The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968)

Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band the Byrds and was released on August 30, 1968, on Columbia Records (see 1968 in music). Recorded with the addition of country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, it became the first major album widely recognised as country rock, and represented a stylistic move away from the psychedelic rock of the band's previous LP, The Notorious Byrd Brothers. The Byrds had occasionally experimented with country music on their four previous albums, but Sweetheart of the Rodeo represented their fullest immersion into the genre thus far.The album was also responsible for bringing Parsons, who had joined the Byrds prior to the recording of the album, to the attention of a mainstream rock audience for the first time. Thus, the album can be seen as an important chapter in Parsons' personal and musical crusade to make country music fashionable for a young audience.

The album was initially conceived as a musical history of 20th century American popular music, encompassing examples of country music, jazz and rhythm and blues, among other genres. However, steered by the passion of the little-known Parsons, who had only joined the Byrds in February 1968, this proposed concept was abandoned early on and the album instead became purely a country record. The recording of the album was divided between sessions in Nashville and Los Angeles, with contributions from several notable session musicians, including Lloyd Green, John Hartford, JayDee Maness, and Clarence White. Tension developed between Parsons and the rest of the band, guitarist Roger McGuinn especially, with some of Parsons' vocals being re-recorded, partly due to legal complications, and by the time the album was released in August, Parsons had left the band. The Byrds' move away from rock and pop towards country music elicited a great deal of resistance and hostility from the ultra-conservative Nashville country music establishment who viewed the Byrds as a group of long-haired hippies attempting to subvert country music.

Upon its release, the album reached number 77 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, but failed to reach the charts in the United Kingdom. Two attendant singles were released during 1968, "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", which achieved modest success, and "I Am a Pilgrim", which failed to chart. The album received mostly positive reviews in the music press, but the band's shift away from psychedelic music alienated much of its pop audience. Despite being the least commercially successful Byrds' album to date upon its initial release, Sweetheart of the Rodeo is today considered to be a seminal and highly influential country rock album.

The Byrds - (Untitled) (Unissued) (2000)

Candy Dulfer - Right In My Soul (2003)

Candy has had featured guest appearances with Prince, Dave Stewart, Van Morrison and Maceo Parker. Candy's career has continued with four more hit albums and a live CD/DVD along with a hectic touring schedule throughout Europe, Japan and the USA. Her US Soundscan numbers to date are 1,360,998!

In the summer of 2002, with the help Eagle Records - Candy was given total creative freedom to create the CD of her dreams, giving her the opportunity to push the boundaries with her seamless fusion of R&B, Drum `n Bass, Funk, Jazz and Ambient sounds. Right In My Soul marks Dulfer's first studio album in four years.

Right In My Soul has all the trademark riffs, solos and that fit in with the new Candy Dulfer but still instantly recognizable to her legions of fans.

Candy also shows a new side of her talent, singing for the first time!

Fleetwood Mac - Shrine '69 (1999)

Shrine '69 is a live album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, recorded on 25 January 1969, and finally released in 1999. Recorded at a concert in southern California, this album includes versions of the band's recent hits, "Albatross" and "Need Your Love So Bad", as well as more unusual songs like "Before the Beginning" and "Lemon Squeezer".

Bonnie Dobson - Bonnie Dobson (1969)

Bonnie Dobson did not make the transition from folk to rock well, as this 1969 album attests. With its pop trimmings and orchestration, the impression is that RCA was trying to put Dobson into the pop market, rather than the rock or even folk-rock one. The arrangements aren't awful, but they aren't inspired either, and don't suit the songs well. It's as if someone was trying to make her over into a folk Bobbie Gentry. And the material isn't the greatest either. Getting an opportunity to do an electric version of her own "Morning Dew" would seem to have been the greatest opportunity that the author of the song could have, yet it's no more than adequate, and in any case had been beaten to the punch through prior versions by Tim Rose, the Grateful Dead, the Jeff Beck Group, Lulu, and others. Same thing with her covers of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talking" and Dino Valenti's "Let's Get Together": would have been a great idea in early 1967, but was running behind the pack a couple of years later. (At least her cover of Jackson Frank's "You Never Me" was a more obscure, daring choice.) Five of the 12 songs are her own compositions, but with the exception of "Morning Dew" they're inoffensively forgettable, easygoing pop-folk-rock. A sitar (or possibly an electric sitar) pops up a couple of times, but it sounds more trendy than far-out. As an early-1960s folk singer, Dobson made notable if little-known contributions to the folk scene, but this album indicates that she wasn't able to either maximize her potential or capitalize on her assets in a timely fashion.

Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel (1971)

Ash Ra Tempel was a German krautrock group active from 1970 to 1976, Manuel Gottsching's first prominent musical output. Ash Ra Tempel featured revolving members. Gottsching retired the use of the Ash Ra Tempel name after he became the sole remaining member. His first solo album Inventions for Electric Guitar was the last album to bear the Ash Ra Tempel name. Gottsching later used the name Ashra for his solo output as an homage to his former group. Ashra eventually evolved into a full band and continued along with Gottsching until 1998.

Crabs - Wheel of Fate (1997)

For once, no re-release of an old record from the 70s but a more recent band. The Crabs, from the northern edge of the Black Forest in the German region of Swabia, were founded in 1986 by former members of the group Otto Rhombisch and played psychedelic with a slight New Wave or Gothic touch, which is recognizable especially in the singing. In spring 1994 they recorded a couple of songs which were intended to form the material for their first LP. But the project was left un-finished since in the summer of that year the band broke up. It would have been a pity to let the tapes rot away unused, and so they were in the end released on CD after all. But be careful - to those who are totally dedicated to the 70s it will probably sound too new. The tasteful psychedelic cover artwork was created by singer Lea Bayer.