Country Rock

It's rare that a genre's origins can be traced to a single album or two, but the dawn of Country Rock arrived when Gram Parsons recorded Safe At Home with the International Submarine Band, then briefly joined the Byrds in 1968 for the definitive Sweetheart of the Rodeo LP, a fusion of Parsons' Honky-Tonk and mountain music tastes with the Byrds' Folk-Rock. Parsons' next band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, continued the tradition on The Gilded Palace of Sin, released in '69. Through the '70s, some Southern Rock bands fused country themes and twang with their Blues Rock, like Jacksonville, Florida's Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet; while Neil Young's output owes much to country. Parsons' legacy also inspired the Eagles, Poco, early Grateful Dead recordings and the Rolling Stones' more twangy songs, including "Wild Horses" and "Honky Tonk Women." Today, this legacy lives on through a legion of Alt-Country bands, with the Jayhawks, the soulful Whiskeytown and the genre-defining Uncle Tupelo among the most prominent torchbearers.