This is where The Byrds pulled off that magic trick of alienating both the country and the “pop” audience. ‘ Sweetheart of The Rodeo’ is widely regarded as the album that defined country-rock, but in reality the rock part is almost silent and the whole thing is almost out and out country, with huge dollops of pedal steel, banjo, fiddle and almost everything other kind of instrument you would expect to hear in the mainstream twangy country that existed at that time. Rarely has an album managed to disappoint, and in many cases actually alienate, almost everyone who heard it and it would be much later before it was recognised as the iconic piece of work that it is. Overall, the album is just plain good and was very important in the progression of Rock ‘n’ Roll.Following hot on the heel of the detailed work a few weeks ago by my esteemed colleague Martin Johnson with his excellent piece on ‘ Ballad of Easy Rider’, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to follow up with The Byrds effort from a year earlier, ‘ Sweetheart of The Rodeo’. One of Country Rock and Bluegrass’ most important lead guitarists. On top of those large effects, Sweetheart of the Rodeo started off the career of Clarence White.

The album had done so much for Country, Country Rock and brought Gram Parsons to the mainstream. Sweethearts of the Rodeo is a fantastic and important album. “The Christian Life”, with it’s sincere example of a Christian made myself and other look at the band differently, and the fact that they added no sarcasm, nor tongue and cheek attitude really makes the cover genuine.

The intro “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” owns a very optimistic thought that opens the album perfectly. Throughout all of the covers and small amount of originals, The Byrds touch many different emotions and subjects. From the beautiful “I am a Pilgrim” to “Blue Canadian Rockies”, the covers dominate the album and really add an interesting property. Not only are they done much better, but there is much more of them. Surprisingly, the covers outweigh the originals. They venture to legends like Merle Haggard and Woody Guthrie, and tackle artists like The Louvin’ Brothers and William Bell. The band does not only cover Dylan though. Like every other release, Bob Dylan songs play a role, and on this release, there is no difference. And generally, all things are great Country band should have. During each song, the group throws out wonderful vocal ability, with fantastic harmonies and melodies. But The Byrds are of course not weak in most fields. Other than guitarist Clarence White, the band had never been technically proficient. The technical ability displayed is not amazing, but they do great with what they have. Throughout the album, the band relies on the twangy sound of the pedal steel guitar and stacked harmonies to each song strong. Sweetheart of the Rodeo is a cluster of wonderful melodies and sounds of the West.

Which Gram Parsons successfully managed to do. All the band needed was someone to bring the sound out of them.

Also, being that The Byrds had always been attracted to Folk, Country was never that far away. Albums like Fifth Dimension and Turn! Turn! Turn! feature various interpretations of the Country sound on songs like “5D (Fifth Dimension)” and numerous others. However, the group had played around with the Country Rock sound for sometime. Sweetheart of The Rodeo was McGuinn and the boys’ first venture outside of their Psychedelic/Folk-Rock natural sound, that had been with them since the early 60’s. Covers of greats like Woody Guthrie and Merle Haggard would move quickly into their sets, but even though the group lost various members, added a few, and lost a large portion of their original sound, they were still The Byrds, and still amazing and ground breaking. From 1968 on, the legendary “Byrds” would now be associated with smooth harmonies, acoustic guitars and Country Rock, opposed to twangy guitars, Psychedelia and David Crosby (Who had left the group prior). They had ditched the twelve string Rickenbacker, picked up a pedal steel, and never turned back. With the addition of Country educated Gram Parsons, the already famous Byrds took a paramount change for the best.

The byrds sweetheart of the rodeo