In the mid 1980s a series of post-punk bands picked up the sound, some went for the FBBs-Byrds-Parsons-Gene Clark thing, others were a little more into the psyche folk-rock thing (Byrds-Buffalo Springfield), these paisley pop type bands, the ones that followed the latter were the first to really cut records, although the former had one great champion, the Jayhawks who were really the first Alt-Country band in the 1980s.
There was of course bands who took punk, blues and rockabilly in their stride during the early 1980s.

The Outlaw sound and it's followers were far removed from country-rock, and that evolved into the Urban Cowboy sound, which got as cookie-cutter as anything on the charts now.

The Cosmic Cowboy things ran along a strangely wonderful path blending singer-songwriter, progressive country (which Willie and Waylon were helping evolve) and even old school Texan folkies like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark etc, who straddled the folk and country genres.

Picking the first country-rock record is tricky, most of the bands had a blend of country, folk, Bluegrass, folk-rock, psyche-pop, sunshine pop and baroque pop.
Some early versions I'd call Psyche-country, where the country-rock is there, but the pop stylings are just as strong.

I never thought of Gene Clark's debut album cut with the Gosdin Brothers as country-rock, it's psyche country at best, although three songs come in as country-rock in general and as a 1967 release are early contenders. Still, the Byrds were mixing peadl steel and country into their sound at the same time anyway.

The albums that are almost country-rock are:
Gene Clark & The Gosdin Brothers - s/t (1967)
The Everly Brothers - Roots (1968)
Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding (1968)
The Band - Music From Big Pink (1968)
The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet (1968)
The Dillard & Clark Expedition - The Fabulous Expedition Of.. (1968)
Ian & Sylvia - Nashville (1968)
Buffy St. Marie - I Wish I was A Country Girl Again (1968)
Stone Country - s/t (1968)
Southwind - s/t (1968)
Kangaroo - s/t (1968)
Ramblin' Jack Elliot - Young Brigham (1968)
The Dillards -Wheatstraw Suite (1968)
The Youngbloods - Elephant Mountain (1969)
Horses - s/t (1969)
Euphoria - s/t (1969)
Blue Velvet Band - s/t (1969)
Steve Young - Rock Salt & Nails (1969)
Barbara Keith (1969)
Bamboo - Bamboo (1969)
Ron Elliot - Candlestick Maker (1969)
Frummox - From Here To There (1969)
Ian Mathews - Southern Comfort (1969)
Ian Mathews Southern Comfort - Second Spring (1970)
Compton & Batteau Compton & Batteau in California (1970)
Charlie Daniels - s/t (1970)

And quite a few Creedence Clearwater Revival albums. In a way the rockabilly element was stronger.

The earliest country-rock albums, by the artist's first country-rock release only:

The International Submarine Band - Safe At Home (1968)
The Byrds - Sweetheart of The Rodeo (1968)
Beau Brummels - Bradley's Barn (1968)
Poco - Pickin' Up The Pieces (1969)
The Flying Burito Brothers - The Gilded Palace Of Sin (1969)
Great Speckled Bird - s/t (1969)
John Stewart - California Bloodlines (1969)
Dillard & Clark Expedition - Through The Morning Through The Night (1969)
Linda Ronstadt - Home Grown, Hand Sown (1969)
The Band - The Band (1969)
The Corvettes (two 1969 singles only)
Levitt & McClue - Living in the Country (1969)
Area Code 615 - s/t (1970)
Don Everly - s/t (1970)
Longbranch Pennywhistle - s/t (1970)
Country Fever - Country Fever (1970)
The Wildweeds - s/t (1970)
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy (1970)
Swampwater - s/t (1970)
Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band - Rick Nelson In Concert (1970)
John Hartford - Iron Mountain Depot (1970)
Shiloh - s/t (1970)
Dewey Martin and Medicine Ball - s/t (1970)
Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - Magnetic South (1970)

Nashville West gets a mention, a fantastic recording and group circa 1967, but excluded due to it's late release, 1979. While The
Gosdin Brothers' awesome Sound Of Goodbye (1968) bridges the country-rock gap from the side of mainstream country. A massive thumbs each for each of these, and Clarence White plays guitar on both.

