274. The Byrds, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo"

 

Long before No Depression magazine or an "Americana" category at the Grammys, there was this album, arguably the first Americana album of them all.  In 1967, Roger McGuinn, who was by then one of only two remaining original members of the Byrds, planned what was essentially a tribute album to American music, with country, jazz, R&B, and other genres showing the development of music in America.  Short on members, he invited doomed angel Gram Parsons to join the band and, happily for the rest of us, Parsons derailed McGuinn's original idea and convinced them to decamp to Nashville to record this album, a groundbreaking work that fused pure country with rock, probably the first well-known country-rock, or Americana, album of all time.

But enough about the concept.  Are the songs any good?  Reader, they are.  As with most Byrds albums, it's heavy on covers, but the covers are so well-played and realized that they're now identified as Byrds songs more than the original artist's.  The record kicks off with "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," by Byrd compatriot Bob Dylan, and makes it a swingy, twangy affair, punctuated with pedal steel and the tight harmonies the Byrds were famous for.  "I Am a Pilgrim" doesn't stray far from its traditional roots, with the fiddle punctuating Chris Hillman's melancholy lead vocal.  Due to a host of legal and personal problems far too complex to detail here, only three Parsons songs remained on the final version of the album, but wow, they're all great.  "One Hundred Years from Now," for example, a Parsons original, just hints at what he could have done, had he lived.  

But for me the best song on here is "You Don't Miss Your Water," a William Bell song that McGuinn sings, really delivering an emotional punch (aided, as always, by the achingly beautiful melodies that accompany him).  

Parsons would be kicked out of the Byrds before this album was even released, and would go on to form the Flying Burrito Brothers, maybe the single most influential Americana band, before meeting his ignominious death in 1973.  Luckily he left this behind.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Indeed.