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MUSICIANS ASSOCIATED WITH THE BYRDS
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Rick Roberts
Linda Ronstadt
Jeff Ross
Leon Russell
Rick Roberts was born in Florida. Growing up, he was a big fan of the Byrds. Later he lived in Washington, D.C., South Carolina, and Colorado, where he performed in clubs. At 19, he hitchhiked to LA to hit the big time.
After a year of knocking on doors, Roberts came to the attention of Ed Tickner, at that time manager of the Flying Burrito Brothers. Tickner introduced Roberts to the Burritos, who had been working as a four-piece since the departure of Gram Parsons about four months earlier.Roberts rehearsed with the band and came aboard as a permanent member. He wrote and sang co-lead on seven of the ten songs on the band's third album, The Flying Burrito Brothers (A&M, 1971).Roberts stayed with the Burritos through their final LP, Last of the Red Hot Burritos (A&M, 1972). In October 1971, Chris Hillman and Al Perkins left for Manassas and Michael Clarke quit the band. Roberts was left with no original Burritos, but a solid bluegrass backbone in the form of Kenny Wertz, Roger Bush and Byron Berline, a trio known as Country Gazette that had been subsumed into the Burritos since the spring of that year. Adding Alan Munde on banjo, Don Beck on banjo, and Erik Dalton on drums, Roberts took the new outfit for a tour of Europe, after which the Burritos dissolved as a going concern, at least temporarily.Roberts then embarked on a solo career, releasing two albums under his own name during 1972 and 1973. In 1974, Roberts reunited with Michael Clarke in the band Firefall, a Boulder-based soft-rock combo that also featured ex-Gram Parsons guitarist Jock Bartley, bassist Mark Andes of Spirit and Jo Jo Gunne, and singer-songwriter Larry Burnett. Firefall had a string of syrupy but successful singles, including "You Are the Woman" and "Just Remember I Love You." They released six albums between 1976 and 1982, when they broke up.Roberts then embarked on an acoustic tour with Chris Hillman, who had released the first of his rootsy solo LPs.Later, despite his criticism of the Burritos that assembled in 1975 ("I think it's cheap, real tacky. It couldn't be more of a fraud.... They should have let the band rest in peace," he told Sid Griffin*), Roberts played for a while with one of Michael Clarke's bogus Byrds tours in the '80s.Linda Ronstadt
Since her 1967 single with the Stone Poneys, Michael Nesmith's "Different Drum," Linda Ronstadt has been in the forefront of the movement to break down boundaries between country and rock.
Ronstadt was an early supporter of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, whom she joined onstage during the Fallen Angels tour. She has worked with Clarence White and such Byrd-related figures as Harris, Neil Young, Herb Pedersen, J.D. Souther, Emory Gordy and Glen D. Hardin, not to mention future Eagles Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, Glenn Frey and Don Henley.Ronstadt is one of the few artists who has achieved consistent and simultaneous success in both pop and country markets, thanks to good taste in songwriters and a willingness to tackle material from any genre. One of her fans has created a very nice Linda Ronstadt Home Page.Jeff Ross
Before joining the Desert Rose Band, Jeff Ross played guitar with the Bellamy Brothers, Kelly Willis, and cowpunks Rank and File, appearing on their second and third outings, Long Gone Dead (Slash/Warner Bros., 1984) and Rank and File (Rhino, 1987).
Leon Russell
Leon Russell, né Hank Wilson, began his music career as a sesson keyboardist in the late '50s. After branching out to guitar, he fell in with Phil Spector and played on most of the hits produced by Spector in the early '60s.
Russell played keyboards on both sides of the first Byrds single, "Mr. Tambourine Man" / "I Knew I'd Want You." In 1966, he played on, arranged, and helped produce Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers (Columbia, 1967). His orchestral arrangements for "Echoes" and "So You Say You Lost Your Baby" are among the album's highlights. Russell was also friendly with Gram Parsons, and several of his sidemen played in the original Flying Burrito Brothers with Ian Dunlop.Later Russell would play with Delaney & Bonnie and Joe Cocker. Cocker hired Russell to play and arrange on his second LP, Joe Cocker! (A&M, 1969); scored a hit with Russell's song "Delta Lady" from that record; and had Russell round up and serve in his Mad Dogs & Englishmen Band. During the late '60s and '70s Russell released several albums and the hit single "Tight Rope." His composition "This Masquerade" was a chart topper for George Benson in 1976. He had several country hits in the late '70s, recorded with Willie Nelson in 1979 and bluegrass band the New Grass Revival in 1981. Russell has an official website.Notes
"Real tacky...." Griffin, Gram Parsons, at 122.
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