Don Everly - vocals, guitar; Phil Everly - vocals, guitar
The Everly Brothers headlined this Fillmore West show in the summer of 1969, with The Sons of Champlin and Baby Huey and the Babysitters opening.
By this point, Don and Phil Everly had over a decade of writing and performing music under their belts. As first-generation rock 'n' roll superstars, the Brothers had spent the previous ten years switching their label to Warner, serving in the Armed Forces, battling Don's near fatal addiction to speed and churning out hit songs and albums.
This Fillmore performance finds them around the time they were beginning to help pioneer country-rock with their Roots album. Their audience was happy to have them headlining the Fillmore West this night and fully embraced their harmonious sound. While the quality of the recording suffers, it offers great insight into the Everly Brothers midway through their career. The '70s brought a bitter breakup and failed solo careers, and although the Brothers reunited in the early '80s, they never again had the pioneering power of their hit-making years.
This set finds them delivering short, poppy rock 'n' roll songs, with hits including "Wake Up Little Suzie," "All I Have To Do Is Dream" and "Peggy Sue." Their catalog was so large at this point, with nearly two dozen albums under their belts, that the material they perform spanned a range of albums. Interestingly, despite the recent success of Roots, the Brothers chose not to perform any material from this album. The show closes with "Love Is Strange," after which an introduction of the Everly Brothers and a smattering of applause ends the recording.