While few realized it at the time, the rock group The Byrds essentially created what became known as “country rock”, essentially what every guy with a cowboy hat and guitar is playing these days. At the time, it was a watershed moment, while today it is simply ubiquitous. The Byrds were a fairly fluid group, and they had various spinoffs and solo projects, with a couple of them being issued on cd.
One of the founding members, the brilliant and brooding Gene Clark, has a collection of private recordings released (mostly) for the first time. A 1964 session in LA has him on 12 string guitar, sounding a lot like Gordon Lightfoot on originals like “The Way I Am” and “A Worried Hart”. There’s also a 1970 session with him playing a six stringer, almost Dylanesque during “Sweet Adrienne” and “The Sparrow”. And even mor so on a two song session from 1967 teamed with Leon Russell and H ugh Measekela on an R&Bish “Back Street Mirror” and “Don’t Let Me Fall Through”. Most Byrdlike is a colecion of tunes with a band that includes Roger McGuinn and SneakyPete Kleinow on “She Darked The Sun” and Bars Have Made a Prisoner Out Of Me”. A reuinion with Byrd charter member Chriss Hillman gives a Sweethearts of the Rodeo read to Gram Parson’s “One Hundred Years From Now”, a clever take of “The Letter”, and a revisit of “I’ll Feel A whole Lot Better”. Byrd in flight.
It has been argued that The Flying Burrito Brothers’ The Gilded Palace of Sin from 1969 was the very first country rock album. Well, that may be, but by the time this 1972 Amsterdam gig got recorded, the founding members Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman had flown the coop. Still the team of Rick Roberts/g-voc, Byron Berline/fi-voc, Roger Bush/b-voc, Kenny Wertz/g-voc, Alan Munde/banj, Eric alton/dr and Don Beck/mand-stlg sound mighty impressive. They even do a couple tunes from that album, including “Sin City” and “Christine’s Tune” as well as the tune Keith Richards originally penned for the boys, an nice read of “Wild Horses”. Their latest album at the time is also well represented with “Colorado” and “White Line Fever” rollicking along, while “Orange Blossom Special”, “She Still Thinks I Care” and “Six Days ON the Road” have the band’s roots showing. Still much fresher than all of today’s posers.