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ARTISTS COVERED BY THE BYRDS
H - L
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Merle Haggard
Tom T. Hall
Tim Hardin
John Hiatt
Harlan Howard
Ian & Sylvia
Johnnie & Jack
George Jones
Louvin Brothers
Merle Haggard
Country great Merle Haggard was a huge influence on Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman. Parsons recorded his song "Somebody Else You've Known" on Safe at Home (LHI, 1968) with the International Submarine Band. Later Parsons and Hillman covered "Life in Prison" (on Sweetheart of the Rodeo with the Byrds), "Sing Me Back Home" and "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down" (on Sleepless Nights (A&M, 1976) with the Flying Burrito Brothers). Hillman covered "White Line Fever" (on The Flying Burrito Brothers (A&M, 1971)) and "It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad)" (on Bakersfield Bound (Sugar Hill, 1996)). A live version of "White Line Fever" was also the first chart hit for the 1979 iteration of the Flying Burrito Brothers, paving the way for the chart success of the Beland/Guilbeau non-flying Burrito Brothers.
Haggard's releases on Capitol in the 1960s championed traditional country music at a time when the countrypolitan sound had gained ascendancy. Haggard was also linked to traditional political values after the enormous success of his 1970 anti-hippy song, "Okie from Muskogee" and its follow-up, "The Fightin' Side of Me." He continued to release records on MCA and later Epic.Merle Haggard was slated to produce the first Gram Parsons solo album, but the arrangement fell through because of (depending who's telling the story) their conflicting work styles, or because Haggard's wife left him around that time. Haggard's engineer, Hugh Davies, engineered the album, however.Haggard was recently the subject of an excellent career-spanning boxed set, Down Every Road (Capitol, 1996). Not only is there an official Merle Haggard Web Site... Haggard even has his own domain name: TheHag.com!Tom T. Hall
Country singer and songwriter Tom T. Hall is known as "the Storyteller" for the narratives found in such hit songs as "Harper Valley P.T.A.," "A Week In A County Jail," and "The Day That Clayton Delaney Died." His song "I Love" was a major pop crossover hit in 1973. He racked up country hits through the '70s and '80s. Gram Parsons covered his tune "I Can't Dance" on Grievous Angel (Reprise, 1974). For more on Hall, try The Authorized Tom T. Hall Page.
Tim Hardin
Tim Hardin was a folksinger best known for writing the standards "If I Were A Carpenter" (a hit for Johnny Cash, Bobby Darin, and the Four Tops) and "Reason to Believe" (a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary and Rod Stewart). The Sweetheart Byrds recordeded his tune "Reputation," which was unreleased until The Byrds Boxed Set in 1991.
Hardin's debut, Tim Hardin I (MGM, 1966) featured the blend of folk and blues that would be his specialty on about ten albums between '66 and '73. Several anthologies exist, of which the best is Reason to Believe: The Best of Tim Hardin (Polydor, 1987).Hardin died in 1980 at age 39 of a heroin overdose.John Hiatt
Singer-songwriter John Hiatt released seven albums on three different labels from 1974 to 1985 before his dramatic breakthrough with Bring the Family (A&M, 1987). Since that time he has released several albums of fine rock music, tinged with soul and country. His songs have been covered by, among others, David Crosby, Emmylou Harris, the Desert Rose Band, and, most famously, Bonnie Raitt. He also sang with the ad hoc group Little Village, comprising Hiatt, Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner -- the same team that backed him on Bring the Family. There is a website devoted to Hiatt called Shot of Rhythm, which is also the front end of a mailing list.
Harlan Howard
Harlan Howard has been writing country hits since the late '50s. His songs have been performed by such notables as Kitty Wells ("Mommy For a Day"), Ray Price ("Heartaches by the Number"), Patsy Cline ("I Fall to Pieces"), and Ray Charles ("Busted"), not to mention the Flying Burrito Brothers ("Image of Me") and Gram Parsons ("Streets of Baltimore"). Many of his songs were made famous by his former wife, singer Jan Howard.
Ian and Sylvia
Canadian folkies Ian and Sylvia (Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker) became major stars on the folk scene after moving to New York in 1962. The husband-wife team released several albums on Vanguard starting in 1962. They covered Dylan ("Tomorrow Is A Long Time") and Gordon Lightfoot ("Early Morning Rain"); their own compositions have been covered in turn by We Five ("You Were On My Mind") and Neil Young ("Four Strong Winds").
