Country Rock

[bobbyg29]

Originally Posted by Groovy Man You can trace the origins of country rock to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash , Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers and many others. Also, The Beatles too, if you think about it. ''I’ll Cry Instead'' (1964), Baby’s In Black (1964/65), What Goes On.(1966), all Lennon/McCartney songs, are considered some of the first country rock songs, by many. The Beatles also covered country songs, like ''Honey Don’t'' (Carl Perkins), ''Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby'' (Rex Griffin) and ''Act Naturally'' (Buck Owens) in the early days, and rocked them up a bit. I think The Buffalo Springfield and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band were one of the first rock bands to mix country and rock. Bob Dylan's in there too, mixing folk, country and rock. Also, believe it or not Mike Nesmith of the Monkees was incorporating country elements into Monkee songs. Not on many of the hits, but some country rock flavor can be found on some album tracks. The Byrds always had traces of country in their music, even before Gram Parsons joined in '68 I agree what bobbyg about what he posted about Gram Parsons, The International Submarine Band and The Bryds being on the forefront of the country rock movement of the late 60's. Well said, by him. Here's a bunch of 60's & 70's country rockers, I listen to... Goose Creek Symphony Barefoot Jerry Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Gram Parsons Marshall Tucker Band Charlie Daniels Band Flying Burritos Brothers Pure Prairie League Dickey Betts and Great Southern Jackson Browne Little Feat Poco (Early Poco is great) Mason Proffit Lynyrd Skynyrd The Outlaws New Riders of the Purple Sage The Youngbloods The Byrds Creedence Clearwater Revival Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks Michael Nesmith The Ozark Mountain Daredevils The Eagles Linda Ronstadt The Band Levon Helm Brinsley Schwarz Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show The International Submarine Band Neil Young Allman Brothers Band Buffalo Springfield Bob Dylan Townes Van Zandt Emmylou Harris Not all listed here are pure country rockers, but most are, and close enough.

great list

[annie]

Looks like there is nothing more to add.

[Lord Grendel]

Originally Posted by bobbyg29 My 2 cents on the genre... "Country rock" (literally a fusion of rock and country music) was invented by Gram Parsons who is by far the most significant figure in the genre. The first true country rock album was "Safe at Home" by the International Submarine Band (headed by Parsons) in 1968 which combined basic guitar rock with the pedal steel guitar. Parsons was obviously heavily influenced by Bob Dylan who tinkered with some of the same ideas on "John Wesley Harding" and "Nashville Skyline". He then went on to play with The Byrds and bring that influence to them--recording the single greatest country rock album IMO: "Sweetheart of the Rodeo". Parsons then went on to form the Flying Burrito Brothers with Chris Hillman from the Byrds, the first great true country rock band. After leaving the FBB, Parsons went solo and his primary partner was Emmylou Harris, who learned the craft from him and carried it on after his death (a very bizzare one indeed if you want to read that story). So you can see Parsons fingerprints are everywhere on "country rock", a genre title which incidentally he hated. He preferred to call his music "Cosmic American Music". Gram Parsons is one of the important figures in music history that most people have never heard of. Along with some of the other bands that have been mentioned, The New Riders of the Purple Sage (a spinoff from The Grateful Dead) was one of the first great country rock artists too.

Good informative post BobbyG, love the genre title too..."Cosmic American Music"...sounds much better than Country Rock, even though that is the name I grew up associating with that unique hybrid of music.

I have four Byrds albums but not the "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" one,,,I'll put it on my list.