At times, I could close my eyes and hear the ghost of Clarence White on the string bender (Stuarts owns White’s Fender Telecaster that is famous for a spring mechanism linked to the guitar strap peg…a bend of the shoulder causes the B string to bend creating a pedal steel effect).
#Roger mcguinn uk tour 2014 full#
It’s been over 30 years since I heard any of the Byrds songs performed by a live band (many times in solo concerts, but they lacked the power and intensity of a full band). I was fortunate enough to be able to attend this concert with my son (who probably still harbors some resentment of my Byrds saturation as he was beginning to develop his own musical perspective). The tour kicked off at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on July 24, 2018. They enlisted the support of Marty Stuart and his band of Superlatives to help flesh out the arrangements of the Sweetheart songs. It started small but has now grown to become a national tour. In 1972 all of the original Byrds took a hiatus from their current bands to record the underrated “Byrds”.Ĭut to 50 years later, McGuinn and Hillman announced a reformation tour to help celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album (now considered to be a seminal and highly influential country rock album). The Burritos went on to further bridge the rift between country and rock while the Byrds transformed into a killer live band (with no shortage of classic songs). Generally, the critics hailed the album, but the lack of any real commercial success ultimately forced a rift between Hillman and McGuinn with the former working with Gram Parsons in the seminal Flying Burrito Brothers, and McGuinn enlisting studio musicians to continue as the Byrds for another five albums (that featured the extraordinary guitar work of Clarence White). Country purists hated it because it was too “rock and roll”. Rock purists hated it because it was too country. The album reached 77 on the Billboard charts and failed to chart in the UK. Sweetheart of the Rodeo was a significant departure from the Byrds signature 12-string guitar sound.
The musical direction shifted to country with a hint of Byrds. The group went to Nashville to begin recording with an A-team of country studio players. While the Byrds had dabbled in country influences on four of the first five albums, that concept was undone with the hiring of Kevin Kelly (Chris’ cousin) and Gram Parsons, “a piano player that turned out to be George Jones in a cowboy suit”. Roger McGuinn originally wanted this to be a 2 LP compilation of American music from traditional folk through hill music, country, jazz, rock, and electronic. On the heels of The Notorious Byrd Brothers (a critical favorite with elements of jazz, electronic, country, and folk, but was a commercial failure), the duo was looking for a new direction. Chris started out in Bluegrass, while Roger was deeply rooted in folk. Sweetheart of the Rodeo 50th Anniversary Tourĥ0 years ago, the Byrds (once royalty of rock) were down to two of the original members (Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn).
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