#389: The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968)

Zack: Now for part 2 of our accidental Gram Parsons extravaganza. Apparently, the Byrds popularity as a rock/psychedelic band was kind of winding down and members were leaving. In order to fill in some places for a tour, they brought in relative unknown Gram Parsons, who then proceeded to brainwash the rest of the band into making a country album. Essentially, Gram Parsons wanted to merge country and rock music into one single sound, and instead of making his own albums and hoping they catch on, he somehow took over a major rock band and changed them from the inside instead. Seriously, reading this story sounds like a cross between Ocean’s 11 and Charles Manson. But you can’t argue with the results. Much like Grievous Angel, Sweetheart of the Rodeo has a bit too much twangy honky tonk in it to be the particular brand of country that I enjoy. And it lacks the emotional depth that Parsons was able to put into his solo work. But it still sounds more innovative and less generic that the other Byrds album we listened to, so I count this as a decent win. Sweetheart of the Rodeo was breezy, rarely boring, and generally stood out as doing something sort of different. I didn’t particularly love this album, but I liked it enough that I don’t mind saying it’s something that more people should probably check out.

Favorite Tracks: You Don’t Miss Your Water; One Hundred Years from Now; Nothing Was Delivered

Emily: Zack has been on my case lately about not getting through albums quickly enough. While he makes a legitimate point, part of my reason for slowness is that I'm just not super excited by the current batch of albums. Alas, I have to get through the current batch before we get closer to #400 and beyond. So tonight, a slow Monday night at home, I decided to sit down with my oh-so-scintillating Federal Courts treatise and fire up The Byrds. While Sweetheart of the Rodeo made a chapter on legislative courts somewhat more interesting, it definitely wouldn't be my first choice of studying music. Or of other kinds of music. It was just too much honk and too much tonk throughout. Wikipedia told me that before they brought Gram Parsons in, the band wanted to do more of a concept album encompassing the American pop music of the 20th century. Now that sounds like an intriguing album, but when they brought Parsons in he essentially made them scrap the concept and go full-on country instead. The result was not too different from Parsons' solo effort, which we just listened to, but it seemed to have even more of a twangy country vibe - not exactly my cup of tea. But getting through Sweetheart of the Rodeo does make us one album closer to the next hundred-milestone and beyond, so it at least counts for that.

Favorite Tracks: One Hundred Years from Now; Nothing Was Delivered; You Ain't Going Nowhere

#388: Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel (1974)

Zack: To show you how much both Emily and I know about country music, neither of us realized that Gram Parsons was in the Byrds, which is why we are inadvertently listening to Grievous Angel (the last album Parsons recorded before he died) and Sweetheart of the Rodeo (the last Byrds album Parsons worked on) back to back. He also apparently was on that Flying Burrito Brothers album we listened to forever ago, which is a thing I did not know. Anyway, that we’re listening to these two right next to each other is completely coincidental, but it might be interesting to hear how Parsons developed what he called “Cosmic American Music” but what any normal person who is not addicted to heroin might refer to as country rock. The one Byrds album we listened to before definitely had country influences on it, but it was certainly a rock album. Grievous Angel is sort of the opposite. I really don’t hear much of the rock that’s supposed to be in its genes. It comes across mostly as a pure country album, albeit quite a good one. There’s a bit too much twang in there for we to love it as much as I do the outlaw stuff. But there are a number of songs where the twang is dialed back and the emotion is turned up. Those songs, which have a beautiful somberness to them, are the ones that really jump out. Grievous Angel, overall, is quite a good album, but it is really carried by songs like Love Hurts, In My Hour of Darkness, and $1000 Wedding. In those songs, the beauty of this album as a county masterpiece really shines. The other tracks were solid, but were mostly just filler to me.

Favorite Tracks: In My Hour of Darkness, $1000 Wedding; Love Hurts

Emily: Clearly I had no idea who Gram Parsons was when I decided to pick a Byrds album immediately after a Gram Parsons solo album. Maybe it was because there are so many Byrds albums on this list that I felt that I should pick one in this batch. And maybe it was also because the albums are in two different genres. The Byrds lean more on classic rock (we'll see about the next album), but this album was decidedly country. There was a bit of twang on some of the tracks (which as you probably know is what really turns me away from country music), but where the album really shined was in its emotion. Grievous Angel has an undercurrent of sadness on it, made all the more poignant by the fact that the album was released four months after Parsons' untimely death from a heroin overdose at the age of 26. From that sadness comes the album's strength, an emotional core that has resonated in both country and rock ever since.

Favorite Tracks: Love Hurts; In My Hour of Darkness; Hearts on Fire

#221: The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969)

Zack: Wikipedia says this album was probably inspired by the Louvin Brothers, but I promise I didn’t hold that against them. Gilded Palace was a pretty good country album, a genre I have slowly begun to embrace more fully. While listening, I thought back to a conversation I had recently with a friend. She told me that she doesn’t like country music, and I told her I could probably get her to give it a chance. So throughout this album, I kept listening for songs that would be well-suited for a Beginner’s Guide to Country Music playlist. Sure enough, two stuck out at me. Dark End of the Street is an R&B song that they repurpose, which I thought showed the ability of country music to adapt and infuse with its own unique character. Hot Burrito #1 manages to be a sad country song while eschewing all that crappy twang that usually gets bottled up with it. Those two songs were definitely the most accessible, and generally the highlights for me.

Favorite Tracks: Dark End of the Street; Hot Burrito #1; Wheels

Emily: Also according to Wikipedia, this album is a major influence on the alt-country movement in the '80s and '90s, especially for bands like Whiskeytown and Wilco. Now, I enjoyed both of those bands tremendously, but apparently not for their '60s country-rock influences. I thought Gilded Palace of Sin was just okay. Some of it harkened back to the heavily twangy '50s country sound that I completely disliked, while other tracks went in a new direction with rock, R&B, and psychedelic influences. Those tracks, in my opinion, were the most interesting and most successful. I especially enjoyed the pair of Hot Burrito songs. While they had nothing to do with the Taco Bell delicacy, each track incorporated country emotion and connection with the sounds of the time, modernizing country music up to 1969. Perhaps that's where the influence on alt-country comes in - taking the old-school country genre, adding modern twists and turns, and coming up with something at once classic and original.

Favorite Tracks: Hot Burrito #1; Hot Burrito #2; Dark End of the Street