Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, the Byrds’ sixth studio album from 1968, is justifiably famous because it features singer/songwriter Gram Parsons on his only album with the band. Parsons, later to found the Flying Burrito Brothers, would spend only six months as a Byrd, but it was a tumultuous six months indeed.
At the time the album was recorded, the only remaining Byrds from the original lineup were Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. Hillman recruited Parsons, and with drummer Kevin Kelley and guitarist Clarence White, the Byrds (at the urging of Parsons) went to Nashville to record the album. McGuinn’s original concept was a wide range of music including old-timey gospel and country evolving into futuristic “space” music. Thankfully, Parsons and Hillman tipped the scales in favor of the prescient country rock that the album became.
30 Days Out 