Live from Tokyo is the second live album

Live album

A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

 by the country rock

Country rock

Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...

 group The Flying Burrito Brothers

The Flying Burrito Brothers

The Flying Burrito Brothers was an early country rock band, best known for its influential debut album,The Gilded Palace of Sin . Although the group is most often mentioned in connection with country rock legends Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, the group underwent many personnel changes.-Original...

, released in 1979. It was originally released in Japan in 1978 under the title Close Encounters on the West Coast.

History

After the release of Airborne and the subsequent dropping of the band by Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, the Flying Burrito Brothers pressed on as a touring act, taking a small break in 1977 so that Joel Scott Hill, Gib Guilbeau

Gib Guilbeau

Floyd August "Gib" Guilbeau is an American country-rock musician and songwriter. As a member of Nashville West, Swampwater, and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Guilbeau helped pioneer the fusion of rock and country music in the 1960s....

 and "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow

Sneaky Pete Kleinow

Peter E. "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow was an American country-rock musician, songwriter, and a motion picture special effects artist...

 could release an album on Mercury Records

Mercury Records

Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...

 under the name Sierra. After Sierra's eponymous debut album failed to achieve commercial success, Guilbeau, Hill, Kleinow and Sierra drummer Mickey McGee

Mickey McGee

Mickey McGee spent his formative years in and around Phoenix, Arizona. While touring with the band Goose Creek Symphony, McGee met Linda Ronstadt, who would later remember him and serve as a major catalyst for his career.McGee found his way to Los Angeles in the early '70s and quickly made his...

 reunited with Skip Battin and Gene Parsons

Gene Parsons

Gene Victor Parsons is an American drummer, banjo player, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and innovative engineer, best known for his work with The Byrds from 1968 to 1972. Parsons has also released solo albums and played in bands including Nashville West, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Parsons Green...

 (playing guitar due to a wrist injury) and began tour as the Flying Burrito Brothers again. By 1979, Greg Harris and Ed Ponder were hired to replace Joel Scott Hill and Mickey McGee respectively. During this time, Gene Parsons also left the group and was not replaced. This shuffled lineup of the band released Live from Tokyo on Tennessee-based Regency Records to public and critical indifference, however the album's single, a cover of Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard

Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...

's "White Line Fever", reached the lower-end of the US country music charts (the first Burritos single ever to enter the charts). This would mark the beginning of a three-year stretch of commercial success for the band.

Rerelease

In 1991, the album was released on CD on Relix Records under the original name Close Encounters on the West Coast. The re-release also features the original art-work.

Track listing

1. "Big Bayou" (Gib Guilbeau
   Gib Guilbeau
   Floyd August "Gib" Guilbeau is an American country-rock musician and songwriter. As a member of Nashville West, Swampwater, and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Guilbeau helped pioneer the fusion of rock and country music in the 1960s....
   
   )–3:53
2. "White Line Fever" (Merle Haggard
   Merle Haggard
   Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
   
   )–3:41
3. "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke" (Lee Maphis/Joe Maphis
   Joe Maphis
   Joe Maphis, born Otis W. Maphis , was an American country music guitarist. He married singer Rose Lee Maphis in 1948....
   
   /Max M. Fidler)–2:51
4. "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight" (Hank Williams)–2:52
5. "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms" (Buck Owens
   Buck Owens
   Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. , better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band, the Buckaroos...
   
   )–2:35
6. "Hot Burrito #2" (Chris Ethridge
   Chris Ethridge
   Chris Ethridge is an American country rock bass guitarist. He was a member of the International Submarine Band and The Flying Burrito Brothers, and co-wrote several songs with Gram Parsons.-Career:...
   
   /Gram Parsons
   Gram Parsons
   Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
   
   )–4:41
7. "Colorado" (Rick Roberts
   Rick Roberts (musician)
   Rick Roberts is a country rock and classic rock singer-songwriter who recorded with many influential artists over several genres in the 1970s. He is best known for his work with The Flying Burrito Brothers on their 1971 self-titled album, and as a founding member and lead singer of Firefall from...
   
   )–4:16
8. "Rocky Top
   Rocky Top
   "Rocky Top" is an American country and bluegrass song written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant in 1967 and first recorded by the Osborne Brothers later that same year...
   
   " (Boudleaux Bryant)–3:37
9. "Six Days on the Road
   Six Days on the Road
   "Six Days on the Road" is an American song written by Muscle Shoals Sound Studio songwriter Carl Montgomery and Earl Green, made originally famous by country music singer Dave Dudley...
   
   " (Carl Montgomery/Earl B. Green)–4:14
10. "Truck Drivin' Man" (Terry Fell)–3:21

Personnel

• "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow: vocals, pedal steel guitar
• Gib Guilbeau
  Gib Guilbeau
  Floyd August "Gib" Guilbeau is an American country-rock musician and songwriter. As a member of Nashville West, Swampwater, and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Guilbeau helped pioneer the fusion of rock and country music in the 1960s....
  
  : vocals, fiddle, rhythm guitar
• Skip Battin
  Skip Battin
  Clyde "Skip" Battin was an American singer–songwriter, performer and recording artist. He is best remembered as a member of The Byrds, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Flying Burrito Brothers...
  
  : vocals, bass
• Greg Harris: vocals, banjo, guitar
• Ed Ponder: drums