The Flying Burrito Brothers Album: “Cabin Fever”

I have to agree with all the other reviews on what they say about this recording because it's all true, but I'm giving it 5 stars only because it's showing what the band was like in a live setting. It's a historical recording only for die hard fans of which I am and as bad as it sounds I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this CD.

If your a fan, get this CD but try to have an open mind. You can pretend you made the recording by yourself on a cassette deck. You now have the tape, but you won't get rid of it. Will you still listen to it? Of course you will, because they are the Flying Burrito brothers.

Sfter the live album 'Close Encounters with the West Coast' (aka 'live From Tokyo') , the FBB's numerous live recordings are a minefield.

This CD features the circa 1985 lineup of Skip Battin, Greg Harris, Sneaky Pete and Jim Goodall. The sound is generally very poor, Harris' vocals are shaky and hoarse and overall I'd suggest even fans of the post-Gram Parsons Burritos should avoid this.

For a far better document of this lineup, invest in 'Live From Europe' instead, which sounds much, much better.

This is a live cd recorded during the 1985 tour and issued by Relix Records, who continue to put out FBB live cd's. The lineup was Sneeky Pete on steel, Skip Battin on bass and vocals, Greg Harris on vocals, fiddle and guitar, and drummer Jim Goodall. Since both John Beland and Gib Guilbeau were not part of the '85-'86 tours, they weren't among the most memorable of the band's history. But they were very entertaining and well played. This contains several Burritos classics and Byrds classics as well, and a nice Dylan cover, but Greg Harris isn't as good a singer as FBB fans have grown accustomed to hearing. Still, "Cabin Fever" is a very enjoyable listen-- just not an essential one.

On a good night (and with a good lineup), the Flying Burrito Brothers can be one of the most dynamic and entertaining bands in the business. Unfortunately, however, this particular set is not one of those. This is another of those lineups put together by Sneaky Pete in order to make a few quick bucks on the concert circuit. Greg Harris, Jim Goodall, and Skip Battin round out this version of the FBB, and they are simply awful. They play a mix of FBB and Byrds standards, and play none of them particularly well. This is probably the only FBB album worse than the dreadful "Close Encounters to the West Coast", which at least featured Gib Guilbeau. This one, however, is pure .... from start to finish.

The good folks at Relix Records seem to feel that every possible FBB concert should be released on CD, regardless of the quality of the particular performance (rather like the Grateful Dead). There is nothing about this show which makes it worthy of having been recorded, let alone released as a CD. Neither John Beland nor Gib Guilbeau were around for this one, so we have Sneaky Pete, Skip Battin, Greg Harris, and Jim Goodall slogging their way through a mixture of Burrito and Byrds numbers and a few old country standards, doing justice to none of them. This disc contains nothing more than a lame, half-hearted performance by a second-rate lineup. This one is for completists only.