I have followed the Byrds since 1965 when Mr. Tambourine Man was a number 1 hit. The original members of the group were:
- Roger McGuinn
- David Crosby
- Chris Hillman
- Gene Clark (deceased)
- Mike Clarke (deceased)
Ove the years there were personnel changes in the group while the members also performed as solo artists. David Crosby joined Crosby, Stills, and Nash while Chris Hillman later appeared in the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Desert Rose Band.
In 1968 the Byrds with McGuinn and Hillman as the only originals in the group recorded Sweetheart of the Rodeo, a seminal country rock album. Earlier this year they started a tour for the 50th anniversary of this album which came to Town Hall on West 43rd Street last night. It included McGuinn, Hillman, and Marty Stuart with his Fabulous Superlatives.
The first set started out with Dylan's My Back Pages and included A Satisfied Mind, Mr. Tambourine Man and Time Between, After an intermission, the group played all of the songs from the album, the encore included a tribute to the late Tom Petty and concluded with the Byrds big hit, Turn Turn Turn.
I really enjoyed this concert as Roger, Chris and Marty spoke to the audience about every song that they played. There was even a sing-a-long with Dylan's You Ain't Goin' Nowhere. The quote of the evening was Roger saying "If it is a Dylan song, it doesn't make sense."
The only disappointment was that nothing was said about the late Gene Clark who left the group after the second album. Gene had a career as a solo performer and also appeared in a few groups.
I observed that most of the people in the audience were baby boomers. I was 19 years old when Sweetheart of the Rodeo was released. It was a very enjoyable evening.
This was from an earlier performance on the tour
No comments:
Post a Comment