1969 was an important year in the history of country music – mostly because the genre of country rock, which would reach stratospheric success with the advent of the Eagles, was invented by The Flying Burrito Brothers that year.
As such, there were a number of notable releases in the genre and its offshoots that year that have stood the test of time and are celebrating their 55th anniversary this year.
Seeing as rock music was the dominant genre during this era, it’s no surprise that country found its way into the genre, especially seeing as some early rock and roll – such as the work of Elvis Presley – was just as influenced by country as it was with blues and other early rock touchstones.
These four country and country rock albums are entertaining and influential
Over 55 years after their release, these albums and their importance to popular music – both at the time and in the present day – cannot be overstated.
4. Nashville Skyline – Bob Dylan
When this Bob Dylan album dropped, fans and critics were quite unsure what to make of it. After being the patron saint of art, culture, and music throughout the 1960s, Dylan opted to record an album of straight-up country music in Nashville with the crack session musicians that the city is known for.
The album featured a much-discussed (and dismissed) new singing style for Dylan – his standard nasally twang replaced with a clipped, warbled baritone – that honestly (and controversially, in this writer’s opinion) sounds better than his usual timbre – at least he's actually singing! While this album certainly lacks depth compared to his previous epochal works, it's an extremely good time and nice to hear classic Nashville backing with Dylan’s ever-incisive lyrics.
3. At San Quentin – Johnny Cash
While the ethical implications of playing at a federal prison for profit are certainly questionable, this album sees Johnny Cash truly in conversation with the inmates, and the legendary country singer seems to understand their plight and simply wants to put on a powerful performance for them.
While the section featuring Cash’s wife June Carter seems a bit timid, Cash relishes performing tracks that the inmates are clearly excited about, such as the eponymous “San Quentin,” which gets an immediate reprise due to the fervent response from the inmates.
Surely the highlight is “A Boy Named Sue,” which is among Cash’s best-known tracks, and the story song (written by beloved writer and poet Shel Silverstein) brings the house down at the prison – despite it not being rehearsed by the band beforehand!
Notably, the song was Cash’s biggest-ever hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching #2 overall, but it was kept from the top spot by The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women,” which didn’t quite make the group’s Let It Bleed (one of the best English rock albums of 1969).
2. The Allman Brothers Band – The Allman Brothers Band
While this album is technically not country rock, per se, this album does mark the debut of the southern rock genre, which took elements of blues, soul, and country and melded them into a new creation that was termed “Southern rock.”
And what an electric start to the genre it is! The Allman Bros. were an astoundingly talented collective of musicians – as their incredible 1971 live album At Fillmore East attests – but the band could also write their own material, as their debut album intimates.
This is a terrific start to the group’s career and is littered with rollicking blues numbers as well as some more pensive tracks such as the brilliant "Dreams," which is a brilliant showcase of the band's twin guitar attack of Dickey Betts and the legendary slide guitar exploits of Duane Allman (aka Skydog), who featured heavily on Boz Scaggs’ first album, which is one of the best pop albums of 1969.
Of course, the highlight of this album is the towering "Whipping Post," which stands as one of the best songs to come out of the Southern rock genre from this era – and one of the best songs of all time, period, thanks to its spirited vocal performance from singer Gregg Allman.
1. The Gilded Palace of Sin – The Flying Burrito Brothers
An astounding achievement that sounds just as fresh and exciting as it must have 55 years ago, the Burrito Brothers' first album was an epochal moment in U.S. popular music, as it spawned decades of country music’s influence in other genres.
The songcraft on display on the Burrito’s debut album is second to none – and is at a level that the band would never be able to reach again, though frontman and leader Gram Parsons did reach that level during his solo career in the early 1970s.
This album serves as a perfect representation of the sound that Parsons was always searching for during his short-lived career, the mythical-sounding “cosmic American music.” But somehow, the group are able to reach those heights on The Gilded Palace of Sin thanks to a combination of top-flight material, terrific harmonies, and the tremendous pedal steel talents of “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow.
Gilded Palace is stacked with classic tracks, from the opener “Christine’s Tune,” which is one of the best opening tracks from a debut album in the 1960s, to the morose country standard “Dark End of the Street,” along with the feathery backing vocals of former Byrd David Crosby on “Do Right Woman.”
Despite those brilliant cuts, the best songs on the album might be reserved for side two, headlined by “Hot Burrito #1,” one of the best songs on the album and one of Gram Parson’s finest-ever achievements. Featuring a sterling vocal take that’s shot through with inimitable pathos and powerful waves of emotion, this song in particular showcases the tremendous talents of Parsons, that were gone from this Earth (and from the Burritos) far too soon. A seminal album that birthed country rock more or less single-handedly.