Sweetheart of the Rodeo

In 1968 Gram Parsons blew through The Byrds like a hickory wind, resulting in this country-rock touchstone. They adopted The Louvin Brothers’ God-fearing sentiments and country-gospel leanings on “The Christian Life” and fitted out Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” with a crisp canter and whirring organ. Parsons provided a couple of gems with hay in their hair—the gentle cluck and twang of “One Hundred Years from Now” and “Hickory Wind”, where the pedal steel, the harmonies and everything else sigh in plaintive waltz-time.