What do country-rock music, Gumby and "Star Wars" have in common? All have benefited from the talents of Peter "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow, founding member of the Flying Burrito Brothers and Hollywood special effects animator. Kleinow made eight studio albums with the Burritos, from 1969 to 1997. He also released three solo titles between 1970 and 1990, the first of which was actually by a one-shot side band called Cold Steel. During the '70s, however, he mostly kept busy as a session player for performers ranging from the Bee Gees to Frank Zappa. In the 1980s, Kleinow gradually withdrew from the music scene and returned to stop-motion animation work , something he had previously done for the children's television series "The Gumby Show."

Georgia Peach, then, is a welcome return to recording for Kleinow. Joining him in Burrito Deluxe and splitting the vocal chores among themselves are Carlton Moody (the Moody Brothers), Tommy Spurlock (Highway 101) and Willie Watson (Old Crow Medicine Show); Moody and Spurlock do double duty on guitars.

The CD uses half its tunes to celebrate the music of the Flying Burrito Brothers and co-founder Gram Parsons (International Submarine Band, the Byrds), who left a good-looking corpse after two albums with FBB and two solo efforts after leaving the band, posthumously growing in stature to near-universal acknowledgment as the father of country-rock. The other half -- which complement the tribute material well enough -- are contributed by Moody, Spurlock, real-life brothers Ronnie and Gib Guilbeau, and Rick Lonow. Gib Guilbeau and Lonow also belonged to the Burrito clan at one point, and here contribute lead vocals on one cut and drums on several, respectively.

The FBB/GP songs include "Wheels," "Cash on the Barrelhead," "Hickory Wind," "Streets of Baltimore," "Christine's Tune" and "She Once Lived Here," and all do justice to the originals without seeming too derivative. An unexpected surprise is "Hickory Wind," featuring guests Garth Hudson (The Band) on organ as well as Gillian Welch and David Rawlings on background vocals. The combination of Hudson's solo and Welch and Rawlings' folksy singing puts just enough spin on the song to carry it off into the ether.

But the spotlight is on Kleinow's pedal steel guitar, which always has had a lead, rather than a supporting role in the music. He doesn't just use it to sweeten the sound; sometimes, in fact, he puts a hard edge on it with -- what else? -- special effects, to the point where the listener isn't even aware he or she is listening to pedal steel.

All in all, Burrito Deluxe has fashioned a respectable melange of old and new compositions that puts anything on the radio today to shame. Hopefully, Pete Kleinow won't be so "sneaky" about creating music in the future.

[Peter Hund]