Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Legacy Edition)

Where the Byrds prior albums flirted with twangy tones, it wasn’t until Gram Parsons joined the Byrds on 1968’s Sweetheart of the Rodeo that the band went full country-rock. But you won’t hear Parsons’ reedy voice on the original Sweetheart — he was still under contract with Lee Hazlewood for his prior project the International Submarine Band, so Roger McGuinn affected a Waycross, Georgia drawl and sang over Parsons’ penned tunes and the covers he brought to the table. Now with the Legacy Edition, you can hear how it was supposed to go down as GP’s vocals are mixed back into the fold. Starting with the Louvin Brothers’ unintentionally eerie “The Christian Life,” and the traditional “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” there’s a palpable ache in his voice that McGuinn couldn’t mimic — especially when you get to catchy “100 Years From Now” and the wistful “Hickory Wind” — one of Parsons’ best vocal takes ever. Out of a whopping 14 bonus tracks, other standouts include rare International Submarine Band gems like garage-rocker “Sum Up Broke” and the go-go grooving “One Day Week.”