Gene Clark covered Tyson's song "The French Girl" for a single but the song remained in the vaults until the release of Echoes (Columbia, 1991).In the '70s Ian Tyson had a music show on the CBC; Sylvia Tyson hosted radio and TV shows for the CBC as well. In the '80s, Tyson began a new career singing country music and cowboy songs. His efforts have met with critical acclaim and, in his native Canada, popular success. Ian Tyson is one topic covered on the the Internet Cowboy Home Page, a site devoted to the culture of Western Canada.Johnnie and Jack
Johnnie Wright and Jack Anglin were one of the most popular country duet teams of the '50s. After their 1951 hit "Poison Love," the duo enjoyed a decade-long string of hits for RCA, including "Three Ways of Knowing," "Oh Baby (I Get So Lonely)," and "Goodnight Sweethheart." Chris Hillman recorded their tune "Ashes of Love" on Desert Rose (Sugar Hill, 1984), then re-did it as the debut single by the Desert Rose Band in 1987.
George Jones
George Jones is one of the seminal figures of country music still working today. His distinctive vocal style is often imitated but never duplicated. Jones recorded several novelty numbers that crossed over to the pop charts ("White Lightning," "The Race Is On," and "I'm A People," for example), but his serious work left its mark on almost everything that followed in country music.
Jones was an important touchstone for Gram Parsons: with the Byrds, he covered the 1962 hit "You're Still On My Mind" on Sweetheart of the Rodeo; with the Burritos he did "Your Angel Steps Out of Heaven" on Sleepless Nights (A&M, 1974); and with Emmylou Harris he did "That's All It Took" on GP (Reprise, 1973). (The latter song was a hit in 1962 as a duet with Margie Singleton, then reappeared in 1965 as a duet with labelmate Gene Pitney.) Other Byrds were also taken with the work of George Jones: covers of the first Jones hit, "Why, Baby, Why" appeared on Flying Again (Columbia, 1975) by the latter-day Burritos and Thunderbyrd (Columbia, 1977) by Roger McGuinn.After "Why, Baby, Why" broke on Starday in 1955, Jones recorded some of his best material with a hard country sound, including "Just One More" (Starday, 1956); "Color of the Blues" (Mercury, 1957); "The Window Up Above" (Mercury, 1960); "She Thinks I Still Care" (United Artists, 1962); and "You Comb Her Hair" (United Artists, 1963). Jones also recorded many duets in the early '60s with Margie Singleton and Melba Montgomery, including "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds" (United Artists, 1963) with Montgomery. In 1965 Jones moved to Musicor, where he continued his string of hits, featuring increasingly polished production in the Nashville style. Jones's pre-Epic career is nicely (if too briefly) summarized on The Best of George Jones (1955 - 1967) (Rhino, 1991). A recent two-CD retrospective, The Spirit of Country: The Essential George Jones (Epic/Legacy, 1994), spans 1955 to 1988.In 1971, Jones moved to Epic and began recording a string of hits both solo and with his new wife Tammy Wynette. These songs, recorded in a countrypolitan style under the supervision of Billy Sherrill, brought Jones his greatest commercial success.Jones's chart run became rocky after his divorce from Wynette in 1975, when he entered a low period characterized by severe alcoholism, missed shows, and bankruptcy. After a spell in detox, Jones's fortunes revived and he enjoyed a number of hits through the '80s and '90s. Among the Gram Parsons-influenced musicians that would work with him in that period were Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Vern Gosdin, Elvis Costello and the Sweethearts of the Rodeo.There is a George Jones website.Louvin Brothers
Charles and Ira Louvin were born Charles and Ira Loudermilk in Henegar, Alabama. They began their careers singing close harmonies on country gospel songs arranged for guitar and mandolin, like "The Family Who Prays Together." After 1955 they achieved some success with secular material like "When I Stop Dreaming."
Overtaken by musical trends, the brothers stopped performing in the early '60s. Ira was killed in an auto accident in 1965.Today the Louvin Brothers are named by many critics as the finest of the country gospel singers, and as two of the best duet singers in the history of popular music.The Byrds recorded the Louvin Brothers tune "The Christian Life" on Sweetheart. Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris also covered the Louvins' songs "Cash on the Barrelhead" (on Grievous Angel (Reprise, 1974)) and "The Angels Rejoiced Last Night" (on Sleepless Nights (A&M, 1976)). Chris Hillman covered "I Can't Keep You In Love with Me" on Desert Rose (Sugar Hill, 1984).The Louvins' first cousin, J. D. Loudermilk, was the author of "Tobacco Road," "Break My Mind," and "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)."[Back to top.]
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