The Everly Brothers - Down In the Bottom: The Country Rock Sessions 1966-1968 (2020)

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