Chris Hillman
The history of the Byrds, has been covered numerous times and needs no revisiting. But the growth of Chris Hillman from a shy, serious bass player in the background to a major force, influence maker, singer and songwriter in the band is much less known. For the first three albums Hillman stayed in the shadows with drummer Michael Clarke, providing a strong backbeat to the three-part harmonies of McGuinn, Clark and Crosby and the jingle jangle of McGuinn’s Rickenbacker 12 string guitar.
With the departure of Gene Clark following the recording of “5-D”, McGuinn began to increasingly rely on his dependable bass player and Hillman began to stretch out in singing and songwriting. The result were several brilliant Chris Hillman compositions on the next album, “Younger Than Yesterday”, Chris Hillman’s favorite Byrds recording. The single “So You Want to Be A Rock and Roll Star” penned with Roger McGuinn, was satirical take on the Music Business. Another single, “Have You Seen Her Face”, became Hillman’s first lead vocal in the band and could easily stand on its own with songs like “Mr. Tambourine Man”, “Turn, Turn, Turn”, “Eight Miles High”.
“Time Between” saw Hillman bring in his old Bluegrass friend Clarence White to play the Telecaster guitar solo on what is regarded by many critics and fans to be the first Country-Rock song. White also helped out on another Country-flavored Hillman composition, “The Girl with No Name”. These songs paved the way for the Byrds next adventure - exploring Country music.
With the departure of Crosby and Michael Clarke by the beginning of 1968, the Byrds were down to just two original members, Hillman and McGuinn. The band recruited Hillman’s cousin, Kevin Kelley to replace Michael Clarke but were still in need of another musician to round out the Byrds line-up. Hillman ran into a new kid in town by chance one day. That kid was Gram Parsons, Together with Hillman he changed the Byrds’ musical direction and ushered in a new era of music, that of “Country Rock”.
“Sweetheart of the Rodeo” their highly-acclaimed release firmly cemented the merging of country and rock. Its influence can be heard today in the music of Country artists like Brad Paisley, Emmy-Lou Harris, Marty Stuart, Jim Lauderdale and Dwight Yoakum.
While a Dylan tune, “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” propelled by Lloyd Green’s sweet steel guitar kicked off the album, it was the compositions of newcomer Parsons, Woody Guthrie, Merle Haggard and others, plus the array of great California country musicians - Jay Dee Maness, Clarence White, Earl P. Ball, and Nashville vets like Green and John Hartford that brought the Byrds back to full throttle with a sound that mixed pure country with folk music.
When Parsons left the band shortly thereafter, Chris Hillman brought in his good friend Clarence White to replace him, but the old magic of the Byrds was gone for him. Hillman exited the Byrds in September 1968 to join Gram Parsons, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, and Chris Ethridge in what soon became known as the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Their first release “The Gilded Palace of Sin” created a new musical force to be reckoned with. The Burrito’s created the environment for “Outlaw Country” and for much of the success experienced by artists such as The Eagles, Poco, and The Nitty Gritty Dirt band. Even the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” - the Rolling Stones, were briefly influenced by the Burritos, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards composing “Wild Horses” in honor of their friends, the Flying Burrito Brothers.
But the Flying Burrito Brothers were never really accepted in either musical environments back then. Diehard Country mistrusted them. Rock “underground” radio didn’t know what to make of them, or where they might fit in a play list. While Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons spent most of that first year “writing songs together, by the second year and second album Gram Parsons had not only lost interest in the band, his personal lifestyle had already begun to take its toll. With Gram Parsons’ departure Chris Hillman rebuilt the band with Bernie Leadon, Rick Roberts and Al Perkins and captured the “live essence” of the Burritos with the album “Last of the Red Hot Burritos” which was quite possibly the best and the last of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ recordings.
Near the end of his tenure with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Chris Hillman was performing with the band in Washington, D.C. and happened to hear a wonderful girl singer playing in a nearby Folk Club. That “girl” was Emmy-Lou Harris. Chris Hillman was so impressed with her that he recommended her to Gram Parsons and musical history was made.
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