Amoeba Records will release the two-disc Gram Parsons Archives Vol. 1: The Flying Burrito Brothers “Live” At The Avalon 1969 on October 30. The 27-song set captures Parsons with The Flying Burrito Brothers opening for the Grateful Dead April 4-6 at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. Why the word “Live” appears in quotation marks is beyond me.

Quoth the press release: “The April 4th show has never been heard in any form. The bonus disc is the April 6th show. For years these tapes were rumored to exist and were finally unearthed in the Grateful Dead vault. The shows were recorded by the legendary sound engineer Bear (Owsley Stanley), and are the highest quality Gram Parsons live material available.”

Hyperbole aside, the release doesn’t explain why the April 5 show is absent. Nor are we told the location of this supposed Grateful Dead vault. Geraldo needs to look into this.

Track listing:

Disc 1 [Live At The Avalon April 4, 1969 (plus bonus tracks)]:

1. Close Up The Honky Tonks

2. Dark End Of The Street

3. Undo The Right/Somebody’s Back In Town

4. She Once Lived Here

5. We’ve Got To Get Ourselves Together

6. Lucille

7. Hot Burrito #1

8. Hot Burrito #2

9. Long Black Limousine

10. Mental Revenge

11. Sin City

12. Sweet Dream Baby

13. $1,000 Wedding

14. When Will I Be Loved

Disc 2 [Live At The Avalon April 6, 1969]:

1. Undo The Right/Somebody’s Back In Town

2. She Once Lived Here

3. Mental Revenge

4. We’ve Got To Get Ourselves Together

5. Lucille

6. Sin City

7. You Win Again

8. Hot Burrito #1

9. Hot Burrito #2

10. You’re Still On My Mind

11. Train Song

12. Long Black Limousine

13. Sweet Dream Baby

14. Do Right Woman

There’s not a lot of diversity between the two sets, and there’s more emphasis on country standards than on material culled from the group’s groundbreaking debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin, which was released a few weeks before this performance. Nevertheless, the lack of quality sounding live material from Parsons and the Burrito Brothers gives this release promise.