3 Songs From 1969 That Helped Define Country Rock

The end of a decade always feels consequential, and 1969 was no different. Many rock and folk musicians were adopting country music as their own. Modernizing American roots music with the sensibilities of 1960s counterculture. These three songs from 1969 were groundbreaking at the time and helped define country rock. But they didn’t just shape a new subgenre; they also forever changed the future of country and rock music individually, expanding the audience for both.

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“Sin City” by The Flying Burrito Brothers

Gram Parsons left The Byrds after he’d helped guide them toward country rock on Sweetheart Of The Rodeo (1968). He was soon joined by fellow ex-Byrd Chris Hillman, and together, they formed The Flying Burrito Brothers. The counterculture in the 1960s may have advocated for peace, love, and freedom, but it also came at a cost. In “Sin City”, Hillman and Parsons offer what was then an uncomfortable truth: sometimes one can go too far. The Gilded Palace Of Sin and its iconic artwork, featuring the band in Nudie suits, influenced everyone from Uncle Tupelo and Wilco to Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris. Today, MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee continue in the tradition of The Flying Burrito Brothers.

“Lay, Lady, Lay” by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan arrived in Nashville with an altered tenor croon and recorded Nashville Skyline. The album, along with Blonde On Blonde, disrupted the conservative country scene, and Kris Kristofferson said, “He changed the way people thought about it [country music]—even the Grand Ole Opry was never the same again.” Johnny Cash duets with Dylan on “Girl From The North Country” as the album’s most famous track, “Lay, Lady, Lay” became yet another Dylan standard. If Nashville’s establishment insisted on glossy productions and rounded corners, Dylan offered a rough and rowdy way out for Cash, Kristofferson, and future outlaws.

“Just To Satisfy You” by Waylon Jennings

We often think of rock musicians borrowing from country music. Yet it happens the other way around, too. Before Waylon Jennings helped lead the outlaw country movement, “Just To Satisfy You” offered hints at where he was headed. To many, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, and The Flying Burrito Brothers were outsiders. However, Jennings, along with Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, would transform country music by rebelling against it from the inside. Jennings’ track, written with Don Bowman in 1963, echoes Buddy Holly. Connecting country music’s twang with early rock and roll. In hindsight, the electric guitar breaks in “Just To Satisfy You” reveal Jennings disrupting the clean Nashville sound one dusty bend at a time.  

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