As the 1970s progressed we had (some of these have already been mentioned in other posts of course):

The closest Neil Young came to country-rock was Harvest (1972), but if we were going to include all the country infused singer-songwriter records and the Cosmic Cowboy stuff, well.. this would be huge.

The Jerry Jeff Walker live album from 1973 with Herb Steiner is a fantastic bridge between country-rock, progressive country and the whole Cosmic Cowboy thang.

Another exclusion is the wonderful Flatlanders, whose stripped back mostly acoustic country LP from 1972 only came out in a limited run on 8-track, it came out on proper release over a decade later and reamins in print.
The main participants reformed, cut more albums (more blues styled) a live DVD and a 1972 live CD has been issued as well.

quote:

---

I think a lot of the so-called "country-rock" sound was foreshadowed by the Lovin' Spoonful...

---

I've always grouped CDB, Marshall Tucker, Allman Bros., Barefoot Jerry, The Outlaws, etc as Southern Rock; I guess because they are from the South. NRPS, PPL, Poco, Souther, Hillman, Furay, Eagles, etc. I always considered country rock or desert rock as some have coined them.

billy

Taz and Charlie were from R&B and rock bands from the 1960s, Charlie went to Nashville in 1967, but by defination geography does not make on a country picker.
He played and produced the Youngbloods 'Elephant Mountain' LP, prod some unsuccessful psyche-rock sessions on Roy Buchanan, was on some recordings by Leonard Cohen and some tours, sessioned for Flatt & Scruggs and Bob Dylan.

In 1970 he actually had his band with one of the Youngbloods, it predated the CDB and a live album was rejected, but appeared on a dodgy semi-bootleg label as two different albums in 1976.

A lot of Nashville dudes were R&B, soul and rock pickers who hit town between 1964-1973, it took them a while to come into their own, but most of them would be names you'd recognise:
Jerry Carrigan, Bobby Emmons, Chip Young, David Briggs, Charlie McCoy, Kenny Buttery, Norbert Putnam, Daniels, Mac Gayden, Wayne Moss, etc.

Wow, I forgot the Earl Scruggs review and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, those guys punched out albums of good quality right through the 1970s.

quote:

---

Poco - Pickin' Up The Pieces (1969)
The Flying Burito Brothers - The Gilded Palace Of Sin (1969)
Great Speckled Bird - s/t (1969)
John Stewart - California Bloodlines (1969)
Dillard & Clark Expedition - Through The Morning Through The Night (1969)
Linda Ronstadt - Home Grown, Hand Sown (1969)
The Band - The Band (1969)

---

The best year ever...

Barry "Byrd" Burton and Duncan Cameron [late of Sawyer Brown] supplied pedal steel, slide and dobro licks. Jim Vest did the honors on Chock Full of Country issued in the 90's.
Just a great band that played interesting music.

Somewhere in the 70's I got to see ARA along with PPL and FBB at the same concert. I was tickled like a kid at Christmas!

[This message was edited by Jerry Overstreet on 05 February 2005 at 11:39 AM.]

billy

Thanks, Jason, for mentioning the Ian Mathews Southern Comfort album. I've always thought that it was one of the more unfortunately overlooked albums of that era. Though perhaps more folk/country than rock, I always thought it was brilliant and has some terrific Red Rhodes playing on it. (Also, aren't there some some other Charlie Daniels sessions from the Bay Area c.early 70s floating around?)

Also Jason, I was interested in your mention of Redwing. Other than their periodic use of Timothy Schmidt, I guess I never thought of them in the country-rock family. They were a terrific band live, though. Frequently electrifying. I always thought it was a shame that their recordings were so lame, all the more so knowing how great they were live.

