INTERNATIONAL SUBMARINE BAND Safe At Home (Mono edition, white vinyl)

(2015/Sundazed) 10 tracks. This seminal 1968 album by Gram Parsons' International Submarine Band is widely regarded as the record that lauchend the county-rock movement - and was the first album to spotlight Parsons' charismatic vocals and visionary songwriting.

In 1965, aspiring folk singer Gram Parsons was busy cutting classes at Harvard in order to explore the fertile Cambridge/Boston music scene. There, he met guitarist John Nuese, who urged Parsons to pursue a country rock sound. Enlisting Ian Dunlop on bass and Mickey Gauvin on bass, they began exploring that direction in earnest. Appropriating their name from a classic 'Our Gang' skit, the International Submarine Band left Boston for New York, eager to find a supportive label for their new sound. After recording two poorly selling singles (the first of which, 'The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming' b/w 'Truck Driving Man' is available on a Sundazed 7" vinyl reissue), the group left New York for Los Angeles, hoping to find success there. Following several false starts and missed opportunities in L.A., Dunlop and Gavin left the group, going on to found the Flying Burrito Brothers.

At this point, producer Suzi Jane Hokom, who had seen the band before the breakup, convinced Lee Hazelwood to sign Parsons and Nuese to a contract for Hazelwood's LHI Records. Newly signed, the duo searched for musicians to form a new ISB lineup. Recruiting guitarist Bob Buchanan, drummer Jon Corneal, bassists Joe Osborne and Chris Etheridge, pianist Earl Ball, and steel guitarist Jay Dee Maness, the group began recording Safe at Home under Hokom's direction in July 1967. The album's final track listing included a mix of country and rock standards along with four strong Parsons-penned songs. One of those songs, 'Luxury Liner,' would later become an album-title-track hit for future Parsons prot'g' Emmylou Harris. Sessions for Safe at Home were completed in December 1967, with a possible release date of February 1968. However, Parsons abruptly left the group prior to the album's release in order to join The Byrds, who were busy recording their own country rock album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

Parsons' departure upset Hazelwood and caused the release of Safe at Home to be delayed. Eventually released after the group had ceased to exist, the album was initially overshadowed by Parson's work with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and his solo records. In the wake of Parsons' recognition as a country rock pioneer, Safe at Home grew in stature considerably. Discovered by fans lucky enough to find an original copy, the album was rightfully acknowledged as a classic. Now, Sundazed Music makes Safe at Home available to everyone through this stellar reissue. Sourced from the original analog LHI tapes, this MONO edition includes an unreleased track from the original sessions, the Marty Roberts/Guy Mitchell hit 'Knee Deep in the Blues.'

International Submarine Band

Luxury Liner

A trust fund hippie, Gram Parsons, dropped out of Harvard after one semester to form the International Submarine Band—a name adapted from a 1930s Little Rascals routine, the International Silver String Submarine Band. The Subs recorded for Columbia and Ascot (was there ever a more bizarre coupling than The Russians Are Coming and Terry Fell's Truck Drivin' Man?). When the scene moved west, the Subs followed and appeared fleetingly in Peter Fonda's stoner classic, The Trip, sync'ing wildly to an Electric Flag song. Parsons was adamant that he wanted to play country music, tirelessly proselytizing on behalf of its underappreciated beauty. He landed a deal with Lee Hazlewood, who was flush with money from producing Duane Eddy and Nancy Sinatra. Soon after Hazlewood formed LHI (Lee Hazlewood Industries), his girlfriend, Suzi Jane Hokom, insisted that he sign Parsons. When Hazlewood talked to KBBQ's Bill Ward in the summer of 1967, he said that the next big thing would be longhair groups recording hard country songs. Then he tried to fulfill his own prophecy. In July 1967, the Subs went to Hollywood's Western Recorders to cut Luxury Liner. By Parsons' account, Hokom was forced upon them as producer. The Buck Owens freight-train rhythmwas almost jarringly at odds with the innate fragility of Parsons' voice. Buck's rigid application of commercial logic was missing, as well. In the unlikely event of hearing the song on the radio, the title appeared to be You Think I'm Lonesome (So Do I).

Parsons' hillbilly epiphany scared off the original Submariners except guitarist John Nuese, who claimed that he was the one to convince Parsons to forsake folk music and rediscover his hillbilly roots (and in Parsons' Warner Bros. bio, he corroborates this). Parsons' former bandmate from Florida, drummer Jon Corneal, was working shows for the Wilburn Brothers when he was tempted west. Bob Buchanan had been in the New Christy Minstrels before folk singer Fred Neil introduced him to Parsons. Steel guitarist J.D. Maness worked California hillbilly bars like the Palomino and was instinctively leery of hippies, but turned up for the session fee. Another group of sessions in November with pianist Earl Ball rounded out an LP, released in March 1968. Glen Campbell, Don Everly, Duane Eddy, and Hazlewood himself wrote encomiums for the back liner. In a March 16 review, an anonymous Billboard reviewer was on the money, saying, “All one can safely say about this album is 'It's about time.' A pop group exploring country music. Every country station should give this exposure to attract young listeners.” Just as it was released, Gram Parsons joined the Byrds, scuppering whatever scant chance it had. Luxury Liner languished until 1977 when it titled a chart-topping LP by Parsons' anointed keeper-of-the-flame, Emmylou Harris.

 - Colins Escott -

Various Country & Western Hit Parade 1968

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