VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Byrds were inarguably one of the most influential and innovative of musical combos to emerge from the US West Coast in the mid-sixties. Folk-Rock, Psychedelia, Country Rock—The Byrds fearlessly pushed back musical barriers. This superb, high-quality live recording from February 1969 has the band working as a quartet—their Dr Byrds and Mr Hyde album had been released a matter of days before they played these shows—and the line up featured Roger McGuinn (Vocals, guitar), Clarence White (guitar), John York (Bass), and Gene Parsons (drums).
As this set proves, this configuration of the band were highly underrated—guitarist Clarence White is in magisterial form, effortlessly morphing styles from Country picking on items like the Buck Owens favourite, Buckaroo, through to showing impressive modal chops on the Turn! Turn! Turn! / Mr Tambourine Man / Eight Miles High medley. Vocalist Roger McGuinn is in similar fine shape vocally and with his celestial electric 12-string guitar, whilst the York / Parsons rhythm section acquit themselves with understated brilliance. Whilst the set features the band mining a predominantly Country Rock seam, there are also gems culled from all points in their career to that date, such as So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, He Was A Friend of Mine, and a magnificent Chimes of Freedom.
The Byrds Live At The Fillmore February 1969 stands as an impressive memento of the band at an overlooked point in their story, and also a timely reminder of the brilliance of guitarist Clarence White, who was killed by a drunk driver on July 14th, 1973, at the age of twenty-nine – a musician of rare quality who surely had so much more left to give.
