An Arbitrary History of Country Rock (Or ... )
... Coming Together and Falling Apart
It's 1968, the year of the tumultuous Democratic National Convention and the Haight, and of Peace & Love. The world at large sees polar opposites, the straights and the freaks but in the rock and roll world influences are melding together.
While Sol smiled and waved at the hippies from his Longhorn Cadillac and Louie kept sending his proteges to folk clubs and neo-barn dances, country rock exploded.
The International Submarine Band finally got around to setting afloat their first album, Safe At Home, but had sunk to the bottom of the ocean under its own weight, breaking up and dissolving away before anyone really got to hear them.
Gene Clark's departure from the Byrds the previous year -- along with bluegrass virtuoso Doug Dillard's exit from his family band -- led to The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark (with a band made up of future Eagle Bernie Leadon, longtime country rock drummer Michael Clarke and slide guitarist and one time Gumby animator Sneaky Pete Kleinow).
Jug band turned country rockers the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the original swamp-rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival both released their self-titled debuts, while post-Buffalo Springfielders Richie Furay and Jim Messina joined Randy Meisner, George Grantham and Rusty Young to start work on Poco's first record, Pickin' Up The Pieces.
Nashville started to smell an opportunity in the wind as the Beau Brummels recorded their highly-underrated Bradley's Barn effort, Dylan went south to begin work on Nashville Skyline, which would be released the next year and a super-group of Music Row musicians calling themselves Area Code 615 also started working on a 1969 release. Consistent to all three of these records was the famed drummer Kenny Buttrey, arguably the Hal Blaine of country rock.
The rest of the world even got involved in the act as former Fairport Convention guitarist (and future purveyer of the pop=sugar single Shake It), Iain Matthews invented Matthews' Southern Comfort (and scored a Top 25 hit in the US with a cover of Woodstock).
Country rock, circa 1968, had arrived.
Great points, you should also talk about Rick Nelson, Mike Nesmith and all the rest of the country-rock bands that never got a fair shake in their day. Gram Parsons is 100% more popular today than he ever was when he was alive. Poco, Pure Prairie Leauge, New Riders, GP, The Flying Burrito Bros. The Dillards, The Clarence White Byrds, Nelson and Nesmith among others were ignored in their prime. If they had come out after The Eagles they would have been huge. The Eagles were at the right place and the right time, the others weren't!
Posted by: JR | January 13, 2009 at 08:42 PM
NRPS, Nesmith and Nelson will all, coincidentally, appear in tomorrow's post. Twang on!
Posted by: Fusion 45 | January 15, 2009 at 09:10 PM
NRPS, Nesmith and Nelson will all, coincidentally, appear in tomorrow's post. Twang on!
Posted by: Fusion 45 | January 15, 2009 at 09:10 PM