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Country music was always a part of Rock and Roll. It was there in Elvis Presley's work, just as it was present in the southern Soul of the 1960s and in Chuck Berry's "Maybellene." The Beatles played with it, as did the Rolling Stones. Without that Country ingredient, Rock and Roll would be different. Thus, in many ways, Country Rock was nothing new when it came along in the late 1960s and 1970s. What it did that was different, however, was to foreground the Country element in ways that were new to the Rock and Roll world.
Country Rock and Folk Rock, however different, share some tendencies. Both genres work the soil of the past in order to cultivate the next musical scene. Gram Parsons, one of Country Rock's most significant but also most mythologized figures, due in part to an early death and the mystery surrounding it, was overt in his sense that the past held the key. His song "Older Guys" (co-written with Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon), if operating at a few levels, has what might be called his cornerstone belief: "The older guys really got it all worked out." Parsons did indeed draw from the worlds of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, and others to create his own version of Country. But as a short-term member of the Byrds and a part-time member of the Rolling Stones' entourage, Parsons was indeed bringing two things together.
Country Rock, extending from Parsons' work with the Byrds on Sweetheart of the Rodeo and his band Flying Burrito Brothers up through the early recordings of the Eagles, Poco, and others, was a part of the wider youth culture of the 1960s. It was the sound of young people looking for the cultures that felt more "real" than what they were finding on their doorsteps. Of course, as a tendency, this reaching into Country's history in order to find something fresh and viable extends well beyond Country Rock. From Elvis Costello's Almost Blue to the whole of the "Alt Country" scene, it's a thing that has been happening for some time and will likely not run its course any time soon.
lesson:
The Roots of Country Rock
How did Country Music influence Rock and Roll and the musicians who made it?
Video
video:
I Walk the Line
<p>Country music was always a part of Rock and Roll. It was there in Elvis Presley's work, just as it was present in the southern Soul of the 1960s and in Chuck Berry's "Maybellene." The Beatles played with it, as did the Rolling Stones. Without that Country ingredient, Rock and Roll would be different. Thus, in many ways, Country Rock was nothing new when it came along in the late 1960s and 1970s. What it did that was different, however, was to foreground the Country element in ways that were new to the Rock and Roll world.</p> <p>Country Rock and Folk Rock, however different, share some tendencies. Both genres work the soil of the past in order to cultivate the next musical scene. Gram Parsons, one of Country Rock's most significant but also most mythologized figures, due in part to an early death and the mystery surrounding it, was overt in his sense that the past held the key. His song "Older Guys" (co-written with Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon), if operating at a few levels, has what might be called his cornerstone belief: "The older guys really got it all worked out." Parsons did indeed draw from the worlds of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, and others to create his own version of Country. But as a short-term member of the Byrds and a part-time member of the Rolling Stones' entourage, Parsons was indeed bringing two things together.</p> <p>Country Rock, extending from Parsons' work with the Byrds on <em>Sweetheart of the Rodeo</em> and his band Flying Burrito Brothers up through the early recordings of the Eagles, Poco, and others, was a part of the wider youth culture of the 1960s. It was the sound of young people looking for the cultures that felt more "real" than what they were finding on their doorsteps. Of course, as a tendency, this reaching into Country's history in order to find something fresh and viable extends well beyond Country Rock. From Elvis Costello's <em>Almost Blue</em> to the whole of the "Alt Country" scene, it's a thing that has been happening for some time and will likely not run its course any time soon.</p>
video:
Blue Suede Shoes
<p>Country music was always a part of Rock and Roll. It was there in Elvis Presley's work, just as it was present in the southern Soul of the 1960s and in Chuck Berry's "Maybellene." The Beatles played with it, as did the Rolling Stones. Without that Country ingredient, Rock and Roll would be different. Thus, in many ways, Country Rock was nothing new when it came along in the late 1960s and 1970s. What it did that was different, however, was to foreground the Country element in ways that were new to the Rock and Roll world.</p> <p>Country Rock and Folk Rock, however different, share some tendencies. Both genres work the soil of the past in order to cultivate the next musical scene. Gram Parsons, one of Country Rock's most significant but also most mythologized figures, due in part to an early death and the mystery surrounding it, was overt in his sense that the past held the key. His song "Older Guys" (co-written with Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon), if operating at a few levels, has what might be called his cornerstone belief: "The older guys really got it all worked out." Parsons did indeed draw from the worlds of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, and others to create his own version of Country. But as a short-term member of the Byrds and a part-time member of the Rolling Stones' entourage, Parsons was indeed bringing two things together.</p> <p>Country Rock, extending from Parsons' work with the Byrds on <em>Sweetheart of the Rodeo</em> and his band Flying Burrito Brothers up through the early recordings of the Eagles, Poco, and others, was a part of the wider youth culture of the 1960s. It was the sound of young people looking for the cultures that felt more "real" than what they were finding on their doorsteps. Of course, as a tendency, this reaching into Country's history in order to find something fresh and viable extends well beyond Country Rock. From Elvis Costello's <em>Almost Blue</em> to the whole of the "Alt Country" scene, it's a thing that has been happening for some time and will likely not run its course any time soon.</p>
