California Earthquake: Country Rock Hall of Fame

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has dedicated its largest revolving exhibition space to three successive experiments centered around various American venues spanning roughly the same period—the 1960s and 1970s. Watch Dylan, Cash & the Nashville Cats (2015-2018) on Music Row here in the capital of country music. Outlaws And Armadillos (2018-2022) touched on Nashville, but was mainly about the burgeoning scene in Austin, Texas. Now, the curators have turned their attention to Los Angeles and the amazing confluence of talent and cultural upheaval that gave us country rock. It wasn’t designed to be a trio, but now it feels like one.

Western Edge, The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock opens September 29 and is set to run through 2025. On a pre-Christmas run, I felt like the show was filling in gaps in a story I already cared a lot about, explaining the history with video interviews Exceptional, illustrating connections in a complex web of celebrated artists, songwriters, and sidekicks musicians. It was a time and place like no other in American music – a place that gave rise to Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Jackson Browne, The Byrds, Poco, Buffalo Springfield, Gram Parsons, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris and the supergroup that It united David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young. It’s baffling to think about, but these young stars were all eager friends and collaborators.

“One of the things we saw was that they all played together,” said museum senior author and editor Michael McCall, who co-curated the exhibition. “They were all on each other’s records. They were singing each other’s songs. They showed up and sang harmonies to each other. At least during the ’60s. It was such a community. They just changed partners.”

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Michael Ochs Archives

The Flying Burrito Brothers in 1968: (L-R) bassist Chris Etheridge, vocalist Gram Parsons, guitarist Chris Hillman, pedalist “Sneaky” Pete Kleino, and drummer Michael Clarke. (Photo by Jim McCrary/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

A great example is Chris Hillman, a rare Los Angelino native in this group, who has probably touched more groups and fostered more connections than anyone else. Flip through one of our big touch screen catalogs and you can trace his journey, starting with the Scottsville Squirrel Parkers with future Eagle co-founder Bernie Lydon. He then took his mandolin to the Golden State Boys, a leading string band, when he was still too young to play bars legally. He was recruited into The Byrds, which became the first great retro rock band. Next, he was on Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parsons, Manassas with Stephen Stills, and the Desert Rose Band. It seemed he could not hold down a job, but in fact Hillman was writing and producing an amazing body of work. Particularly because of his role on The Byrds, the show includes a letter from Tom Petty to Hillman crediting him as the “Father of Country Rock”.

Before arriving at the multimedia deep dive site, visitors to Western Edge begin with a mini-show that acknowledges the story of California country music so far, with a dress by ’40s pioneer Rose Maddox and notes on the burgeoning Bakersfield scene with Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Turn the corner, and you’ll find that the Western Edge story takes place in a more revolutionary vein than either Buck or Merle might understand. The exhibition’s introductory panel says that young transplants from across the United States in the 1960s “found connection through a love of string harmonies, instrumental virtuosity, and honest storytelling of folk, bluegrass, and country—despite country music’s association with conservative politics that youthful counterculture rejected.” .

Two places – Ash Grove and Troubadour – served as the focal points of the scene. Doug Weston’s Troubadour (which is what its sign on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood reads to this day) opened in 1957 and became the most influential showcase venue for singer-songwriters on the West Coast, notably Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Elton John and James Taylor. The Ash Grove was a pure folk music club that was launched in 1958 and operated as a political hot spot by left-wing activist Ed Pearl. Here young people came to hear their elders and heroes, such as Mississippi John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotten, Bill Monroe, Muddy Waters and Doc Watson – along with some select young men, notably Ray Cooder and Taj Mahal as the roots blues band The Rising Sons.

Bluegrass has played a huge role in the origin story of country rock. The White family moved from Maine to Los Angeles in the 1950s, where sons Roland, Clarence, and Eric Jr. formed the Country Boys and then the Kentucky Colonels, the future bluegrass-hall Farmers. But no one came up with a better California dream story than The Dillards from Salem, MO. The four-piece, including brothers Rodney and Doug, arrived in Los Angeles in 1962, poor and unknown. As McCall told the story, they essentially set up as ramblers in the lobby of Ash Grove without permission on their first day in town. Pearl was not fazed, but found her irresistible and booked her for performances. Within about a week, they landed a record deal and successfully auditioned for The Andy Griffith Show, where they ended up reaching as national an audience as old band The Darlings. Their influence was great, particularly on the young John McQueen, who thought Rodney playing the banjo and the whole vibe of the band was about the greatest thing he had ever seen. He studied Rodney’s licks from the audience and their work on his banjo in the fledgling Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Things turn from acoustic to electric with a case dedicated to The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Clarence White. As White evolved from a more inventive bluegrass guitar collector to a dazzling electro-country musician, he was brought on to the Byrds as they transformed from a psychedelic rock and roll band into a band that integrated country influences. White was a particular influence on 1968’s Sweetheart of the Rodeo, the landmark country rock album produced in both Nashville and Los Angeles. White’s Fender Telecaster and stage leather next to JayDee Maness’ pedal steel guitar make for a particularly emotional extension of the show for roots music fans.

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redferns

Linda Ronstadt at the New Victoria Theater in the early 1970s.

From there, a complex tapestry unfolds, helping the realization that only a super genius could save who played in which band with whom and when. Buffalo Springfield, over the course of just two years, gave the world three albums and an indelible anthem of the “For What It’s Worth” era before breaking up. Stephen Stills and Neil Young founded the most successful folk rock quartet of all time with Crosby and Nash. Richie Furay and Jim Messina formed Poco after a fateful meeting in the studio with steel guitarist and all-around talent Rusty Young. Much of the band that helped Linda Ronstadt rise to stardom formed The Eagles with a clear agenda to fuse the harmony and soul of California rock with polished, radio-ready songwriting (you’ll see handwritten manuscripts for “New Kid In Town” and “Heartache Tonight”). in the gallery). Gram Parsons forged his historic relationship with Emmylou Harris, and produced some iconic country duets before his untimely death. Harris, oddly enough, became the only star of the western edge scene to move to Nashville and find hits in country music.

Dave Alvin Fender Mustang guitar

The story stretches back to the 1980s as California country rock became more edgy and eclectic. Easy to spot unboxed at 100 steps A sturdy leather jacket and red neckerchief could only belong to Dave Alvin. With his brother Phil, Alvin formed Blasters Loud, a band that blended punk, rockabilly, folk, and blues like no one ever did. They share museum status with Los Lobos, which has launched playing traditional Mexican music for weddings. Inspired by other folk rock scenes, they revved up their energy and became perhaps the most Americana of all bands, still going strong 50 years later. From posters and other artifacts, Western Edge visitors see how these bands have shared the stage and media attention with X, Lone Justice, and a young Lucinda Williams. Dwight Yoakam sought out Los Angeles charms and ended up opening shows for most of them at the beginning of his rise to country fame. It is Yoakam who greets visitors in the exhibition’s opening film with a sermon on California’s oomph and great creative direction.

The idea of ​​Americana is general, but one could argue that most of the basic history of the formula can be found in the story of Western Edge. It’s where traditional roots music met the creative and free-spirited bohemians who were more inclined to look to the horizon rather than back to the already covered ground. It is a story of profound artistic achievement but also of massive commercial success. Of all the exhibits in the Country Music Hall of Fame to date, this one seems the one most likely to arouse the interest of visitors who come focused primarily on today’s commercial scene—perhaps inspiring a few of the country rockers of tomorrow.

Terry White/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

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North America Getty Images

Artifacts on display for the opening of Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on September 29, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee.

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