It's Country Rock week!
 

I have to be honest guys, this is so not my thing it's not even funny. I am always willing to learn though, so hopefully this week will open my eyes and more importantly my ears a little more.

This is what Wiki has to say about the genre in question this week.

"Rock and roll has often been seen as a combination of rhythm and blues with country music, a fusion particularly evident in 1950s rockabilly, and there has been cross-pollination throughout the history of both genres, however, the term country-rock is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians of the late 1960s and early 1970s who began to record rock records using country themes, vocal styles and additional instrumentation, most characteristically pedal steel guitar."

Country rock was a particularly popular style in the California music scene of the late 1960s, and was adopted by bands including Hearts and Flowers, Poco (formed by Richie Furay, formerly of the Buffalo Springfield) and New Riders of the Purple Sage. Out of the midwest was Pure Prairie League, formed in 1969 by Craig Fuller.Some folk-rockers followed the Byrds into the genre, among them the Beau Brummels and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. A number of performers also enjoyed a renaissance by adopting country sounds, including: the Everly Brothers, whose Roots album (1968) is usually considered some of their finest work; former teen idol Rick Nelson who became the frontman for the Stone Canyon Band; John Fogerty left Creedence Clearwater Revival behind for the country sounds of The Blue Ridge Rangers; Mike Nesmith who formed the First National Band after this departure from the Monkees; and Neil Young who moved in and out of the genre throughout his career. One of the few acts to successfully move from the country side towards rock were the bluegrass band The Dillards.

The greatest commercial success for country rock came in the 1970s, with the Doobie Brothers mixing in elements of R&B, Emmylou Harris (a former backing singer for Parsons) becoming the "Queen of country-rock" and Linda Ronstadt creating a highly successful pop-oriented brand of the genre. Pure Prairie League had a run of 5 straight Top 40 LP releases.Former members of Ronstadt's backing band went on to form the Eagles (made up of members of the Flying Burrito Brothers, Poco and Stone Canyon Band), who emerged as one of the most successful rock acts of all time, producing albums that included Desperado (1973) and Hotel California (1976).

This is not really my expertise, but I'll give it a try...

I really like this one, it's definitely more country than rock, but there's some influence there for sure.
Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore- Something, Somewhere, Sometime


I love this band, very good live and Born on Flag Day is a terrific roots rock album, one of my favorites from last year.
Deer Tick- Easy


And finally I'll go with a song by an extremely important country rock band that influenced the bands that started the country rock boom, that eventually reached it's peak with the Doobie Brothers and the Eagles...The Flying Burrito Brothers- Sin City

Here's a couple of posts from my journal that have country-rock and or americana type videos.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...tml#post922506

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...tml#post923495

Michael Nesmith was also a key contributor to the country-rock movement, when The Monkees first went into the studio to record and found out they wouldn't be playing their instruments the record company allowed Nez to record and produce a few songs, one was "Papa Gene's Blues" a nice little country-rock tune that was heard by millions when it was used in The Monkees TV show.



In 1967 Nez offered up another country-rock classic with "What Am I Doin' Hanging 'Round".



Also in 1967 The Stone Poneys recorded the Nesmith penned "Different Drum".





:thumb:

The Eagles are my favourite country rock! In fact a top favourite band of mine.

Before the Byrds "invented" country rock, Buffalo Springfield was playing it in relative obscurity. This song A Child's Claim To Fame predates the release of the Byrd's landmark album Sweetheart of the Rodeo by almost two years. From my perspective Buffalo Springfield played their instruments & sang in a more authentically country style than the Byrds. This song is one of the most beautiful country music songs I've ever heard.



Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man was a song written by Roger McGuinn & Gram Parsons after a disastrous visit to Nashville to promote the release of Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968. McGuinn told me that the country music establishment in Nashville was completely hostile to a band of long haired hippies who had the nerve to play traditional country music. McGuinn said the Byrds were booed off the stage of the Grand Old Opry by the redneck regulars at the Ryman Auditorium. Drug Store Truck Driving Man is about a real life country music disk jockey at Nashville's old megawatt country music station WSM. Gram & Roger visited the station to promote the first Sweetheart of the Rodeo single, You Ain't Goin' Nowhere & the disk jockey flat out refused to play it on the air.

McGuinn & Parsons got even by writing Drug Store Truck Driving Man which satirized the right-wing racist politics of the deejay. Gram Parsons left the Byrds before the song was released & it appeared a year later on the Byrd's album Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde without Gram's participation. This is a live 1968 performance of the song at the Tea Party in Boston.



My final post is my all time favorite country rock song Sin City by the Flying Burrito Brothers. The Burrito Brothers were formed by Gram Parsons & Chris Hillman shortly after leaving the Byrds in 1968, Their first album The Gilded Palace of Sin went relatively unnoticed but it far superior to all previous efforts by the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield or the newly formed Poco.

I saw the Flying Burrito Brothers at an event called the River Festival, a 1970 concert series in southern Illinois that my father had a big hand in organizing. My father also organized concerts by the Band, Joni Mitchell & Crosby, Stills & Nash that same summer. As much as I loved The Gilded Palace of Sin I was disappointed in the Burrito Brothers performance. The band played at such low volume level it was hard to hear them over the crowd chatter. Gram Parsons seemed distracted & bored throughout the performance. 2 weeks later Gram quit the band & as it turns out it was the last public performance of Gram Parsons with the Burrito Brothers.

Gram was reputedly his own worst enemy with his ravenous appetite for drugs, alcohol & self destructive acts. He also had a short attention span & could never stay in a band longer than a year. Even as a soloist his sidemen were hired and fired by Gram in a constant revolving door of ever changing musicians. Gilded Palace of Sin only sold 40,000 copies yet for this brief shining moment in 1969 Gram Parsons proved he was the musical genius that so many people thought he was.

Love me some Lucero.

From the other side of things...

yes!!!!!!

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
 

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils-Ozark Mountain Dare Devils (1973) "If You Wanna Get To Heaven".
2nd album, It'll Shine When It Shines, (1974) includes their biggest hit "Jackie Blue".

YouTube - Ozark Mountain Daredevils-Jackie Blue

YouTube - Ozark Mountain Daredevils-If You Wanna Get to Heaven

"Drug Store Truck Driving Man" was written about country music all night dj Ralph Emery. The Byrds guested on his overnight show & Ralph opined that their music was not country & he didn't rate it
The song was rather overblown. Ralph was never connected to the KKK or polotics in any way, but it was a good song & Joan Baez would later dedicate it to then California governer Ronald Reagan.
Chris hillman in the 80's was part of a succesful New country outfit & would guest on Ralph's overnight show regularly.
Ralph would usually kick off by asking "How's Gram (Parsons)?"
To which chris would dryly respond "Still dead"