The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson produced a long lost country album. Over 50 years later, it's being released

When The Beach Boys' former manager, Fred Vail, sat down for coffee with music producer Sam Parker in Nashville in March 2022, the two wouldn't have guessed that they would soon both make and revive music history.

Now, the duo is bringing a 1970s Brian Wilson-produced country album out of the vaults, dusting the cobwebs off of this slice of the past.

"Fred and I met via Facebook from a Beach Boys fan group thread," said Parker, a 35-year-old Nashville concert producer of 14 years. Parker, a longtime Beach Boys fanatic, knew that Fred Vail, now 79, was their manager and concert promoter back in the day.

"Coffee one ended up turning into several coffees and lunches and dinners and further hangs," Parker said. "Fred has been generous with sharing his stories and his time, not just The Beach Boys, but every legendary act you could think of in rock and roll, pop and just music."

Parker had always been curious about the lore surrounding a mysterious country album that Vail and Wilson made together — a collection of songs called "Cows in the Pasture" from 1970.

"It was one of those things that it lived online. It's known folklore in The Beach Boys community that Brian Wilson and Fred Vail did this country album in 1970," Parker said. "No one's ever heard it. And it remains an untold story."

Parker remembers asking, "Fred, what's the deal with 'Cows in the Pasture'?

"And he said, 'It's sitting in my house in a box.' And I asked him, 'Would you want to finish it?' And he said, 'Sure.'"

And that's where the story began.

The album will come out in 2025, featuring a star-studded lineup of to-be-announced country stars and musicians. They said Brian Wilson is excited to yet again be involved in the not-so-new project.

The project's announcement comes at the same time as significant changes for Wilson, a now 81-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. At the beginning of February, Wilson's wife, Melinda Wilson, died at the age of 77.

Melinda was a known caretaker of Wilson, who publicly suffered from a decades-long psychological spiral and lifelong tussle with mental illness and substance abuse.

On Feb. 16, Wilson's family announced that he has a severe neurocognitive disorder, comparable to dementia, and his family is enacting a conservatorship.

In a post on Instagram, Wilson's family said, "We are confirming that longtime Wilson family representatives LeeAnn Hard and Jean Sievers will serve as Brian’s co-conservators of the person," adding that Wilson has a "wonderful team at the house who have been in place for many years helping take care of the family."

The post noted that Wilson will "continue to work on current projects as well as participate in any activities he chooses."

“Fred always loved country music...” Brian Wilson told Rolling Stone in February. “He’s a hell of a guy, one hell of a promoter, and I’m glad his album is coming out.”

The musical journey from sandy beaches to cow pastures

Currently, Vail lives in Franklin and owns Treasure Isle Recording Studio, which he said has "been his thing" since 1980. "My Nashville roots are pretty solid. I've got everything but the Southern accent," he said. His roots, though, take him back to California with The Beach Boys.

Fans of The Beach Boys may remember Fred Vail's voice from the 1964 concert album, in fact, he even talked them into releasing that record. He's the one who said: "Now from Hawthorne, California, to entertain you tonight with a gala concert and recording session, the fabulous Beach Boys!"

In 1963, Vail mapped out the band's tour. He left their team in '66, but came back again in '69 to manage them.

Vail was constantly in the room with the action; he listened to them layer harmonies. He sat with Wilson and Mike Love on the night of the John F. Kennedy assassination, the same evening they wrote “The Warmth of the Sun.” He represented the biggest band in the biz at the height of surf rock's reign.

"I've been an artist manager. I've been a talent agent. I've been a concert producer; I've been a record producer. I've been a studio owner; I've been a journalist. I've done everything pretty much," Vail rattled off.

"You know, the only thing that was left for me, ironically, was to be an artist myself."

The start of the "Cows in the Pasture" country album dates back to 1963. Vail was out on the road with The Beach Boys in the early days of their careers.

"I would literally pick them up in my folks' 1954 Chevy station wagon, load all their gear into the back. A couple of them would jump into the front seat with me and we'd get around, ... drive to the gig."

He remembers hearing country music on the car's radio. He said The Beach Boys weren't interested in hearing the country tunes and would usually switch the radio to a rock station — that was all the rage at the time. "And then I tease [them] and I'd switch it back to the country station. That was kind of an ongoing gag."

"But I'd be singing along to Johnny Cash or Marty Robbins ... or whoever. And so they knew I could sing."

Years went on and '69 rolled around. Vail remembers Wilson calling him up and telling him he had a secret project to speak with him about.

"He said 'I'll meet you. I've got a motel room on Sunset.' So I went over and I asked, 'Well, what's all the secrecy? What's on your mind?' And he's said, 'I want to do a country album. And I want you to be the singer.'"

Wilson wasn't concerned that Vail hadn't spent any time at the mic — he was always behind the scenes. Wilson knew that Vail could carry a tune and that was that.

Vail's willingness to wear all music industry hats led him to take on the project. Together, the two created 14 unpolished tracks as country music rose in popularity.

While the two were recording at Wally Heider Studio, Vail remembers Linda Ronstadt recording there at the same time. The three of them would meet up in the break room or the hallway. "Linda wasn't a superstar then either. She was in the very, very beginning of her career," Vail said.

"And Brian was visibly smitten with Linda Ronstadt," Vail reminisced. "I thought it was cute. Oh, that was one of the side stories in trying to make this whole thing."

The process ended up having many more side stories. The two started recording the music, but never polished the songs to the point of completion.

"We never did strings or background vocals or harmonies, and then Brian, just all of a sudden, kind of lost interest. He was going through a lot of stuff back then. And his mind wasn't totally on it."

From there, Vail's career in the music industry continued and he landed in Nashville, starting a new life as a studio owner.

Vail and Parker dust off the cobwebs, here's what's new

Together, Parker and Vail have been hard at work to breathe new life into the album.

The album features Vail's original vocals on six tracks. "The remaining tracks will see modern Fred, Fred today, with his take on the songs," Parker said. "We're going to keep the backtracks original. We're not going to mess with those. We're not going to redo anything."

"There's an old saying: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well, the tracks... the instrumentation is fabulous. And the quality is there," Vail said. "When we transferred it from 16 track analog to digital to work on the project, the tapes at that point were literally 52 and a half years old. But the music was still there. It sounded great."

The tracks will feature the original studio musicians, a group curated by Vail and including James Burton, Buddy Emmons, Glen D. Hardin, Red Rhodes, Keith Allison, Gordon Terry, Jay Dee Maness, Dennis St. John, Freddie Weller, Gib Guilbeau and Red Wooten. This time around, they're working with 13-time Grammy award-winning producer, T Bone Burnett.

"This is a 1970 Brian Wilson-produced country album. We're not producing it modern day," Parker said. Not revealing too much about the record's sound, he explained, "It's reminiscent of 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo' by The Byrds. That's the best way to put it. It's a timeless country album."

The duo, too, is working on a four-part documentary series that will tell the story of Vail's life and relationships with The Beach Boys. One day, Vail said, he hopes to write a book.

"I can't do any story without mentioning my departed brothers in spirit, Carl and Dennis Wilson," Vail said. Both were members of The Beach Boys. Dennis Wilson died in 1983 in a drowning accident and Carl Wilson died of lung cancer in 1998.

"We literally grew up together and we lost Denny and lost Carl. We were like brothers. For 35 years, we were like brothers."

Throughout the process, while keeping the stories of The Beach Boys alive, Vail and Parker are becoming brothers in their own right.

"We're creating this bond, you know," Parker explained. "And we're able to tell Fred's story in the process."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: The Nashville roots behind lost Brian Wilson-produced country album