"Sweetheart of the Rodeo" is the sixth album by the American rock band the Byrds, released in August 1968 on Columbia Records. Featuring the addition of country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, the album is widely recognized as one of the first to be classified as country rock and is considered a seminal progressive country album. This release marked a significant shift from the psychedelic rock of the Byrds' previous album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers. While the Byrds had experimented with country music on their earlier albums, Sweetheart of the Rodeo represented their most thorough exploration of the genre up to that time.
The album brought Gram Parsons, who joined the Byrds in February 1968, to the attention of a mainstream rock audience for the first time. His influence was crucial in bringing country music to a younger, rock-oriented audience. Initially conceived as a history of 20th-century American popular music, including country, jazz, and rhythm and blues, the project quickly shifted focus and became a pure country record, largely driven by Parsons' passion for the genre.
Recording took place in Nashville and Los Angeles, with contributions from session musicians like Lloyd Green, John Hartford, JayDee Maness, and Clarence White. Tensions arose between Parsons and the rest of the band, particularly with guitarist Roger McGuinn, leading to some of Parsons' vocals being re-recorded due to legal issues. By the time of the album's release, Parsons had left the Byrds. The band's departure from rock and pop to country music met with resistance from the conservative Nashville country music establishment, which saw the Byrds as interlopers in the genre.
Upon its release, Sweetheart of the Rodeo reached number 77 on the Billboard Top LPs chart but did not chart in the United Kingdom. Two singles from the album, "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and "I Am a Pilgrim," were released in 1968, with the former achieving modest success and the latter failing to chart. While the album received mostly positive reviews, the Byrds' shift from psychedelic music alienated some of their pop audience. Despite being the least commercially successful Byrds' album at the time of its release, Sweetheart of the Rodeo is now regarded as a groundbreaking and highly influential country rock album.
