Sweetheart of the Rodeo

With the addition of Gram Parsons, the Byrds took a definitive step into country music. The group had previously aired this side — Porter Wagoner’s “A Satisfied Mind” on their second album Turn! Turn! Turn!, “Mr. Spaceman” from Fifth Dimension — but they’d never completely submerged themselves into a single genre. Parsons wrote the two original compositions, his sublime signature tune regarding his southern upbringing “Hickory Wind,” and the upbeat pedal-steel driven “One Hundred Years From Now.” For the rest, the group recruited from all over. Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and “Nothing Was Delivered” (which later appeared on his Basement Tapes), the Louvin Brothers’ “The Christian Life,” Merle Haggard’s “Life in Prison” and Woody Guthrie’s “Pretty Boy Floyd” were smart, informed choices but much out of sync with the rock mainstream of 1968 where psychedelia was winding down as sonic innovations from Jimi Hendrix and political unrest in the world at large were surfacing in the harder edge of the music. At the time, the album’s C&W direction doomed the band commercially. Years later, it’s considered one of the most influential albums of all-time, attracting new generations to explore the connections between rock and country music. Excellent outtakes featuring Parsons have been added to the subsequent reissues.