to appreciate it a great deal. What comes through upon a few listens is the strength of Braden's songwriting and his melodies. "Carriage House Song," "Baptist Funeral" and "Song to Raymondo" are extremely well crafted songs with strong lyrics, while musically, the talents of Cooder, Ethridge and Kleinow are quite apparent, and at many points go a good deal further than one would expect from mere backing tracks on a singer/songwriter's album. Braden's voice exudes a sincerity that no doubt left a lasting on all those who took the time to listen, and it shows through on both the original tracks and the covers from the album. Ignoring entirely his album's lack of commercial success, one can still see quite clearly the talent and passion of an individual who was fortunate enough to find his true calling in music, but more importantly, who was not afraid to devote his life's work to it. If only we could all be so lucky.

It's funny how our lives, seem to slip away,
it's been 5 years, but it seems like yesterday,
but I'll shed no tears and cast no blame,
'cause after all, life's a damn good game.

John Braden - "Baptist Funeral"

Read the update, Part II.v here.

(Braden pictures courtesy of his family)

Flying Burrito Brothers interview

In some of my searching for information about John Braden, I ran across a blog called I Witness, run by a gentleman named Ed Leimbacher (who now owns and operates Mister E Books and Records in Washington state). A few years ago, he (re-)published an interview (in 5 parts) that he did in the late 1960s with Chris Hillman, Gram Parsons, Chris Ethridge and Sneaky Pete Kleinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers and I thought it would be of interest to pass them along.

Part I - Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman (plus a few words from Chris Ethridge and Sneaky Pete)

Part II - Parsons and Hillman (plus Ethridge)

Part III - Parsons , Hillman, Sneaky Pete, Ethridge

Part IV - Hillman alone

Part V - Hillman and Parsons

Part I answers a question I've wondered about for some time - that is, how do you spell the "Sneaky" in Sneaky Pete. The Gilded Palace of Sin LP spells it "Sneeky," while other records from the same time period I have seen spell it "Sneaky." Turns out he didn't really care. Kind of anticlimactic, I know.

On a completely unrelated note, this article from the LA Times talks about the backstory to one of the band's classics, "Sin City."

John Braden

(Note: This is the original story, but I've posted an update at this link)

I've got somewhat of a mystery on my hands. Unfortunately, solving it isn't really going to benefit much of anyone, but it's piqued my attention lately.

Here's how the story begins:

I was at the record store a month or so ago, looking through the country records, and came across a record in the bargain bin that wasn't in too good of shape. It was a self-titled release by a guy named John Braden, recorded in 1968 and released in 1969 I think. I had never heard of him, but it was from A&M records, the label co-founded by Herb Alpert, of Tijuana Brass fame, so I took a second look at it. Looking through the musicians that played on the album, I first saw Ry Cooder's name as playing guitar on a few songs, and thought, "hmm, might as well buy this (for $2.99) and see what it sounds like." I haven't mentioned yet, but the cover art was well done, and from the back cover, you can see that the guy just plain looks cool.

(I had a heck of a time getting a decent picture (where's Julie when you need her?), but you should be able to click these to see a bigger version of the image)

(And yes that is the LP itself poking out from the bottom of the sleeve - the whole thing is about to disintegrate)

When I got to the counter, a 40-something year old guy, who I think is a collector who just hangs out at the record store trying to get the inside scoop, asked me who John Braden was. I replied that I didn't know, but that I was buying it because Ry Cooder played on it and I wanted to check it out. He asked to look at it, and started talking about all the other "names" on it. I didn't recognize them at the time, but it turns out that Chris Ethridge (bass) and Sneaky Pete (pedal steel) from the Flying Burrito Brothers played on the album. I guess they played on the album just before they started to gain notoriety, as Gilded Palace of Sin came out just after Braden's album in 1969. Also, as I've come to find out, Henry Lewy, who also produced the aforementioned Gilded Palace of Sin for the FBB, was one of the producers on this album. The list goes on and on - also on the album are Paul Horn, a renowned jazz flutist, Bruce Langhorne, apparently a fairly well known folk musician, Richard Bell, a keyboardist/pianist for Janis Joplin and The Band, and a couple of other guys who I think were session musicians that have been on various and sundry albums of some import.

















