Pioneering Country Rock
Internal strife dogged the Byrds, and by the beginning of 1968 the band was down to two original members (Hillman and McGuinn), with Hillman's cousin Kevin Kelley on drums. They then hired Gram Parsons to replace Crosby. Hillman and Parsons changed the Byrds' musical direction, helping to usher in a new genre known as country rock when they recorded the album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Once again Hillman seemed to recede into the background, leaving most of the vocals to Parsons and McGuinn and concentrating on bass and mandolin. Parsons left the band shortly thereafter; Hillman brought in former Kentucky Colonels guitarist Clarence White as a replacement, but this lineup was short-lived when Hillman himself left a few weeks later.
Read more about this topic: Chris Hillman
Famous quotes containing the words pioneering, country and/or rock:
“You know what I’m talking about. This business has changed. Flyers aren’t pilots anymore, they’re engineers. This is a college man’s game. Our work is done. The pioneering is over.”
—Frank W. Wead (1895?–1947)
“It is almost as safe to assume that an artist of any dignity is against his country, i.e., against the environment in which God hath placed him, as it is to assume that his country is against the artist.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“The acorn’s not yet
Fallen from the tree
That’s to grow the wood,
That’s to make the cradle,
That’s to rock the bairn,
That’s to grow a man,
That’s to lay me.”
—Unknown. The Cauld Lad of Hilton or, The Wandering Spectre (l. 2–8)