video:
Older Guys
<p>Country music was always a part of Rock and Roll. It was there in Elvis Presley's work, just as it was present in the southern Soul of the 1960s and in Chuck Berry's "Maybellene." The Beatles played with it, as did the Rolling Stones. Without that Country ingredient, Rock and Roll would be different. Thus, in many ways, Country Rock was nothing new when it came along in the late 1960s and 1970s. What it did that was different, however, was to foreground the Country element in ways that were new to the Rock and Roll world.</p> <p>Country Rock and Folk Rock, however different, share some tendencies. Both genres work the soil of the past in order to cultivate the next musical scene. Gram Parsons, one of Country Rock's most significant but also most mythologized figures, due in part to an early death and the mystery surrounding it, was overt in his sense that the past held the key. His song "Older Guys" (co-written with Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon), if operating at a few levels, has what might be called his cornerstone belief: "The older guys really got it all worked out." Parsons did indeed draw from the worlds of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, and others to create his own version of Country. But as a short-term member of the Byrds and a part-time member of the Rolling Stones' entourage, Parsons was indeed bringing two things together.</p> <p>Country Rock, extending from Parsons' work with the Byrds on <em>Sweetheart of the Rodeo</em> and his band Flying Burrito Brothers up through the early recordings of the Eagles, Poco, and others, was a part of the wider youth culture of the 1960s. It was the sound of young people looking for the cultures that felt more "real" than what they were finding on their doorsteps. Of course, as a tendency, this reaching into Country's history in order to find something fresh and viable extends well beyond Country Rock. From Elvis Costello's <em>Almost Blue</em> to the whole of the "Alt Country" scene, it's a thing that has been happening for some time and will likely not run its course any time soon.</p>
video:
Take It Easy
<p>Country music was always a part of Rock and Roll. It was there in Elvis Presley's work, just as it was present in the southern Soul of the 1960s and in Chuck Berry's "Maybellene." The Beatles played with it, as did the Rolling Stones. Without that Country ingredient, Rock and Roll would be different. Thus, in many ways, Country Rock was nothing new when it came along in the late 1960s and 1970s. What it did that was different, however, was to foreground the Country element in ways that were new to the Rock and Roll world.</p> <p>Country Rock and Folk Rock, however different, share some tendencies. Both genres work the soil of the past in order to cultivate the next musical scene. Gram Parsons, one of Country Rock's most significant but also most mythologized figures, due in part to an early death and the mystery surrounding it, was overt in his sense that the past held the key. His song "Older Guys" (co-written with Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon), if operating at a few levels, has what might be called his cornerstone belief: "The older guys really got it all worked out." Parsons did indeed draw from the worlds of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, and others to create his own version of Country. But as a short-term member of the Byrds and a part-time member of the Rolling Stones' entourage, Parsons was indeed bringing two things together.</p> <p>Country Rock, extending from Parsons' work with the Byrds on <em>Sweetheart of the Rodeo</em> and his band Flying Burrito Brothers up through the early recordings of the Eagles, Poco, and others, was a part of the wider youth culture of the 1960s. It was the sound of young people looking for the cultures that felt more "real" than what they were finding on their doorsteps. Of course, as a tendency, this reaching into Country's history in order to find something fresh and viable extends well beyond Country Rock. From Elvis Costello's <em>Almost Blue</em> to the whole of the "Alt Country" scene, it's a thing that has been happening for some time and will likely not run its course any time soon.</p>
Print Journalism
article:
The Carter Family: Into The Valley
FIRST KILL YOUR HOG. SKIN IT, singe off the hairs and leave the hide to soften. Tug it over a round frame, whittle out a neck, "and there's your banjo", says Roni Stoneman. "The five-string banjo is the only American instrument. The black people brought the four-string banjo, but the five-stringer and the clawhammer style came from the mountains." Roni, elderly Southern belle and professional banjo player, is one of the 15 of Ernest 'Pops' Stoneman's 23 children who made it to adulthood. "A lot of people made their own instruments. There wasn't much money around, but there was plenty...
article:
Gram Parsons: GP
GRAM PARSONS is an artist with a vision as unique and personal as those of Jagger-Richard, Ray Davies, or any of the other celebrated figures. Parsons may not have gone to the gate as often as the others, but when he has he's been strikingly consistent and good. I can't think of a performance on record any more moving than Gram's on his 'Hot Burrito No. 1', and the first album of his old band, the Flying Burrito Bros.' Gilded Palace of Sin, is a milestone. The record brought a pure country style and a wrecked country sensibility to rock,...
article:
Bob Dylan: Nashville Skyline
WARMTH INVADES DYLAN RECORDING Nashville Skyline Reveals a More Polished Singer BOB DYLAN has released his first album in over a year, Nashville Skyline, a simple blend of country music and gentle thoughts. The album, distributed to record stores this week by Columbia Records, is the first Mr. Dylan has produced since John Wesley Harding was released over a year ago. Several things set the new album – which was recorded in Nashville, the home of country music – apart from his previous albums. The most obvious is that Mr. Dylan's voice has changed again. His early albums showed a sneering, nasal voice. John Wesley Harding was deeper and more...