Stories We Could Tell

Stories We Could Tell is a slick album, produced by Paul Rothchild and featuring some of the top studio musicians in early-'70s L.A. There are many top-drawer songs by songwriters such as Jesse Winchester, Kris Kristofferson, Rod Stewart, and John Sebastian. The Everlys do a fine job covering most of them. The Everly Brothers themselves, however, wrote the most remarkable songs on the disc. Don Everly's "I'm Tired of Singing My Song in Las Vegas" voices the frustration of being trapped in endless gigs of singing the same oldies over and over again; it's perhaps not surprising that the Everlys split at the end of 1973, the same year this album was recorded. The standout track is one that turned out to be one of the best songs in the Everly Brothers' repertoire, "Green River." It's an irresistible confection of keyboards and guitar riffs of different varieties, including Ry Cooder's superb bottleneck work and Buddy Emmon's pedal steel. The lyrics are charmingly evocative of the brothers' Kentucky childhood, and their harmony singing is superb. Stories We Could Tell is a fine country-rock album. It serves as a poignant reminder that the Everly Brothers had much more to offer than just their teen idol-era hits.