Knowra Country rock Country rock Country rock combines country instrumentation and songwriting with rock’s amplified sound and rhythms. It developed as musicians brought country traditions into rock arrangements.
Rockabilly : A 1950s style blending country music with rhythm and blues, marked by driving rhythms and amplified guitars. Rockabilly had already joined country and amplified popular music decades before country rock.
Pedal steel guitar : An electric steel guitar whose strings are raised by pedals and knee levers to change pitch and create gliding tones. Its gliding sound became one of country rock’s clearest markers of country influence.
Sweetheart of the Rodeo : The Byrds’ 1968 album, a landmark country-oriented record featuring Gram Parsons and country session musicians. Its songs and arrangements made the Byrds’ country turn explicit.
Southern rock : A rock style associated with the American South, often featuring blues influences, extended guitar work, and regional identity. Southern rock shares country roots but foregrounds blues and regional rock traditions.
The Byrds : An American rock band whose 1968 album Younger Than Yesterday helped establish folk rock and whose later work embraced country. Their shift toward country on Sweetheart of the Rodeo helped define the style.
Electric guitar : A guitar that converts string vibration into an electrical signal, usually amplified through a speaker. Amplified guitars supply the volume, sustain, and timbre associated with rock arrangements.
The Gilded Palace of Sin : The Flying Burrito Brothers’ 1969 debut album, blending country instrumentation with rock, soul, and gospel influences. It demonstrates the genre’s capacity to absorb styles beyond conventional country.
Heartland rock : A rock style centered on direct songs about working-class life and place, often associated with American roots music. It shares plainspoken songwriting but need not use country instrumentation.
Gram Parsons : An American singer and songwriter who brought country influences into the Byrds and co-founded the Flying Burrito Brothers. His songwriting and advocacy helped make country rock a self-conscious musical project.
Backbeat : A rhythmic accent on the second and fourth beats of a four-beat measure, common in popular music. A strong backbeat gives many country rock songs their rock pulse.
Show all 21