1001 Albums You Must Heart Before You Die: 127. The Byrds – Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968)

 

The Byrds lean almost completely into the country side of their occasional country-rock sound, and apart from the track One Hundred Years From Now (with McGuinn/Parsons joint vocals), this is more of a Gram Parsons album. 

Mostly lots of picky steel guitar, but with a few tracks that are a bit more bluegrass banjo (I Am A Pilgrim), this is a collection of Parsons tunes, with some typical Bob Dylan covers, from Dylan’s own forays into country with You Ain’t Going Nowhere (not as good as the version on Basement Tapes) and Nothing Was Delivered. There’s a bit of Louvin Brothers (The Christian Life) and Woody Guthrie (Pretty Boy Floyd), but mostly the tracks tend to sound a bit samey. 

It’s interesting that The Byrds are choosing to step away from the Sixties sounds, but odd in a way that they’ve stepped back in time to the likes of Buck Owens. I think this is kind of their waning days, and the newer country sound is emerging out this album like a chrysalis, but we shall see.

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