133. The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo (August 1968)

1. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

2. I Am a Pilgrim*

3. The Christian Life

4. You Don't Miss Your Water

5. You're Still on My Mind

6. Pretty Boy Floyd

7. Hickory Wind*

8. One Hundred Years from Now

9. Blue Canadian Rockies

10. Life in Prison

11. Nothing Was Delivered*

A-

More Byrds. More impeccably played and produced easy listening music for freaks. 

This album completely bombed when it came out, and it's not hard to see why. I mean, one of the quintessential psychedelic rock groups releasing an album of understated country music, all awash in pedal steel and elevated by the Byrds' trademark lovely harmonies? The hippies were baffled, and the country music establishment thought they were taking the piss. Time has been kind to this album, though. And that's fair, because it's really very good.

They call this "country rock". I guess because it has a slightly harder, beefier edge that traditional country, and sometimes the bass will kick in and the melody and rhythm will shift to a more rock-oriented sound. Then of course there are a couple of Dylan convers, which are all countried up but then the chorus on "Nothing Was Delivered" will kick in, for example, and suddenly your back listening to 5D or something. Most casual listeners, though, will probably just think of this album as country music. And while I'm not really familiar with most of the original versions of these songs, the cover of "Life in Prison" for example shows that the Byrds didn't always grasp exactly what made things work (this version completely lacks the bleak desperation of the Merle Haggard original). The result is a strange, transitional album - one that hasn't quite managed to shake 60s rock, but also hasn't quite developed into 70s country and country-rock.

What really does make this album work is the music. It's beautifully played and recorded, and the whole album has a lovely laid-back vibe to it. There are a lot of honky tonk sounds, lots and lots of pedal steel, forays into banjo and piano, and of course the vocal harmonies that the Byrds are best know for. The album is really deceptive for how simple and unassuming it is. Listening to it now, almost 60 years later, there's a lot that trickled down into country and rock music, and it doesn't seem startling so much as pretty and charming. At the time, of course, this was an incredibly bold step for a band to take, but nowadays you can just enjoy Sweetheart of the Rodeo for what it is - a very pretty, very well-played collection of well-chosen songs.