Cherry Red's 2020 triple-disc set
Down in the Bottom: The Country Rock Sessions 1966-1968 is designed to tell the tale of
Roots, the 1968
Everly Brothers LP that's considered one of the founding documents of country-rock.
Roots doesn't arrive until the third disc of
Down in the Bottom. The previous two CDs feature expanded versions of the 1967 albums
The Hit Sound of the Everly Brothers and
The Everly Brothers Sing, records where the duo adapted the sounds of the time to their own will.
The Everlys kept pace with shifting fashions through much of the '60s -- just prior to
The Hit Sound, they cut
Two Yanks in England, where they were frequently supported by
the Hollies -- but by narrowing the focus to these three albums, it's possible to hear them riding the hippie wave and settling into a mind-expanding cosmic American music by the time they recorded
Roots. Each of the albums are expanded with bonus tracks drawn from singles and unreleased material originally unearthed on the massive
Bear Family box sets. There may be some alternate versions among these bonus cuts but there are important songs too, such as the mind-bending psychedelic epic "Lord of the Manor," which helps fill in the transition from the hip oldies on the
Hit Sound of the Everly Brothers to the country-rock of
Roots. It's one of the more compelling stories of the '60s, one that proves that
the Everlys never lost their creative spark even when they drifted down the charts, and the narrow focus of
Down in the Bottom makes this clear in a way that individual LPs and bigger sets do not. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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