Duane Allman was a superb guitarist who had already made a name for himself on the session scene with his work at the legendary Muscle Shoals studio, playing on hits like Wilson Pickett’s cover of Hey Jude. Otis Redding’s manager Phil Walden encouraged him to form a band, and the Allman Brothers soon developed a [...]

[Read more →]

With Dylan’s endorsement and The Band’s influence, the country rock movement was primed for take off. Free of The Byrds, Gram Parsons recruited Chris Hillman on Mandolin, Chris Ethridge on bass and ‘Sneeky’ Pete Kleinow on pedal steel to form The Flying Burrito Brothers.
Gram Parsons envisaged his new band as an expression of ‘Cosmic American [...]

[Read more →]

In 1966, instead of following the trend of acid rock, with its experimental sounds and studio trickery, Dylan hiked off to Nashville to record his groundbreaking double album, Blonde On Blonde. The musicians on the record were some of country music’s best session players, and Dylan was firing on all cylinders creatively. The result was [...]

[Read more →]

|
Sun recording artists Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash - dubbed the Million Dollar Quartet - at an impromptu jam session, Memphis, 1956.
Country and rock have always been uneasy bedfellows, ever since Elvis Presley appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and offended country purists with his amalgamation of hillbilly [...]

[Read more →]