Hillman, who plays The Seasons Performance Hall on Friday with his longtime collaborator Herb Pedersen, was a founding member of The Byrds, whose 1968 album “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” is considered an early landmark of the genre. And that same year, he and Gram Parsons left The Byrds to form The Flying Burrito Brothers, among the first country-rock bands.
To hear Hillman tell it, it wasn’t as if either band really decided to create a new genre. It was just the organic evolution from folk and folk-rock to country-tinged rock.
“We were already experimenting in The Byrds,” Hillman said. “And it wasn’t that much of a stretch, country from folk.”
The shift really started when Parsons joined The Byrds, for whom Hillman played bass and largely stayed in the background behind frontman Roger McGuinn.
“Gram was a staunch ally,” Hillman said. “He loved country music, and we sort of coerced Roger to go to Nashville.”
The result was “Sweetheart of the Rodeo,” which Rolling Stone listed as No. 117 on its 2003 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. That same list placed the first Flying Burrito Brothers album, 1969’s “The Gilded Palace of Sin,” at No. 192. Neither album was commercially successful, but their influence is heard today in bands such as Wilco and Son Volt.
Alas, the Flying Burrito Brothers were not built to last. Despite later versions playing throughout the 20th century, the original lineup was done by 1972. And Parsons died in 1973, having parted ways with Hillman over the former’s drug use, Hillman said.
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