Long story, I know, but stick with me. So finally, I get home and listen to the record. Doesn't blow me away. It's not terrible, but it's got the 60s folky sound, mainly characterized by the high pitched voice. It's not quite falsetto, but just very high. However, the more I listen to it, it has grown on me, and as you might expect, the musicianship is really strong on the album. Whether John Braden knew it or not, he ended up with some of the best rock musicians of the era on his record. The songs are mostly originals, with Dylan's "I Want You" and the traditional "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" as the only 2 covers.

As it has turned out, I've developed a growing appreciation for these songs as I've listened to them, but even more so, I've become intrigued to find out more about where John Braden ended up. And this gets close to where my story ends. As best I can tell, there was a John Braden who was a lyricist and actor on Broadway, and a John Braden (a different one) who did some work in the TV industry and apparently put out some records related to the Atari gaming system and some generally kid related music on Kid Stuff Records. Kind of crazy, I know. Both are deceased, although both were born around the same time (around 1946 and 1949). From what I can find on either of them, there is no mention of a previous record release. The guy in the picture is clearly young, early 20s probably. The only connection I can make is that Arkansas is mentioned in one of the songs, and the John Braden that worked in TV and for Atari was born in Arkansas, but that's not really solid information to close this cold case.

Regarding the record, about the only mention I can find is on the discographies of some of the musicians (Cooder and Langhorne), and also one band called Autumn that covered the song "Song to Raymondo" and apparently named an album after the song, which was penned by Braden and appears on his album.




Otherwise, this record seems to have fallen into obscurity long before the digital age, and thus, there's almost nothing else around about it. I have seen one copy of the LP up on ebay for $40, but with no additional information, and I recently found that Braden recorded some demos (pictured below) in the early 1970s with A&M, and apparently they were never released. In demo form, they aren't as good as the album, and clearly don't have the level of musicianship as the LP.


















Beyond that, I'm at a loss. I think the online search is almost exhausted. I don't know why I am so intrigued by this subject, but it's probably a combination of the obscurity of it and also how cool he is dressed on the back cover of the album. A&M Records was absorbed by Interscope, and I can't even find a place on Interscope's site to write them, much less ask if they still have any info on an A&M artist from 40 years ago. I wrote to the A&M/Ocotone (Maroon 5's label) subsidiary of Interscope, and they basically told me they are not really A&M, but some sort of branch of Interscope that I guess kept the A&M name for appearance sake. I'm coming up with dead ends everywhere. My hope is that someone who is smarter or more knowledgeable (or both) than me can help me fill in the blanks a bit at some point. I'm hoping to get the LP converted to mp3s some time to pass along just for history's sake, and while I know it's not that hard, I haven't had the time to mess with it lately and haven't wanted to pay to have it done either.

New update: Progress made, and updates will be posted soon. I'll leave this post as is. There was a blog with a link to his music, but it has since been shut down, so his work remains in relative obscurity at this point.

Twice the sin, 1/4 the time

I've found myself recently liking two songs, both titled "Sin City." One is by the relatively well known Flying Burrito Brothers, arguably one of the progenitors of alternative country, while the other is from Limbeck, a newer and maybe less relatively well known band.

The FBB's version is classic, and probably my favorite version of it is actually performed by Beck and Lucinda Williams. Limbeck, whom I might characterize as a decreasingly alt country band, clearly has a bit of a Burrito Brothers/Gram Parsons influence, and their Sin City song is probably just as good.

Here's what I'd like to see, in a live show, from some band willing to take on the challenge. I think these songs have a potential to be melded into one in a fairly cohesive way, maybe like when older bands put 3 or 4 songs into a medley, but in a more respectable way. The biggest problem is that one is in 3/4 time and the other in 4/4. Yes, quite a problem, but not an insurmountable one.

Be creative, be bold, but by all means, please do a good job.