Bradley's Barn

While The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo and The Flying Burrito Brothers' debut have long been assured a place in the pantheon of pioneering country-rock albums, Bradley's Barn has always slipped through the cracks of history. The Beau Brummels began as America's answer to The Fab Four (right down to a British-sounding name designed to appear directly after The Beatles in the record store racks) with mid-'60s hits like "Laugh Laugh" and "Just a Little," but by 1968 they were down to just singer Sal Valentino and guitarist/songwriter Ron Elliott, and were traveling a more idiosyncratic musical path. Hot on the heels of Bob Dylan's Nashville sessions, Warner Brothers A&R chief Lenny Waronker brought them to Owen Bradley's legendary converted-barn studio (home of countless great country recordings) on a farm outside Nashville. With some of the greatest country session men of the day, including future country star Jerry Reed and Elvis Presley keyboardist David Briggs, they crafted a brilliant fusion of rock and twang a year ahead of the Burritos, to astonishingly little acclaim, and then promptly disbanded. Rhino Handmade's 2011 limited-edition two-disc revamp not only reasserts the album's claim to posterity, it fills out the backstory rather stunningly, with 26 bonus tracks, and a 40-page hardbound-book package that is a mouth-watering work of art in and of itself -- one of the rare instances where a CD reissue actually provides a more immersive experience than the original LP.