Everly Brothers – Chained To A Memory (8-CD box)

Moments on the DVD accompanying this comprehensive 1966-1972 collection speak volumes about the Everly Brothers’ status in the post-British Invasion mid-1960s. Singing their ’50s hits on NBC’s weekly rock showcase Hullabaloo, their influence on the Beatles notwithstanding, the Everlys’ sense of displacement is palpable, a feeling also reflected on the first three discs of this eight-CD box.

Trudging through one mediocre Warner Bros. session after another in 1966-68, produced by the totally unimaginative Dick Glasser, the failures are hardly surprising. Two Yanks In England, partly recorded in London with pre-Zeppelin Jimmy Page on guitar and featuring a ton of Hollies material, fell flat. So did the cover-laden Hit Sound Of The Everly Brothers and their ill-fated stab at “Whiter Shade Of Pale”. Excepting the modest 1967 hit “Bowling Green”, Glasser mostly wasted tape, so much so that even Disc 8’s 1965 Swedish radio concert has more passion and immediacy.

Warner Bros. producer Lenny Waronker brought a profound paradigm shift in 1968. Versed in music of the moment, he wisely steered the Everlys toward a convergence of their own authentic country past and the nascent country rock sound on Roots. Interspersing excerpts from a 1952 Everly Family radio show with solid interpretations of fresh songs, including Merle Haggard’s then-recent “Mama Tried” and “Sing Me Back Home” and Randy Newman’s “Illinois”, Roots remains a country-rock landmark, albeit one that, like their subsequent Warner Bros. efforts, failed to sell.

They redoubled their efforts after a 1971 move to RCA, and Stories We Could Tell focused on contemporary country folk with backing from L.A.’s best country-rock players. Earnest to a fault, it, too, was overlooked. As tensions between the pair festered, they found artistic if not commercial redemption recording Pass The Chicken And Listen in Nashville with their early patron, Chet Atkins. More focused than Stories, Chicken melded country and rock standards (“Rocky Top”, “Not Fade Away”, “Husbands And Wives”) with more contemporary fare (“Paradise”) and two recent Waylon Jennings efforts: “Good Hearted Woman” and “Ladies Love Outlaws”. Among Atkins’ last RCA album productions, it, too, earned little notice.

In the end, Chained To A Memory chronicles an iconic act, still popular live and on TV, struggling to regain their relevance. In 1973, a year after their final RCA session, their acrimonious onstage split began. A decade passed before their reunion. By that time, much of the material here — even the masterpieces — had been forgotten.