Depending on how inclusive one's definition of country-rock is, I'd wanna also include some of the early 'cow punk' bands like Rank & File, True West, etc., as well as the hippie country bands like Clover. Even more though, I'd include the tougher-to-catagorize bands like the deperately under-known Dusty Chaps.

[This message was edited by Chris Bauer on 05 February 2005 at 07:39 PM.]

Most of the new groups took on a post-punk approach, just as the country-rockers took a post Dylan-Beatles apporoach to their generation's music.

Of course alt-country has it's roots in Texas folk, as does country-rock, but that's a whole 'nother topic.

The first Redwing recordings, they'd be the ones I'd call country-rock with a psyche influence (most of them had been in a psyche-baroque pop outfit that was aligned with Terry Melcher, ex-Byrds producer), after REdwing's debut, the country element decreased quite noticably by the second album and ever increasingly on each subsequent effort.

Most of the country-rock bands got weaker after the first couple of albums due to defections and in the first wave most of them split because they couldn't shift records. Definately a cult genre until the Eagles cracked it.

Not to say there wasn't hits, but the real sellers of the late 1960s and early 1960s were hard rock, heavy blues, funk, jazz-rock, etc.

Listen to Lloyd Maines on "Boxcars"... Now THAT'S what I call rock and roll steel guitar!!!

Respectfully,
Dave Burr

[This message was edited by Dave Burr on 07 February 2005 at 09:19 AM.]

billy

I personally have a hard time nailing the best or fave country-rock outfit, most of them only had a few good albums, and quite a few okay ones.
The first FBBs album is probably my fave album ever, however the group's follow up was quite patchy and they were hit and miss and the band kept changing so many members over the years.
There's definately a good thing about near every version, but not enough to warrant a best group.

For me, this goes for all of them.
They Byrds would have to be a lot lower on the list, the early albums are great, the Sweetheart LP is awesome, after that though.. uh oh.
The Ballad Of Easy Rider LP came close, if you listen to the CD reissue, the bonus tracks could have replaced a couple of really poor choices on the original 1969 version. McGuinn really doesn't have a country-rock vocal style, and the songs are generally a little weak post-Hillman.

Might have been an awesome live band, (the 1969 and 1970 offical live albums are very good), but McGuinn was the weak link in many ways.
This theory might explain his increasingly weak solo albums as well.

I'd also link to suggest that Dylan's Nashville Skyline is not even a candidate for a country-rock album, it's a folk singer putting on a country voice and cutting a country album.
The preceeding album 'John Wesley Harding' wasn't really, but helps set up the genre.
A lot of the songs on the album became part of the country-rock language, and it's mellow stripped down approach was more basic that the Band's or the Byrds' on their respective 1968 albums.
Dylan and the Band sold well, the Byrds however did not.
No doubt that these albums were possibly the main three influences on the burgeoning country-rock movement to the wider public and to other performers.

Nashville Skyline, to me is a retreat from the stunning lyrics and stripped down approach of his 1968 album.
It's basically a country record, more rootsy than a Portner Wagoner or George Jones records, mainly due to the abundence of acoustic instruments.
It's a more romantic mellower Bob, there's a distinct lack or irony as an instrumental is included on what is already a very short record.
The duet with Johnny Cash is gorgeous, and also serves as a reminder of how o.k. the record is, how it lacks the poetry that either man could evoke at their best.

This lacks the spirited feel of the Beau Brummels mixing folk pop with Nashville session guys, the eclectic charm that Ian & Sylvia brought to their 1968 Nashville LP, in feel it's like Dylan singing over Doc Watson's 1968 full Nashville backing band set, but wihtout Doc's cool guitar.
Norman Blake and all the session guys are awesome, but country-rock it ain't, at least not to this fella.

It did however sell a lot of vinyl and the single 'Lay, Lady Lay' was a hit, so a lot of college students had some nice mood music while trying to ... woo someone.