Originally Posted by Classof75 Great YouTube links! Just found a minty copy (vinyl) of Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Gonna check it out tonight. Looking foward to your review(s). Thanks for this thread.

The Byrds
Sweetheart Of the Rodeo
1968, Columbia Records

1. You Ain't Going Nowhere [Dylan]
2. I Am a Pilgrim [trad arr. McGuinn/Hillman]
3. The Christian Life [Louvin/Louvin]
4. You Don't Miss Your Water [Bell]
5. You're Still on My Mind [McDaniel]
6. Pretty Boy Floyd [Guthrie]
7. Hickory Wind [Parsons]
8. One Hundred Years from Now [Parsons]
9. Blue Canadian Rockies [Walker]
10. Life in Prison [Haggard/Sanders]
11. Nothing Was Delivered [Dylan]

By the time David Crosby and Michael Clarke had left the Byrds with remaining members, bassist Chris Hillman and lead guitarist Roger McGuinn, both hell-bent on pushing on, Gram Parsons was still a marginal figure on the LA music scene and a friend of Hillman's. It was basically because of their idea of how the Byrds should follow up the psychedelic powerhouse of a record, the Notorious Byrd Brothers, and McGuinn's plan to create a double-album covering all the contemporary American musical forms, including bluegrass, jazz and more psychedelic rock, that Sweetheart Of the Rodeo was essentially born out of creative friction and disagreement. It was actually with that very idea in mind that McGuinn decided to seek out a jazz-trained pianist who, of course, Parsons was. As the start date for the album's recording sessions got closer, for which drummer Kevin Kelley was hired to complete the core band, it soon became apparent that instead of McGuinn's ambitious, all-encompassing double-album, Hillman wanted to use the new Byrds pianist and guitarist Parsons' know-how to expand on the country influence that the former's more recent compositions for the band had explored. Naturally, McGuinn was suspicious of this new direction. It was only after being pressurised by his bandmates and producer and friend Gary Usher that he agreed to go along with the idea.

While Sweetheart Of the Rodeo wasn't exactly a commercial proposition for the music industry of 1968, this new sound (dubbed by Parsons as 'cosmic American music'), which expanded on Parsons' own experiments with the International Submarine Band of running traditional c&w with a rock 'n' roll motor, would prove to be a true landmark of an album. It's overall sound, while centring on a honky tonk country vibe, incorporated elements of soul, folk and 50s-styled r'n'b and rock 'n' roll would influence not only the Flying Burrito Brothers (who'll occupy the next chapter of Gram Parsons' story), but the LA country-rock and outlaw country movement of the 70s right up to the alternative country of the 90s onwards. Pretty influential then for an album that, with two exceptions, is entirely comprised of covers of old country and folk standards. On top of all the influence it's had on generations of artists, Sweetheart Of the Rodeo is a masterpiece and possibly my favourite country album of all time.

Things get off to a terrific start with a blissful cover of Bob Dylan's You Ain't Going Nowhere (from the then-unreleased Basement Tapes), kicking off the album with a perfectly fitting series of pedal steel notes. The gorgeous vocal harmonies make for one of my favourite ever country songs. It's a level of quality carried over by the traditional ditty I Am a Pilgrim, arranged by Hillman and McGuinn to incorporate session man John Hartford's beautiful work on the fiddle.

The Christian Life on the other hand, depending on my mood, comes across to me as a bit of a weak point. Blatantly religiously-inclined lyrics have never exactly been a favourite thing of mine but, on the plus side, this song doesn't try to preach and can be seen as an anthemic little number about standing up for your beliefs in the face of humiliation and adversity. Absolutely nothing wrong with the music either. Whatever you think of it though, you just know from the opening piano lines from Parsons that this rendition of You Don't Miss Your Water is going to make up for it. With his freewheeling performance, this is the first place on the album where Parsons' talent is immediately obvious. You're Still On My Mind is, musically, about as honky tonk as you can get and the first move in that direction that the album takes, with Parsons' again showing his influence on this album on the back of another great performance. Woody Guthrie's Pretty Boy Floyd, another song to focus heavily on Hartford's fantastic work on the fiddle, is kicked into life by McGuinn's lively work on the banjo making for another absolutely superb cover.

To open side B are the only original songs on the album, both of them written by Parsons (which says everything for his influence on the whole album really). The first of these is the gorgeous slow-burner Hickory Wind, fueled by some heart-melting contributions to the sonic picture from the fiddle and pedal steel as well as Parsons' own trademark soaring vocal, this being one of the only three songs to feature his lead vocal. Another is his second composition to be found here, One Hundred Years From Now, with its much livelier vibe, given a much more bouncy and fun kind of feel by use of sessionist Lloyd Green's pedal steel and McGuinn's fantastic work on the guitar that punctuate the track, making for another country classic.

Speaking of country classics, the Hillman-led rendition of Blue Canadian Rockies is another one of those, again using those kind of beat group-styled harmonies in an unusual genre and really doing a whole world of good to an old standard. Plus the melody in Hillman's unaccompanied vocal just gets me every time. It gets the closing trio of covers off to a brilliant start, and a brilliant start which is taken further by Merle Haggard's Life In Prison as sung by Parsons. Superb melody, superb piano to carry the rest of a superb track - another one of my absolute favourites then. Another Bob Dylan song (again salvaged from the yet-to-be-released Basement Tapes), Nothing Was Delivered, serves as a slower, more contemplative sort of end to the album, slowly rolling it along to its conclusion.

So, as you might have guessed from my bleating above, not only is this album highly, highly influential, it's also highly, highly fantastic. Basically, I don't care how much you don't know about country or think you don't like it, Sweetheart Of the Rodeo is a true essential and an album I'd recommend to anyone. It certainly showed me that there's been at least some merit to an area of music that gets overlooked and disregarded by so many people. For this reason, I'm gonna give it the following rating;

10/10